The foundation of every good cattle health plan starts with nutrition. That’s according to Merck Animal Health technical services veterinarian Dr. Chris Thomsen. “If we want any other technologies we’re using to work, it has to start with good, basic nutrition. A calf gets some immunity when it’s born through colostrum, but that antibody gets cut in half roughly every 21 days.” Bovine Respiratory Disease is one of the costliest diseases impacting the beef industry. Thomsen says injectable vaccines for BRD early in a calf’s life may not garner the proper response. “What we’ve found is by using inter-nasal vaccines early in life, we can get around that maternal antibody and get those young calves producing their own immunity from a young age.” Learn more about cattle management techniques, including two new vaccines introduced by Merck, in this Red River Farm Network interview.