Minerals

muckymanor

Well-Known Member
With housing getting closer, I'm putting some plans together for my stores.

Do any of ye give a mineral bolus to store cattle? If so, what brand?

I had a problem with 1 or 2 bullocks last year. They didn't thrive as well as I had hoped. They were getting minerals mixed through the rolled barley. Vet blood tested and results came back to show a deficiency. So this year I want to tackle it head on as I house them.
 
With housing getting closer, I'm putting some plans together for my stores.

Do any of ye give a mineral bolus to store cattle? If so, what brand?

I had a problem with 1 or 2 bullocks last year. They didn't thrive as well as I had hoped. They were getting minerals mixed through the rolled barley. Vet blood tested and results came back to show a deficiency. So this year I want to tackle it head on as I house them.
What was deficient?
 
Copper, Iodine, Cobalt, Selenium all showed to be low. Copper was very low.

Typical of high molybdenum soils for those minerals to be showing as deficient . The mo locks them in the soil. I have used Animax Allsure boluses , and Mayo healthcare Allguard boluses for stock similarily lacking. But , I would give them to them when going out to their 2nd summer at grass. Seaweed meal puts a nice shine on cattle from that sort of ground.
 
Typical of high molybdenum soils for those minerals to be showing as deficient . The mo locks them in the soil. I have used Animax Allsure boluses , and Mayo healthcare Allguard boluses for stock similarily lacking. But , I would give them to them when going out to their 2nd summer at grass. Seaweed meal puts a nice shine on cattle from that sort of ground.

You would be fairly on the ball with the high molybdenum. We would have fertility issues at home if we did not give a bolus.
These were animals that came from home and moved to galway for finishing. Weather was sh1t last summer and silage was wet - much of the minerals had been washed from it. I had 1 bullock in particular that brought my attention to it. He started to foam at the mouth and slowly lost condition. I got the vet to take a look at him because I suspected timber tongue or some type of tooth or jaw problem. He checked him top to bottom and then took blood from him and a sample of the rest of them. It was that which brought the results. I gave them an all trace bolus that I had left over from cows, but the bullock that was fioaming also took a liking to rock salt that I was giving to the cows. He ate several kg's of it over a week or 2 in the isolation pen and he hasn't looked back since.

I think I'm going to give them the bolus when they go onto the slats. They have had a good dry summer, so their mineral intake should have been high enough, but I think that a week or 2 without thrive sets them back an awful lot.
 
You would be fairly on the ball with the high molybdenum. We would have fertility issues at home if we did not give a bolus.
These were animals that came from home and moved to galway for finishing. Weather was sh1t last summer and silage was wet - much of the minerals had been washed from it. I had 1 bullock in particular that brought my attention to it. He started to foam at the mouth and slowly lost condition. I got the vet to take a look at him because I suspected timber tongue or some type of tooth or jaw problem. He checked him top to bottom and then took blood from him and a sample of the rest of them. It was that which brought the results. I gave them an all trace bolus that I had left over from cows, but the bullock that was fioaming also took a liking to rock salt that I was giving to the cows. He ate several kg's of it over a week or 2 in the isolation pen and he hasn't looked back since.

I think I'm going to give them the bolus when they go onto the slats. They have had a good dry summer, so their mineral intake should have been high enough, but I think that a week or 2 without thrive sets them back an awful lot.

My cows go mad on salt,not sure why? they look very well off it.
 
My cows go mad on salt,not sure why? they look very well off it.
Sodium is integral to any diet and cows will self regulate on it.
Be no harm to throw a pinch of it in a glass of water yourself for a couple of days and see the difference.
 
Well that would depend how much you shake over your dinner. Most people are consuming more salt daily than they really need.
The processed stuff out of those white bottles wouldn't be the best for you alright, rock salt would be a different matter.
 
The processed stuff out of those white bottles wouldn't be the best for you alright, rock salt would be a different matter.
Doesn't really matter whether it's refined salt or rock salt if you are already overdoing the sodium chloride.
 
Our cattle when housed at winter time have free access to Himalayan rock salt, tiz cheap enough and they seem OK on it, ,,
One thing I e noticed, the younger cattle seem to consume it faster than the suckler cows,, don't know why,,
 
I ordered minerals for the cattle for the kale.
They sent me Maize/Beet minerals.
Are these good enough when feeding kale?
 
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