Vaccinations

[tgoodwin]

I am new to organic farming. Raised on a farm, but not organic. I have recently purchased 60 acres of native grasses and oaks. (quite a bit of green brier also. Have purchased two longhorn cows with cales at their side & re-bred. One calf is a heifer and the other a steer. My question is - Uneder an organic program wahat if any vaccinations are required or recommended? Also, any suggested reading

[pakin]

NCAT's Organic Livestock Workbook states: "Good organic livestock management also involves the use of standard preventive practices, including sanitation, vaccination, feeding of probiotics, etc...."

One of the shots is for Blackleg.

Pat Akin

[Robert D Bard]

If you are going to be in an organic program you
don't need vaccinations. All disease is due to a
poor immune system. There are no reace minerals
in the soil and you must add them. There are many
inexpensive ways to do this.
If you are going to eat your young bull You need to
make him into a steer before he breeds his sister
or his mother next year. Do not give vaccinations
or antibiotics or any chemicals if he is to be eaten
by your family or people you care about. If you
want to play the game that agriculture recommends
then you need to vaccinate for Bangs, etc. This
might help if you sell females (not necessary other
wise). I will vaccinate my young females one time
when they are less than 1 year old and then never
again (we never eat these animals. If you want to
vaccinate for Bangs you have to do it before they
turn one year old)
The first thing you need to do is purchase DE to feed
as a supplement. This improves the immune system
and wards off parasites. It is easy to find this product.
I also recommend you put out kelp, Redmond
conditioner, Redmond salt, and dry humates.
To improve your fields and grasses for your animals
health you can use liquid humates, molasses, sea
water, aerated compost tea and dry humates. (for
more info contact me privately through this site)
If you want healthy meat and animals never feed
grain to you cows. The first reason is becasue
grain is not healthy for cows (this destroys the
Omega III's and other beneficial fatty acids) or
people. The other problem is that the cheapest
grains are made into animal feeds and they use
genetically engineered grains - soy and corn which
are toxic at best with their increased pesticides
and herbicides. Also never use cotton seed meal
as all cotton is genetically engineered. (cotton seed
oil is used in micro wave pop corn along with teflon
in the bag - this is sodium fluoride - causes depression
in people)
Robert D Bard