Stress has a huge impact on the onset of pneumonia and there are a number of things you can do to avoid stress in weanlings.

First, make sure the lungs are clean pre-weaning by giving a worm dose with a residual activity. Try to avoid doing too many tasks at once and stagger tasks like castrating, housing, weaning and vaccinating so that the animals don’t get too stressed.

If you do have to house, make sure there is adequate ventilation in the shed. Don’t stock the shed too high, ensuring that there is adequate lying and feeding space for all animals.

Creep grazing

Eating meal and forward creep-grazing are great ways of reducing the cow-calf bond pre-weaning. Gradual weaning whereby a few cows are removed from the main group every five days works very well on some farms.

If you are selling weanlings, take a moment and think about the purchaser. If your calves give problems this year, you might not have them around the ring next year. Vaccination has a role to play on some farms and take guidance from your vet on the correct route for your farm. Some feedlots that are purchasing on-farm are asking that calves have started their vaccination programme pre-moving.

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