05/04/15 Vaccinations-farm

According to David Fernandez, Cooperative Extension livestock specialist at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, vaccines are cheap insurance for higher farm and ranch profits.  Vaccines cost about three to ten dollars per calf and 50 cents to one dollar per lamb or kid. Fernandez says vaccines are an inexpensive way to protect your flocks and herds against losses.  Vaccines protect herds or flocks against often fatal diseases. Even if the disease is not fatal, several pounds of growth are lost for every sick animal.  With calf prices hovering around 2-65 a pound and kids and lambs at two dollars a pound, a single pound lost to disease would nearly covervaccination costs of calves and more than pay costs for kids and lambs. Fernandez says the price of a single animal, calf, lamb or kid, lost to a preventable disease will pay for the vaccination program for an entire herd or flock in most cases. Livestock in Arkansas usually give birth in the spring.  Newborns get their immunity from their mother's milk, but by the time they are two to four months old, that immunity is gone.  They must establish their own.  Late May or early June is usually the time to vaccinate.  For more information, call Dr. Fernandez at 870-575-7214.