Tom Crowley has been performing intra-nasal vaccinations on his calves for the last few years.
As well as being a family man and a part-time farmer, he works off farm doing farm buildings and farm repairs.
On the home farm, he is building up a small pedigree herd of French Aubrac cows, as well as rearing 50 dairy-to-beef calves. Tom lives with his wife Joanne and their three sons (Cormac, Paraic and Rory) in Ballyhea, Charleville, Co. Cork.
Over the past five years, he has slowly been building up his pedigree suckler herd.
The target is to have 15 Aubrac cows and to rear their offspring. Currently there are eight commercial cows, seven pedigree Aubrac cows and eight Aubrac heifers nearly ready to be served.
For many years now, Tom buys in 50 dairy bred calves each spring. They are either Angus or Hereford cross Friesians, mostly bulls.
Ideally, they come straight from the dairy farmer, but he picks a few up while at the mart also.
Most days he is away from the home farm all day, so he needs a simple and reliable system.
He uses a computerised calf feeder to feed a 23% protein calf milk replacer, along with plenty of clean water and creep feed, with straw in racks for long fibre. He checks them morning and evening and the rest of the family pop in and out during the day.
Intra-nasal vaccination
He said that one of the key steps in his system, is that 24 to 48 hours after the calves arrive on the farm, he vaccinates them against two of the most common causes of viral pneumonia in calves, RSV and Pi3.
He has been using Rispoval RS Pi3 IntraNasal, with the orange nasal guard for the last few years.
“The last thing I need is to come home and find sick animals,” Tom said.
Over the years, this system has worked for him, and he rarely has to treat a sick calf. But, his experience on other farms has shown that “even if you have a sick animal, after they have been vaccinated, the treatment works way more efficiently as they have already got a good backup from the intranasal vaccine.”
Area veterinary manager with Zoetis, Charles Chavasse, said: “There is so much research to support Tom’s observations. Calves that suffer from a case of pneumonia, their growth rate will be reduced by 72-202g/day, depending on the severity of the lung lesions.
“The significance of this, is that it takes at least one to two months longer to finish these animals, which is not just extra feeding, but even when they do reach their finishing weight, the farmer is further penalised when the carcasses are downgraded.
“Studies have also found that there are lung lesions in over half of the apparently unaffected animals, that may not have needed treatment, but were just slower to finish.
“Prevention is the name of the game and Rispoval RS Pi3 IntraNasal is an essential tool in the box.”
Tom summarised his system, adding: “I find Rispoval RS Pi3 IntraNasal vaccine very good, and I would not be rearing calves without it.”
Speak to your vet now about fast-acting protection with Rispoval RS Pi3 IntraNasal.
Rispoval® RS+Pi3 IntraNasal contains modified live Bovine Pi3 virus and BRSV. POM(E). For further information please contact your veterinary surgeon or Zoetis, 2nd Floor, Building 10, Cherrywood Business Park, Loughlinstown, Co. Dublin D18 T3Y1. (01) 2569800 or www.zoetis.ie. Use medicines responsibly (www.apha.ie ) ZT/24/07/01
