Vitamin drench, any good

[Top Tip.]

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

 

[Collie lovers 2]

Yes we did blood sampling which was a waste of money but soil sampling showed up the cobalt issue.

 

[tepapa]

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

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.

 

[Aspiring Peasant]

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.

 

[Bear101]

So which is more accurate, forage, soil or blood samples?

 

[DartmoorEwe]

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.

 

[neilo]

So which is more accurate, forage, soil or blood samples?

IME you need all three to get a full picture. Each of them will leave gaps individually. You could even throw liver biopsy in there for good measure if you wanted.

 

[Kingcustard]

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]

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.

Does your product have both in by any chance?

 

[Kingcustard]

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

 

[Greythundercloudys]

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]

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.

 

[Greythundercloudys]

That liquid gold was no bother going threw the gun, l think liquid thrive is also OK now a dayz.

 

[neilo]

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.

 

[Still Farming]

Multi vits and working at weaning

 

[Wood field]

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]

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?

 

[Greythundercloudys]

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

Does it go threw the gun OK.

 

[Wood field]

Does it go threw the gun OK.

Yes no problem when we use it

 

[Kingcustard]

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