Sudden Death of Sucklers in This Weather.

Bairdy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Perth/Fife
Anyone else had a rough time of time of it? We had a dead cow on Wednesday morning and then two more side by side this morning, all in the same field.
Its very mild to bring them in ,which brings its own problems. They look content enough and have plenty straw , molasses and mag buckets, their spring calves are on them and creep fed. We have never had an issue for years, so a bit pee'd off.
Vet was here , its not anthrax.....and will give mag and ca level results later.
Anyone else have stock not liking it?

S.
 

redsloe

Member
Location
Cornwall
Lost 2 this week and caught one with staggers yesterday. Calved August, outside, got dry feed and mag buckets. Haven't had staggers for years....😪
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
Not sure why spring calvers would want mag buckets now , what condition are they in? Is there dung compacted from eating straw without enough grass to help move it through the gut? When were they last wormed? Are they old cows? Have they got clean water to drink? Etc etc
 

Bairdy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Perth/Fife
Sudden death from anthrax I can't see is likely.

I'd be thinking along the most obvious things that kill animals unexpectedly like that.

Bloat? Two side by side would be dietary or lightning strike surely.
I know its not likely, but you have to report it and get them tested.
 

Bairdy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Perth/Fife
Not sure why spring calvers would want mag buckets now , what condition are they in? Is there dung compacted from eating straw without enough grass to help move it through the gut? When were they last wormed? Are they old cows? Have they got clean water to drink? Etc etc
Surely this is exactly the time to offer mag buckets, when staggers risk is high. They are young cows generally in good nick, get a 4 way bolus at turnout which helps keep them right. We have no fertility or health issues and we are feeding them as we always have done. There is still plenty grass and 25 cows will be eating a round bale of straw a day.
It looks like we will just need to get the rest in and hope it turns cooler.
 
Surely this is exactly the time to offer mag buckets, when staggers risk is high. They are young cows generally in good nick, get a 4 way bolus at turnout which helps keep them right. We have no fertility or health issues and we are feeding them as we always have done. There is still plenty grass and 25 cows will be eating a round bale of straw a day.
It looks like we will just need to get the rest in and hope it turns cooler.
Cows eating that much straw when in plenty of grass would have me suspicious as that's 6 to 7kg dm/day
Is the grass trampled dirty or been dunged/slurryed?

Our cows that still have good grass wouldn't eat close to that amount of straw, in fact they are barely touching it.
 

Bairdy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Perth/Fife
Cows eating that much straw when in plenty of grass would have me suspicious as that's 6 to 7kg dm/day
Is the grass trampled dirty or been dunged/slurryed?

Our cows that still have good grass wouldn't eat close to that amount of straw, in fact they are barely touching it.
Its not been dunged or anything no, same as anywhere in this weather, some bits cleaner than others. They had a fair bit scope to wander over, the calves will be eating a fair bit of that too mind.
 
Yep, needs supplementary blocks...

I don't know anything about blocks but I've never had much faith in licks or buckets or the like. I've heard 'agronomists' try to say that you should use particular fertilisers on grass to supplement animals but I've known this go wrong in a big way once or twice. I used to sell specially formulated minerals in bagged form for people to add to their TMR or else added minerals to blends/compounds for people to feed to animals. I don't know the entirety of the science behind mineral supplementation but I do know some animals will stand and lick at something all day whilst others won't touch it. The only way to know each animal is getting their daily dose is to feed is as a concentrate or put it on their forage or maybe bolus them. It's really not the sort of thing worth fudging with as one dead beast is hundreds lost which will soon pay for a pallet of minerals.

I used to have this conversation with farmers about their dry cows. The average herd only has a few dozen of them at any one time. Why fudge about with it when you can just feed the required mineral dose daily in a handy format. There isn't any saving.
 

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