Suggested vaccinations for breeders

[irishtx23]

Hello all,
I hope this is not a duplicate question but I would like to make sure we have a good understanding of what vaccinations we should have for our Irish Dexter herd. I will be creating an Excel Sheet to keep track of them. We were told by our vet when we took our girls in for AI that we should give them a vaccinations against Leptospirosis. Here is a link I found on Goggle www.cattle.com/articles/title/Leptospirosis.aspx. I would still like learn more from experienced breeders if they agree.
Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Angie Gaines
Fitz's Golden Herd
Kaufman, TX 75142

[dexterfarm]

I do not vaccinate here. I dont have high risk. I dont bring any sale barn animals( those are known here to likely be sick). The fence lines that I share with neighbors are crop land. I am not against vaccinating if I had a reason to I would. If there was an out break of something. 
I do not worm ether I manage it with rotational grazing. If you dont rotate you may need to worm. but my recommendation would be to have the vet do fecals one a year to see if worming is even needed. Many times it is not.
You mention lepto that can be spread by deer. If it is prevalent there you may want to do it. If you vaccinate I would use only used killed virus. Modified live can and does cause abortions. It happened to us. I took the vets word that they were giving what they should be. I had a cow that was vaccinated and then aborted and sure enough the vaccination was a modified live and the label did indicate not to give it to pregnant cattle or any cattle that are around pregnant cattle.

[irishtx23]

Dexterfarm,
Thank you so much for sharing about modified live virus vaccinations. I am learning in later years not to just go with what a vet or doctor says but to do my own research. I am very learying of using a lot vaccinations with our older horses even when the vets recommends them as I have seen problems.

We do rotate our pastures but our cattle is in with our horses, goats and llamas. I do not see deer but do have other wildlife such as coyotes. We have been at our place for over eight years and from my research there can be organisms in the soil that can be harmful to our critters. It was previously used as a ranch so I can only go with the understanding that there has been years of parasites from livestock in our soil. We do not use chemicals....in fact we have found a wonderful way to reduce flies in our stable (barn) by using a "good fly" to eat the bad flies eggs. They are called Fly Predators and are well worth the money!
 
I like your idea of testing for worms and am trying to do that with our horses. We have 26 so it can be a bit expensive. Learning what works for others will help me better organize my mind to do right by our Dexters....thank you,
Angie

[wvdexters]

We've gone to rotational grazing too. Small pasture areas that we rotate the herd through quickly, and then on to the next. It is working very well for us, and really helping the quality of the pasture, and for the grass in the newer "just cleared" areas to take hold. During dry spells we feed a round bale or two in an area needing to build up top soil, and then move them through when grass is ready.

During the winter we try to alternate between 2 small "sacrifice" areas, if the weather snow/ice allows. In the past, we usually wormed once in the spring especially if they were confined in the one flat pasture over winter, but I'm hoping with the new system this won't be necessary.

We don't have anyone next to us so we just vaccinate the calves around weaning to get them ready to go to their new owners. Whatever is required for transport.