Rock Salt Do You Use It ?

[bluebell]

many years ago i used to buy rumivite cattle blocks for the winter housing, packed that up and went to the 1 point something tonne bulk lump rock salt, i use it out in the grazing paddocks and in the yards, what do others do and whats the price at the moment?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Get mine from @Adam@Rumen

 

[ShooTa]

yes.

 

[milkloss]

Rock salt keeps the cattle happy, something to do I suppose. Wouldn't like to say what was in it exactly re minerals but they certainly enjoy it and it help settle cows and calves down as you walk around.

sometimes the supply chain can be iffy so order in advance when you need it.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Buy in bags of lumps from MVF or similar about £100 a go. Offer to everything as it encourages them to drink. Probably some trace elements of sorts in there but at very low levels.

 

[harperfarmer]

I was always under the impression that the cattle benefit from licking salt as it enocurages them to salivate. The saliva is alkaline in nature there acts as a natural acidosis buffer when on high cereal diets etc

 

[Chasingmytail]

Yes Himalayan rock salt is what you mean. We buy the tonne bag from Adam. The cows love it gives them so much pleasure. Getting the kids to lick it also has me laughing. I would think it gives some salivation and pleasure. We also let the sheep have it too.

 

[twizzel]

We’ve tried rock salt for the last couple of months and it’s halved our bill on mineral buckets

 

[Full of bull(s)]

Yes Himalayan rock salt is what you mean. We buy the tonne bag from Adam. The cows love it gives them so much pleasure. Getting the kids to lick it also has me laughing. I would think it gives some salivation and pleasure. We also let the sheep have it too.

How big are the lumps generally? Just thinking what size of container you would need to sit them in. Cattle all on hoppers, so no feed passage/trough

 

[Northeastfarmer]

How big are the lumps generally? Just thinking what size of container you would need to sit them in. Cattle all on hoppers, so no feed passage/trough

They come in sizes from tennis ball to football

 

[milkloss]

We use old water troughs that have holes in.

 

[andybk]

I bought a bag in MVF and it was just one big piece , sledgehammer sorted it , usually all varying size pieces

 

[Tarw Coch]

How big are the lumps generally? Just thinking what size of container you would need to sit them in. Cattle all on hoppers, so no feed passage/trough

I use an old 8 X 2 water trough, lump size can vary from fist size to reasonably heavy/awkward to handle, most at the larger end of the scale, presumably most of the bits at the smaller end have broken off bigger bits.

 

[Woolless]

A neighbour said that he used it to control orf in lambs. I've used it for that reason and it seems to work fairly well, after a lot of scabby mouths the first year we came here.

 

[Danllan]

A neighbour said that he used it to control orf in lambs. I've used it for that reason and it seems to work fairly well, after a lot of scabby mouths the first year we came here.

Can't see it controlling orf, though it may mitigate symptoms, a bit. My concern with orf wouldn't be the sore lips on the lambs but the probable mastitis their mothers will suffer before the lambs' lips heal...

As for the salt, we used to give the cattle and sheep rock salt but, despite it being pretty cheap, have found that man-made salt (the excellent Rockies Zinc rich*) makes most sense, both health-wise + economically. They don't dissolve in rain, can't be licked away seemingly over night and they impart the all important zinc - that, along with hard culling at first, means that we've not had a foot problem with any stock for years now.




*Seeing as I've given a plug for Rockies, I'll add that all their other blocks that we've tried do wash away, they just don't seem to have the same integrity as the Zinc ones, don't know why...

 

[milkloss]

Can't see it controlling orf, though it may mitigate symptoms, a bit. My concern with orf wouldn't be the sore lips on the lambs but the probable mastitis their mothers will suffer before the lambs' lips heal...

As for the salt, we used to give the cattle and sheep rock salt but, despite it being pretty cheap, have found that man-made salt (the excellent Rockies Zinc rich*) makes most sense, both health-wise + economically. They don't dissolve in rain, can't be licked away seemingly over night and they impart the all important zinc - that, along with hard culling at first, means that we've not had a foot problem with any stock for years now.




*Seeing as I've given a plug for Rockies, I'll add that all their other blocks that we've tried do wash away, they just don't seem to have the same integrity as the Zinc ones, don't know why...

Rock salt isn’t a replacement for mineral supplementation but then neither are rockies imo. The best thing about salt lumps re orf is that it gives the lambs something other than orf spreading materials to play with e.g. hawthorn, blackthorn and thistles and it’s a natural antiseptic.

 

[Woolless]

Can't see it controlling orf, though it may mitigate symptoms, a bit. My concern with orf wouldn't be the sore lips on the lambs but the probable mastitis their mothers will suffer before the lambs' lips heal...

As for the salt, we used to give the cattle and sheep rock salt but, despite it being pretty cheap, have found that man-made salt (the excellent Rockies Zinc rich*) makes most sense, both health-wise + economically. They don't dissolve in rain, can't be licked away seemingly over night and they impart the all important zinc - that, along with hard culling at first, means that we've not had a foot problem with any stock for years now.




*Seeing as I've given a plug for Rockies, I'll add that all their other blocks that we've tried do wash away, they just don't seem to have the same integrity as the Zinc ones, don't know why...

Rock salt isn’t a replacement for mineral supplementation but then neither are rockies imo. The best thing about salt lumps re orf is that it gives the lambs something other than orf spreading materials to play with e.g. hawthorn, blackthorn and thistles and it’s a natural antiseptic.

Yes, it certainly seems to help with the symptoms. We only have two or three each year with really scabby mouths. Not a lot of mastitis either but one or two certainly seemed to have stemmed from orf lesions on teats. Don't want to go down the route of scratching them, though.

 

[Adam@Rumen]

Thank you for the recommendations guys, really is appreciated ?

As others have mentioned, saliva is a natural rumen buffer and it certainly helps in that respect.

We have found that is helps orf although there’s no science behind it. I liken it to swilling your mouth out with salt water when you have an ulcer.

Lumps can be a real variation in size, that’s something we have no control over unfortunately. I would not use lump rock salt as a mineral source, and do not recommend it. There are many minerals in the salt but they are all at trace levels.

 

[Adam@Rumen]

Thank you for the recommendations guys, really is appreciated ?

As others have mentioned, saliva is a natural rumen buffer and it certainly helps in that respect.

We have found that is helps orf although there’s no science behind it. I liken it to swilling your mouth out with salt water when you have an ulcer.

Lumps can be a real variation in size, that’s something we have no control over unfortunately. I would not use lump rock salt as a mineral source, and do not recommend it. There are many minerals in the salt but they are all at trace levels.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

I bought a bag in MVF and it was just one big piece , sledgehammer sorted it , usually all varying size pieces

Why would you do that?......

I believe the bigger lumps are much better. Less waste, more resistance to dissolving and better for licking.