It’s important to pass on relevant health information to new owners when livestock are sold.
This includes information such as preventive shots and deworming programs.
These questions are seldom asked in cattle transactions anymore, but with cattle being of higher value and often travelling long distances and through different geographic areas, it is valuable information.
It is important for cattle buyers to get the complete vaccination history because they need to confirm that the initial and booster shots were given for the diseases most prevalent in their specific area.
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If something new shows up on the vaccinations, the new owner may want to include that protocol in the revaccination.
A good example of this would be leptospirosis, which is more common in Eastern Canada but relatively rare on the Prairies.
New owners should also check for internal parasites. If we know the area the cattle have come from, it may give us some idea of other things to protect against.
A standard quarantine is a good idea for at least a couple weeks with any new purchases because it will allow something such as a respiratory disease to become evident and be treated. These diseases can be caused by the stress of transporting, exposure at auction facilities and weather changes.
They can also be caused by exposure to what may be on your farm. Common micro-organisms on your farm allow your cattle to have natural exposure over time and develop immunity, but cattle that are brought in could be exposed to them and become sick.
Other diseases may not show up for several years, so producers should consider testing for them, such as Johne’s disease and bovine leucosis, which is a bit more prominent in Eastern Canada.
The absolute worst time to buy and introduce animals to a herd is just before calving season, yet this is when many purchases are made.
The issue here is that bred animals may not develop protection in their colostrum for the scour organisms and others that are present on your farm.
If you do buy bred cattle, find out if scours prevention was given so that you have some idea of what protection the newborn calf is going to have from the mother’s colostrum.
Just because the purchase comes from a high-reputation herd does not guarantee the vaccination program is as comprehensive as you want.
Isolating the purchase gives you time to start a vaccination program, especially when it comes to scours prevention.
The reverse could also be true: purchased animals can expose your herd to infectious agents if the cattle haven’t developed immunity.
The measuring stick for good management is often the thoroughness of an owner’s vaccination program and if parasite control was given in a strategic manner.
It is too bad that radio frequency identification tag information from the Canadian Cattle Information Agency couldn’t be passed down.
However, some tracking programs such as BIXS, Herdtrax and View-track are allowing information to be shared between buyer and seller.
A better job could be done in purebred sales to describe what has been done to the cattle, but if possible, simply ask the question. It would be great if this communication network could be fine tuned.
For example, buyers of calves in the East would know exactly what, where and when the calves were processed in the West. This would allow buyers to know what was needed without redundancy of duplication.
Redundancy is a problem in the cattle industry, from over-vaccinating to over-deworming to giving too many metaphylactic drugs. All are possible if we don’t communicate the great things we do down the line when we market cattle.
Preconditioned sales are one way this communication happens on a local level, but we also need to toot our own horn when it comes to preventive health care, whether it’s through sales catalogues or satellite and internet auctions.
This will also minimize the necessity for antimicrobial use and keep resistance at bay.
Cattle producers are a responsible group. We just need to clarify this in all our cattle transactions.
