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Part 5
Animal DiseasesTheir Prevention and Treatment by Natural Methods and with the aid of Herbs
Chapter 18
Livestock DiseasesThe foregoing details of soil management and cropping are basic to the whole livestock economy of the farm. For without it there was nothing but continuous disease in the herd, and it is only as this system of soil management and cropping has been developed that the complete programme of disease prevention and treatment has been possible.
Some account of my cattle disease experience may therefore now follow in more detail.
It is always difficult for a farmer to assess the cost of disease in his herd, and few farmers would give any estimate of this cost which is a charge on the income of every orthodox farm. Partly because it is not good business for a farmer to admit that disease reduces in any considerable degree his annual profits, for nobody wants to buy cattle from a diseased herd, and partly because the drain of disease can only be estimated, few farmers care to go to this trouble of reminding themselves of a misfortune which they accept as inevitable and largely unavoidable.
But I could not accept disease as inevitable and I determined to eradicate it. I was naturally interested to know what it was costing me, and therefore kept some records, from which I quote for the losses in the year 1942-3, directly attributable to disease, which in my subsequent experience I now know to be avoidable where organic methods of farming -- and livestock management in particular -- are practised.
The figures relate specifically to 'contagious' abortion.
Loss of milk, due to the cow aborting while dry, or nearly dry, and losing a complete lactation. The loss is estimated on the actual recorded yield of the cow's previous lactation, though in most cases it may be assumed that, given normal health, the cow would have given an increased yield in the year in question.
Cowslip 800 gallons Beauty 800 gal Snowdrop 500 gal Strawberry 800 gal Cherry 800 gal Poppy 300 gal Melody 700 gal Charity 500 gal Collette 800 gal Red May (twice) 600 gal Baroness 800 gal Silver Star 300 gal 200 gal Curly 100 gal Sonda 300 gal 300 gal Dream 400 gal Total 8,700 gallons - - At the average price of 2/- a gallon £870
Loss on cows sold barren or unsound as a result of abortion:
December 1941 Value Selling Price 1942-3 Gain Loss - £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. Ladybird 60 0 0 40 0 0 -- 20 0 0 30 0 0 20 0 0 -- 10 0 0 Spider 38 0 0 16 0 0 -- 22 0 0 Favourite 35 0 0 40 0 0 5 0 0 -- Pretty 40 0 0 30 5 0 -- 9 15 0 Snowdrop 60 0 0 6 10 0 -- 53 10 0 Lotty 35 0 0 25 0 0 -- 10 0 0 Dairymaid 65 0 0 20 5 0 -- 44 15 0 Smuttynose 34 0 0 30 0 0 -- 4 0 0 Duchess 25 0 0 20 0 0 -- 5 0 0 Cherry 30 0 0 16 0 0 -- 14 0 0 Priscilla 48 0 0 30 0 0 -- 18 0 0 Blue 35 0 0 18 0 0 -- 17 0 0 25 0 0 20 0 0 -- 5 0 0 Mona 25 0 0 16 0 0 -- 9 0 0 Picture 30 0 0 19 0 0 -- 11 0 0 Lady 25 0 0 14 0 0 -- 11 0 0 Lily 35 0 0 25 0 0 -- 10 0 0 Lofty 50 0 0 32 0 0 -- 18 0 0 Ruby 32 0 0 30 0 0 -- 2 0 0 Binkles 25 0 0 6 0 0 -- 19 0 0 Greta 18 0 0 25 0 0 7 0 0 -- Lovely 45 0 0 40 0 0 -- 5 0 0 Daisy 35 0 0 20 0 0 -- 15 0 0 Sarah 25 0 0 25 0 0 -- -- 10 0 0 2 0 0 -- 8 0 0 Irish 25 0 0 20 0 0 -- 5 0 0 Fatty 25 0 0 15 0 0 -- 10 0 0 Brenda 30 0 0 25 0 0 -- 5 0 0 Dolly 15 0 0 14 0 0 -- 1 0 0 Baby 40 0 0 49 10 0 9 10 0 -- Brin 45 0 0 20 0 0 -- 25 0 0 Molly 30 0 0 22 0 0 -- 8 0 0 - - 21 10 0 395 0 0 - - Less Gain 21 10 0 - - Nett Loss £374 10 0
The losses which can therefore be directly traced to the contagious abortion are as follows:
- £ s. d. Milk 870 0 0 Cattle 374 10 0 Cost of Vaccinations 30 0 0 - £1,274 10 0
This does not take any account of the immense losses from dead calves, seventeen of which were recorded in that year, as it is difficult to make an estimate of the value which these calves would have had alive. The calves from the pedigree cattle, whether bulls or heifers, would have had a good value. Nor have I included the cost of numerous orthodox veterinary treatments of cows for sterility and other attendant troubles after abortion, most of which treatments were a failure. Nor what is probably the greatest loss of all, the interference with breeding policy and plans for a level output of milk. Everything, in the way of farm planning, goes by the board when contagious abortion takes charge, resulting in untold losses which cannot be directly estimated.
Next: 19. Tackling Disease
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