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Vitamin drench, any good

Top Tip.

Member
Location
highland
I found taking a forage sample and getting it analysed was better than blood samples which can be very unreliable .
 

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tepapa

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Wales
We have had bloods done before. Cobalt and selenium both come back as fine... but if we regularly dose with a Cobalt, Selenium and b12 drench we do see an improvement in lambs. Gimmers are almost always better if they get a cobalt bolus as ewe lambs, too.

Not sure what that says (n)
There will be a difference across the farm and between different fields, age of ley's etc, even the age of stock grazing and different grazing habits will affect levels.
 
Get some bloods done. It’s a good investment. I found out I was short of colbalt and now bolus the ewes for that which has improved ewe health and I now use a mini bolus for the lambs so no need to mess about drenching them every 4 weeks.

Did exactly the same about 4 years ago and bolussed every year since. One of the best things we have ever done.
 

DartmoorEwe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yelverton, UK
The best practical solution is probably a dose:response trial; weigh all the lambs, treat half, run them together for a while then weigh again.

Everything else is only accurate if your sheep are the same as those from which the baseline figures were worked out for in the first place.
 

Kingcustard

Member
Does anyone know what the best drench is that doesn't clog up the dosing gun.

Have tried 3 different guns and the drench I have has small gritty particles in it, as did the one I used last year.

As soon as a bit of the grit gets in between the sealing plungers at either end of the gun they stop working.

I thought it was just the cheap drench I got that had particles but the new one this year has particles too.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Does anyone know what the best drench is that doesn't clog up the dosing gun.

Have tried 3 different guns and the drench I have has small gritty particles in it, as did the one I used last year.

As soon as a bit of the grit gets in between the sealing plungers at either end of the gun they stop working.

I thought it was just the cheap drench I got that had particles but the new one this year has particles too.

What’s in it?

Adrench manufacturer told me that there were problems in drenches containing iodine AND copper together, causing the copper to chrystalise out and block guns. As a result, their ‘with copper’ drench now doesn’t contain Iodine, but their ‘no copper’ one does.

I’ve since taken notice of other manufacturers labels, and most are now like that, which isn’t much good if you need to give copper and iodine. :banghead:

Does your product have both in by any chance?
 

Kingcustard

Member
I got one with copper and one without but both from the same manufacturer and the same drench but just one with the copper, then mixed the 2 so the copper level was half, as he instructed me to do. Did notice small copper crystals though, blue in colour, even after vigorous shaking
 
I'm going to try provita this year, tryed liquid thrive like 20 years ago, hellish for choking the gun, tried liquid gold afew year back and was very pleased with it, but expensive, the lmbs defo did well, wither that was the stuff l can't be really sure.
 

Kingcustard

Member
I'm going to try provita this year, tryed liquid thrive like 20 years ago, hellish for choking the gun, tried liquid gold afew year back and was very pleased with it, but expensive, the lmbs defo did well, wither that was the stuff l can't be really sure.
Let me know how it goes, got another bottle of the non copper drench coming, it doesn't seem to have any particles in it.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I got one with copper and one without but both from the same manufacturer and the same drench but just one with the copper, then mixed the 2 so the copper level was half, as he instructed me to do. Did notice small copper crystals though, blue in colour, even after vigorous shaking

That’s what was happening with the iodine in there apparently. :(
 

Wood field

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'm going to try provita this year, tryed liquid thrive like 20 years ago, hellish for choking the gun, tried liquid gold afew year back and was very pleased with it, but expensive, the lmbs defo did well, wither that was the stuff l can't be really sure.
We’ve used provita in the past, worked ok but it’s awful smelly stuff , try not to get it on your hands .., it’s like marmite
 

BAF

Member
Livestock Farmer
Could you not just bolus them? Unless they're under 20kg, I think, you can give them a lamb bolus. They must last longer than a squirt of juice out of a bottle?
 

Kingcustard

Member
Could you not just bolus them? Unless they're under 20kg, I think, you can give them a lamb bolus. They must last longer than a squirt of juice out of a bottle?
Getting a 12month bolus but want to do it in a month so it covers the danger periods and they don't have lambs on them to wrestle through. Just doing Min Vit drench as the ground is short of Cobalt
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

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