vaccinations: if and when

Aspiring farmers/parents thinking ahead to decide on best practices:

Mr. and Mrs. Dougherty,

My wife and I are planning on getting a family milk cow as soon as the weather warms up a little bit here in Middle Tennessee. Just this past year, we have really gotten into gardening, canning/preserving, and trying to eat as much good, homegrown food as possible. Having been recently married, and hoping to get pregnant soon, we have recognized the necessity of having an unlimited supply of nutritious raw milk on hand, and we hope to make this happen soon.

I recently came across your January 3rd podcast with Homesteaders of America. In this interview, you both gave a great deal of really helpful information. One thing particularly struck me - you mentioned something about not vaccinating your cows. I had already been trying to research the possibilities of not vaccinating a milk cow, and actually just farm animals in general, but (not surprisingly) I was unable to find anything supportive online. I truly believe in keeping our bodies as pure and unadulterated as possible, and I would like to be drinking a milk that has not been altered by any form of vaccine administered to the cow.

My question is twofold: First, do you have any recommendations or advice as to where we, first-time dairy cow owners, could look or who we could talk to in order to find a healthy and unvaccinated Jersey milk cow? We live in Franklin, Tennessee (right outside of Nashville) but we would be willing to take a weekend trip to pick up a cow if need be.

Secondly, are there any extra precautions that we should take or anything that we should do differently if we are indeed able to find an unvaccinated cow, i.e. are they more susceptible to certain ailments, need to be separated from other animals, etc.?

Hi!

Thanks for reaching out.  No, we don't mind answering questions!

Our decision not to vaccinate cows flows out of our very limited appreciation for vaccinations in general.  I can see good reasons for vaccinating under certain circumstances; those circumstances don't happen to have arisen very often in our lives.  Our danger (our children's danger, our animals' danger) from various infections has never seemed so great to us as the risk of unnecessary vaccination.  So far, our experience has supported this choice.  The single exception is tetanus; as farmers, we are at risk of exposure to that one, so we vaccinate. Otherwise, robust natural health has so far been victorious over infection.  

Supposing that we should experience an outbreak of something in our herd, I hope I would include among the facts that informed future decisions about vaccines, the statistics of the years during which non-vaccination coincided with non-infection  (in other words, if, after 20 years of healthy unvaccinated animals, I should see an outbreak of something, I would hope to remember that the 20 healthy years meant non-vaccination had given me a 20:1 ratio of good outcomes).

Finding an unvaccinated cow may be difficult for a few more years, as small dairy herds are built and maintained in natural health.  If you have to buy a vaccinated animal and aren't happy about it, remember that she's going to drop calves for you, which you can elect to keep unvaccinated, building  in just a few years your own unvaccinated herd.

Sounds like you are setting out on a wonderful adventure.  Let us know if we can help you in the future.

Blessings,

Beth D.