There are a lot of other factors such as stock density, are they on grass or "dry"lot, mineral program, genetic base, etc.

However I do not accept the fact that there "MUST" be a certain percent of sickies.

It is possible to have a herd with very minimal sickness, approaching zero. This might require a lot of changes in our ways of doing things but I do believe it is possible.

If we truly looked at the overall costs of this sickness and loss rate, I believe that there might be a pretty quick return on the investment required to make some system changes.

Constant use of sub-theraputic antibiotics, like constant use of Round-up, is bound to produce antibiotic-resistant strains of bugs eventually. That's the way nature works.

Then what?

Jim at Dawn 

edit: revised to correct my confusion of "sub-theraputic antibiotics" and "probiotics". apologies. Jim