trace element requirements in young lambs

[reverand]

thing with salt blocks and licks is it's a 1/2 arsed system and most don't have any were near what the animals need people see a bit of a lift like high min worm drenchs a small lift and mainly short lived

I suppose it depends how deficient you are? A lick block might be enough on some farm but you still have the issue of making sure every ewe is licking it

 

[JD-Kid]

I suppose it depends how deficient you are? A lick block might be enough on some farm but you still have the issue of making sure every ewe is licking it

most blocks the amount of mins is bugger all and if in araes with higher salt being close to the sea etc alot of animals will not touch them
treating each animal maybe cheeper in some cases than trying to give blocks or applying mins in fert etc etc

 

[GrannyAching]

What are you trying to find out?

I'll organise my ideas and PM you, diolch.

 

[Jameshenry]

CoSecure lamb boluses? They are absolutely huge compared to the Mayo ones.

I used them for a couple of years, and saw an improvement in a lot of the lambs. Then I started doing more intensive rotational grazing with one group, which meant the lambs were moved more regularly and the covers were taken down. I noticed lots of half absorbed blue boluses dotted about. I started looking more closely and picked up more than 15% in various states of erosion. There would obviously have been many more that I didn't find too (I'm too lazy to look THAT hard). I haven't used them since.
.

I had same trouble a couple years back with cosecure bolus ! Found about 15 lying about the fields !!!

 

[Jameshenry]

@exmoor tom


Neilo do what tom did last year......collect up a bag of half dissolved regurgitated cosecures......... &dump on the cosecure stand at South sheep

Think tom is still waiting for the company to get back to him


I had the same problem with zincosel many years ago, followed instructions, warmed them up....... still found them all over the place over the next 6 months at various stages of dissolve.

When i spoke to the rep for cosecure boluses about all the boluses lying about the field he acted like i was the only one that had any problems with them !! Lying bugger !! I did get 5 ltrs of ectofly out of him for the inconvenience of it all , haven't used boluses since !!

 

[neilo]

When i spoke to the rep for cosecure boluses about all the boluses lying about the field he acted like i was the only one that had any problems with them !! Lying bugger !! I did get 5 ltrs of ectofly out of him for the inconvenience of it all , haven't used boluses since !!

I've used several thousand of other makes since and I've never found another spat out, other than a rare one that's been spat out immediately.

But then, no other manufacturer has been daft enough to make them bright blue and easy to spot......

 

[reverand]

Good point , you need to make them about the same size as sheep crap. Carrs own lamb bolus, I was quoted 74p each. They last 120 day.

 

[Jameshenry]

I've used several thousand of other makes since and I've never found another spat out, other than a rare one that's been spat out immediately.

But then, no other manufacturer has been daft enough to make them bright blue and easy to spot......

Haha ! I did say to him if sheep are going to cough them up perhaps you should make them green instead of blue !!

 

[Keith_G]

We have the new 4 in 1 mayo lamb finisher bolus on the shelf. It's a 180 day release now and has 175mg Cobalt - 50mg Selenium - 200mg Zinc and 375mg Iodine. Compared to any other "Finisher" bolus it is well priced I think, certainly for those levels. Tubs of 250 work out about .70p a lamb. We stock all the Mayo range, Cobalt Master (12 month ewe bolus), 12 Guard bolus (6-8 week micro bolus with/without copper) their Pour On Iodine and now the Allguard 4 in 1. God bless Wessex Animal Health!!

 

[TexelBen]

Finally got the right bolus gun, it was a marked improvement over the rest of them, I wish they'd had it in stock all along!

 

[andybk]

I must admit I struggle with the mineral supplementation thing ---- I have places that suffer from low mineral levels and sheep that show symptoms ---particularly Cobalt deficiency
I monitor this in various ways---bloods/PM/soil & grass analysis/visual appraisal and so I am pretty sure of the problems I face
mainly Cobalt deficiency (some Se too)

So in the past i have done a small trial on a mob of 140 ewes. I bolused 1/2 the ewes and their lambs ...monitored FEC, growth and mineral status (bloods) over the next 10 weeks and found no difference between the two groups (all sheep in 1 mob in the same field ) --- in fact the untreated group had a slightly higher growth rate!

This year I have bolused ewes pre-lambing (different bolus) and will blood test lambs (but at 4 weeks they are starting to show signs---scabby ears etc)
So I am not sure where to go with it ----I know it's affecting performance on one farm
I guess I have to supplement the lambs somehow but with past results I am not that confident

just reading through an adas report , (only limited trial ) but sort of came to same conclusion (pg 28) as you have found

http://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/wp-c...ine-for-breeding-ewes-Final-Report-190214.pdf