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Ridgway, IL | There were a few reasons...
1. Draxxin can control mycoplasma, while exceed will likely not.
2. Draxxin is 14 day therapy while I believe exceed is more like 4-6 days
3. The active ingredients in draxxin that work on the big brd complex work faster than exceed.
4. I don't have my price sheet in front of me... But really, there isn't that much cost difference per dose. I was thinking exceed is between 10-15$, draxxin is 17-18$... 3 sulfa boluses + la200+banamine here is almost 10$ She compared exceed to batril... Although she probably would not like me saying that in public... I think her point was, although it's a good effective treatment, there is a lot more technology and effectiveness packed into some newer stuff.
Please take all this as just my interpretation. I don't want to pass this off as stone cold fact
I'm not 100% sure, but I don't even think zuprevo works on myco?? Which is probably not a big deal for a guy treating his own calves that he is preconditioning.... But for a guy putting together sale barn cattle. And for sure la200 and sulfa aren't going to have control.
I kinda used to think along the lines that you should treat in a way that you could progressively up the "strength....cost!" Of the therapy. I've kinda changed my way of thinking.... Other than one group of calves... Our death loss has been very manageable. But I can't help but think that we are giving up performance due to health stress early in the feeding period. Even if you are aggressive on pulling and treating, there just has to be calves that are really not feeling good. I figure if a calf that doesn't feel 100%, and there intake is only good enough to maintain weight for 10 days, while it's good doing pen mate gains 2.5lb a day... Then that dude that just doesn't feel right just cost you close to 50 bucks. Not to mention, I honestly believe that the calf that gets off to a good start is going to out perform the other every single day of the feeding period and could add up to 100s of dollars difference on pay day. It's hard to measure that on the farm level....
I've started using draxxin on day 1, I believe it's a good investment... Kinda like implants. My thinking may evolve over the years... But for now that's what I'm doing.
This is the first time I had ever met with a drug rep, I bent her ear for about 4 hours.... I'm just not in cattle country, there are products out there that I don't even know exist. My vet is great, but he's in the field every day, not reading through product manuals... He is kinda partial to zoetis so we use a lot of their products... I'm not pushing for or against them, just saying I appreciated them spending some time offering some sincere education. Taken with the grain of salt, that they are company reps, I still found it really informative.
She gave me a product guide, that has every one of their items with a detailed description. Really handy to look at. Was a lot of food for thought on tailoring a health program specifically for a group of calves... 3wt, 4wt, 5wt, farm fresh, pre conditioned, sale barn, etc. not saying that the programs look all that different... But tailoring the programs doesn't cost a dime either way and may end up making you a few extra pounds.
Edited by LKM 11/19/2014 18:43
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first line defense
