03/01/15, 01:27 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Central Illinois
Posts: 575
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Im not sure how old your guy is, but with our calves, they had access to kelp mineral and salt licks right along with the older cattle. We don't vaccinate any of our meat animals. I know there will be many farmers in disagreement with me there, but that's the way we do it. We focus on good nutrition and a building a healthy immune system instead. It's a risk you have to decide whether you want to take. As far as dewormer, we also don't use any chemical dewormer for any animal we intend to eat. We use a combination of rotational grazing to minimize ingestion, copper and diatomaceous earth for treatment when needed, Shaklee's Basic H soap in the water trough a few times a year, and if the steer is halter broke, you can even use an occasional dose of garlic. The DE is the only thing that hasn't necessarily show big differences in parasite loads, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything, and can potentially help prevent future pests from developing in the manure.
It's a bit untraditional, but then, so is pretty much everything we do! It works for us. Hope it helps!
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