Oogie McGuire wrote:
> The regulation states in one section that vaccines are allowed. In
> another it states that only substances on the approved list are
> allowed. There are no vaccines on the approved list, and the Colorado
> certifiers will not allow vaccines except the federally required ones
> for female calves.
If it states that vaccines are allowed, and the NOP does, then someone is
improperly interpreting the rules if they disallow vaccines. Can you select
another certifier? I suppose it would be too expensive to go elsewhere.
Which is another reason why government programs such as the NOP have some
shortcomings for the farmer. We lose too much control. The beneficiaries are
the marketers from what I have been seeing here.
> We are in clostridia endemic areas. We have
> blackleg, redwater, overeaters disease, blacks' disease and others
> around us all the time. I have to vaccinate. When I did not I lost
> lambs, with proper vaccination I have not lost any to clostridial
> diseases.
I totally agree with you on this. In my view, NOP producers are not proper
stewards of their livestock if they do not protect them for the bugs in
their area. No matter how good the land, the nutrition, or any other of the
feel good ... but ineffective methods might be ... a Clostridial infection
will lead to a fatality with ruminants.
The one conundrum that NOP producers do have though is that they claim that
they do not use any antibiotics and of course if they use vaccines, they are
certainly using antibiotics. Same with AI which means four different
antibiotics. When I point out this inconsistency to the heads of NOP
certifying and marketing groups, they have no real answer. So in that
respect the CO certifiers are at least being more consistent.
> Unfortunately it does not work in multiple proven tests. I wish it
> did, but it's pure BS for sheep parasites. Not to mention that our
> major parasite is nose bots. And no one even presumes to say DE works
> against nose bots.
I was being facetious of course. The marketing expert who made the statement
could not point me to any actual scientific study. But he insisted that DE
works when you use a large slug of DE at appropriate times. Continuous
feeding in the minerals was not effective. The problem is that I can not
find any scientific study that shows these kinds of results.
> Ivermectin is approved for the organic program for dairy cattle,
Are you sure about this? My understanding is that none of the ivermectin
classs of anthelmintics can be used not to mention most all anthelmintics
and, in fact, most anything that actually works for parasite control. In
fact, this is my biggest concern about NOP rules. Letting livestock suffer
with poor growth, or worse as any pathologist DVM can tell you, death in the
case of smaller livestock, is not proper animal husbandry in my view. As I
point out to my cusomers, we do not want heavily worm loaded livestock that
are used for human consumption. Most concur with us.
> but if you actually read the FDA label on ivermectin it is illegal to
> give it in any form to dairy cattle of breeding age.
Are you sure you have the most current information? All of the information
that I have indicates that there is no withholding at all on the meat or
milk with the pour-on products. You will see some sites on the internet that
does make the claim about breeding age dairy, but are they up to date?
Some of the studies that are required by USDA to permit zero withholding for
slaughter or milk were only done in the last few years. These studies cost
the companies millions of dollars and take some time to accomplish. Look at
the embarrasing situation that happened with Cydectin a couple of years ago.
Sincerely,
Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Pastured Beef and Farm Produce
Viroqua, WI
www.mistyridgefarm.com
