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Show By Robert S. Murdock County Agricultural Agent FARMYARD 'ATOM BOMB' What would you think of a man who asked the government to drop one of its small atom bombs in the center of his farmyard, farm-yard, That's right. You would be positive one of his screws was a little loose. And yet, that is just about what happens to many farmers each year. I can think of one poultry-man poultry-man in particular, who had 20,-00..0 20,-00..0 Whitt Leghorn laying hens in his coop. A neighbor's poultry poul-try contacted a disease, so our good friend went over to see some of the infected hens. He visited a little longer than he meant to, and was just about late for feeding time, so he hurried hur-ried from his car to the feed room, not stonrjing to chanee his clothes. Result his birds got the disease alright, and fast, and he didn't know what to do about it either. He was very much like the couple with plugged nostrils and sey cows. He had a good retail dairy route and was doing all right. The herd was tested for brucellosis every six months, to comply with the public health requirements. The herd had always al-ways been free from brucellosis. A bargain, as presented by a local cow-trader, came along. The bargain, a nice appearing 4-year-old Guernsey, was placed in the herd with no further thought. That's when the man lit the fuse. In IV2 weeks the cow lost her calf and she was still permitted to remain in the herd. One month following the herd was tested showing the cow to be a strong reactor; in addition, there were two suspects. sus-pects. The final outcome, there were just four cows left when brucellosis was brought under control. Expensive, Whewee! The same applies to' you beef men. A rancher I know had about 75 good heifer calves at the beginning of the winter. They were the pick of the herd and were being saved as replacement re-placement heifers. He had a right to be proud of them, because be-cause they were the results of good breeding over the years. He found a bargain of 20 head of steer calves at a stockyards in a nearby town. The price was down and he had some extra ex-tra feed, so he would just take them home and feed them out. Yes, they were placed right in with those good heifers, even though he knew there were a dairyman with 27 good Guern-the Guern-the boys had told him that there were sick calves in the yards at the time of the purchase. So, the rancher, feeling all was well, left for the sunny South for a winter vacation. He had dropped the bomb before he left. This case of "hemorrhagic septicemia" of shipping fever cost him 8 dead steer calves, 12 dead heifers, and a lot of weight lost in many calves that were sick and recovered. Yes, pretty expensive and a lot of worry. Experiences like these are repeated re-peated many times in many herds and flocks. WHAT TO DO First A lot of ranchers have told me they play safe by not bringing outside animals on their ranches; they raise them all. Second If you have to bring livestock or poultry on your ranch, make sure they are from disease-free herds or flocks; then keep them separated and apart from your own stock for at least 30 days. If an infectious disease is going go-ing to appear, it will usually make its appearance within this time. You can then bring the disease under control and not expose your own animals or poultry. |