Himalayan Rock Salt
- Thread starter Sparky270
- Start date
All these situations are most likely a phosphate deficiency. It is known as Pica, or depraved appetite. Worst case I ever saw, the cattle were burrowing about a foot deep in to their dung and eating it.
Rocksalt does tend to cure it.
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
That's interesting, as we've had no problems at all this year and haven't put any salt out either.
but we are feeding hay made at home where indexes are 2-3.
Where as when the cattle are licking the pointing out, they are on silage hauled from our other farm 15 miles away.
Will look further in to this for sure!
This is something I hear suggested relatively commonly, but if you test these cows their phosphorus levels are invariably normal (unless your vet is daft and takes the sample from the jugular vein). Animals on very high cereal diets can be low in phosphorus and show rickets like symptoms.
Clinically the only cows we can actually find with low phosphorus are those as a complication of milk fever.
Headless chicken
Member
- Location
- West Wales
We use it and the cows love it. I believe it correct the ph in the gut? Prehaps I'm wrong but who knows
Sparky270
Member
- Location
- Lathus st remy
they claim it has all these trace elements in it, but no evidence yet !!
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
One man's impurities is another man's Trace Elements I suspect.
I doubt any of it will do any harm to stock, but I doubt there's enough in a lump of rock salt to remedy any proper TE deficiencies either.
harperfarmer
Member
I always thought the main benefit of salt was that licking it encourages the animal to salivate, which in itself is alkaline therefore acts as a good buffer for the pH of the rumen when on high starch diets!? Didn't think it had any trace element benefits or am I wrong?
Sparky270
Member
- Location
- Lathus st remy
Yes that's true for normal salt, but some of the people marketing Himalayan salt claim it has lots of trace elements in it .
- Location
- Limousin, France
Bolus have trace elements and you know each one has had its dose.
Sparky270
Member
- Location
- Lathus st remy
Yip ,we use agrimin ,all trace bolus,s ,thought this Himalayan salt might have been a good replacement for ordinary salt .
- Location
- Limousin, France
Same as me. Where do you get yours from?, a couple of us buy them together to get a discount, might be worth getting together and putting a big order in, see how far we can drive the price down.
Sparky270
Member
- Location
- Lathus st remy
Father brought boluses last wk ,they're downland and not the normal alltrace they're supposed to be better (more concentrated) 90 sterling for 20 cows no vat
- Location
- Limousin, France
Paid £40 a box for 14 boxes Altrace , no vat, 10 cows a box so not much different, friend bought them over. We had 25 boxes with 3 of us last year £38 a box
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
What are they charging for it? Ag Salt was about £110/t last time I had a couple of bags for the beet (2 years ago).
Adam@Rumen
Member
- Location
- Nantwich/Rishton
Exactly what @neilo says - the trace elements are nice to have but will never cure any real deficiencies. We sell a fair bit all over the country and make sure it's always red/pink. One dairy customer has recently switched to PDV salt in tubs which I thought was interesting. It was suggested by his adviser, the thinking being that the cows can get their salt requirements more quickly. It's cheaper to buy but gets through more, and not weather proof obviously.
The better rumination & buffering capacity as mentioned by @harperfarmer is the main benefit in my experience.
Edit - sorry I didn't realise this was an old topic
The better rumination & buffering capacity as mentioned by @harperfarmer is the main benefit in my experience.
Edit - sorry I didn't realise this was an old topic
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
No idea just seen that advert and wondered if anyone had tried it ?