Rosewood, Ohio

A.J. Luft, DVMajcowdoc@frontier.com

419-305-5502 cell

1996 Ohio State University DVM degree Co-owner of Chickasaw Veterinary Center since 2003 Working with the organic industry since 2004 with about 20%

organic clientele Loosely affiliated with Organic Valley, OEFFA, & Crystal Creek;

continually developing more contacts like NODPA & CFSA Dealer for Crystal Creek, Dr. Paul’s, Lancaster Ag & more Couple of public speaking engagements per year Small 20 acre farm with 13 dual purpose cattle, a few chickens &

hogs plus gardens & orchard Lovely wife with son 17 (aspiring country singer) & daughter 12

(aspiring future veterinarian) who I dedicate my life's work too

Buckeye

Dottie

Conventional Dairy Production

1. Maximize production with high inputs Ignores the down-stream or future costs Heavily subsidized through crop insurance Go broke successfully maximizing production

2. History of a steady increase in production TMR, AI, housing, higher yielding crops, newer generation

antibiotics, advanced biologicals, etc.

3. Profitability? National average dairy cow profits $1 per day High maintenance costs/inputs: medicines, breeding, hoof,

housing, herd health, Holsteins, surgeries, etc.

4. Size Today a small farm if less than 300 cows Lost about 50 small herds over the past 15 years

Conventional Dairy Production

5. Sustainability? How many Kcal of petroleum for each Kcal of corn? Water, organic matter (top soil), erosion, CO, global warming, etc. Technology: Robotic milkers, GPS, GMO, TMR, synch programs, ultrasound

preg check, milk or blood preg check, heat detection programs, etc.

6. Monoculture Soil depletion &/or erosion Lost or leached nutrients (poorly mineralized) Lack of crop rotation & heavy pest burden Excessive use of synthetic inputs

7. Concrete/confinement disease Lameness, poor heat detection, injuries, free-stalls, etc.

8. Approximately 50% of all dairy cows calving in the U.S. experience a metabolic condition or an infectious disease within the first 60 DIM: Dairy Herd Mgmt, March 2011 & Hoard’s Dairyman Jan. 10, 2014 (Healthy cows get pregnant)

Conventional Dairy Veterinary Medicine

1. Primarily concerned with record analysis, building/housing/ parlor design, vaccination schedules, surgeries, treatment of sick animals & repro synch programs (Healthy cows get pregnant)

2. EBM: Biased (follow the money), one or two variables, linear measurements, labor & energy intensive, expensive, etc.

3. FDA: VCPR: OTC vs. Rx & VFD’s What is a drug? Anything given parenterally and most things given

orally. Sterile water is a Rx drug. Over regulated: Prohibited or restricted extra-label use (Baytril &

Excenel), withholding times (based on healthy animals) >15% of gross practice revenue from one antibiotic: Ceftiofur

(Excede, Excenel and Spectramast LC & DC) ~6% of gross practice revenue from repro hormone sales & use Antibiotics never kill 100% of a population

Ceftiofur Antibiotic15% of Gross Practice Revenue

Reproductive Hormones>6% of Gross Practice Revenue

Conventional Dairy Veterinary Medicine

4. Antibiotic resistance: MRSA, Salmonella, etc5. Environmentally toxic? Years to break down

(glyphosate, ivermectins & others?)6. Can go broke successfully treating sick animals7. Western conventional medicine does NOT have

ALL the answers8. Very powerful medicine especially beneficial in

the per-acute, life-threatening situations9. Palliative therapy: (relief of symptoms, but no

cure), poor response to chronic, deep disease

Personal Holistic/Organic Professional Contacts

Paul Dettloff, DVM & Guy Jodarski, DVM with Organic Valley

Richard J. Holliday, DVM with Helfter Feeds Hubert J. Karreman, VMD of Penn Dutch Cow Care Richard Olree BS, DC of Olree Chiropractic Center Dr. Arden B. Anderson Gary F. Zimmer of Midwestern Bio Ag

Dettloff &Olree

Slaby & Jodarski

References for Alternative Treatment of Animals

Acres U.S.A., Publishers www.acresusa.com Alternative Treatments for Ruminant Animals by Paul Dettloff, DVM:

10 years ago & outdated Treating Dairy Cows Naturally by Hubert Karreman, VMD The Barn Guide of Treating Dairy Cows Naturally by Hubert

Karreman, VMD: very detailed The Antibiotic Alternative by Cindy Jones, Ph.D. Veterinary Herbal Medicine by Susan Wynn, DVM Complementary and Alternative Medicine by Allen Schoen, DVM &

Susan Wynn, DVM PDR for Herbal Medicines Third Edition Homeopathy for the Herd by C. Edgar Sheaffer, VMD Soil Fertility & Animal Health by Dr. William A. Albrecht Real Medicine Real Health by Dr. Arden Andersen The Biological Farmer by Gary F. Zimmer

Alternative Product Manufacturers & Distributors

• Crystal Creek, Spooner, WI1-888-376-6777www.crystalcreeknatural.com

• Lancaster Agriculture Products, Lancaster, PA1-717-687-9222www.lancasterag.com

• Dr. Paul’s Lab Arcadia, WIDistributed through Lancaster Ag or A.J. Luft, DVM

• Agri Dynamics, Martins Creek, PA1-610-250-9280

www.agri-dynamics.com• Others

Alternative Veterinary Medicine

1. Holistic (whole body)a. 11 systems of the body: mus-skel, nerv, digest, skin,

endo, circ, resp, repro, urin, imm & lymphb. Endocrine is the master systemc. First system to shutdown when nutritional deficiencies

& stress is reproduction (Healthy cows get pregnant)d. Second system to shutdown when nutritional

deficiencies & stress is immunee. Restore balance & equilibrium by using a multi-

pronged approach to stimulate as many systems as possible

Alternative Veterinary Medicine

2. Modalities: Physical, energetic, nutritional, botanical, homeopathy & miscellaneous medicine

3. Non-toxic & biodegradable• All cells differ by only a few organelles (-cides)?

4. No resistance: • Natural compounds are too large & complicated for

pathogens to develop resistance• Multiple properties acting synergistically together• Conventional drugs are usually simple compounds

5. Usually requires multiple treatments (time consuming)6. Less expensive (do not have to pay for bogus FDA

requirements = $250 million to get drug approved through FDA)

Health Enhancement through Holistic Management (R. J. Holliday)

1. Everything possible is done to raise the health & vitality to the highest level

a. Water qualityb. Superlative nutritionc. Housing/ventilationd. Properly maintaining equipment e. Hygienef. Mold/mycotoxin free feeds

Health Enhancement

2. Any decrease or compromise to the above list will lead to stress, which always decreases animal health:

a. Primary factor that can set the stage for disease vs. the pathogen causing disease

b. Lowers immune systemc. Cascade of inflammatory reactions

Health Enhancement2. Stress

d. Three categoriesI. Physical (environment): Faulty nutrition, bad water,

poor hygiene, unsuitable habitat, poorly maintained equipment, etc.

II. Physiological: Production/Reproduction MONSANTO (Posilac) in the 1990’s Peak Performance Workshop: ‘Higher production is

not stessful’III. Psychological: Weaning, grouping, shipping, surgery,

handling, etc.

e. All animals vary in their ability to accommodate stress: species, breed, sex, age, history, etc.

f. Cumulative effect

Health Enhancement

3. Vitality (power of enduring)a. Never reach perfect health, but death

is commonb. Health enhancement is more profitable

than either immunization or treatmentc. Maximum resistance to disease when

maximum vitality

Health EnhancementWhat is a healthy animal?

1. There are many levels of health just like many levels of disease• Just because an animal does NOT display symptoms

does not make it profitable • Difficulty in predicting drug withdrawals times?

2. Clinical line vs. Profitable line3. Must eliminate the stress that put animals

below susceptibility level4. Timing of intervention is critical for success5. Unless we eliminate the stress then treatments

are only band-aids

Health Enhancement Did the germ cause the disease or did the

pathogen trigger a disease in an animal that was already suffering from stress-induced, low vitality? Microorganisms vary in their ability to cause

disease Why vaccines fail? Vaccinations increase

resistance against a specific organism but does little to elevate the animals vitality

The final stress that triggers symptoms is usually not the primary cause of the illness

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8 Which one is healthy?

Health Enhancement Did the germ cause the disease or did the

pathogen trigger a disease in an animal that was already suffering from stress-induced, low vitality?Microorganisms vary in their ability to cause disease

Why do vaccines fail? Vaccinations increase resistance against a disease but does little to elevate vitality

Why did this procedure/surgery fail? The final stress that triggers symptoms is

usually not the primary cause of the illness

Nutrition1. Plants are basically made up of air & water (95%)

a. CO2 (air) + H2O = CHO (sugar & starch)

b. N (mostly air) = AA or proteinsc. What is left is Ash (mineral) 5% = continually declining in

all soils and some sort of mineral supplementation is critical to maintain healthy animals

d. 13 required minerals to grow a crop

2. Regular monitoring of quality:a. RFQ testing for mineral uptake, balance & digestibilityb. Use wet chemistry forage analysis not NIR especially for

mineral contentc. Four plant indicator minerals that tell a large part of the

story of what is happening in the soil: Ca, B, P & Mg (G. Zimmer)

Nutrition3. No two animals have the same needs: • Who believes the every variable is constant 24/7?• TMR’s negate the ability of the animal to select

for individual needs

4. Modern dairy cows often eat dirt, chew on wood/bedding or drink urine. Is this normal? Warning signal that something is amiss

5. Can every disease or infection be traced back to a mineral deficiency?

(R. Olree selenium deficiency in the stop codon for the cancer fighting gene in the body)

Nutrition6. Free-choice hay should always be available, because

cows can balance their ration for fiber better than computers or nutritionists

Free-choice success is determined by accessibility both to the forage & to the water which drives appetite

7. Force-feed a balanced mineral/vitamin supplement then provide free choice mineral components:

a. Ca source: Feeding lime, dolomite, aragonite, oyster shellb. P source: Soft rock phosphatec. Saltd. Kelp or Dyna-Mine. Bufferf. Humates

8. Use feedstuffs only inherently natural: avoid urea, animal fats, cottonseed, excess proteins, by-products

Nutrition9. All flesh is grass

• Feed at least 70-80% of DMI as forage• 75% of DMI in corn silage does not count as 70-80%

forage; half grain• Must earn the right to feed 100% forage (highly

mineralized)

10. Gauge success by manure consistency and BCS, no more than 1% in BW in grains/concentrates

11. Grazing is the most economical: No molds, fresh vitamins, exercise, waste disposal program, reduced fuel consumption, etc.; MIG vs. Mob

12. Feed the rumen bacteria & they will feed the cow; can not reach optimal health on inadequate nutrition

Nutrition

13.William Albrecht: Soil Fertility & Animal Health ‘Study books and observe nature, if

nature and the books do NOT agree, throw away the books.’

14.They/you are what they/you eat.

Any Questions?