Mineral Suppliments

bbam

I'm looking to give our sucklers some mineral suppliments as our first few calves have been poor to suck and required alot of attention, we also hade one abortion with about 7 weeks to go, the vet recommended selenium.
I've looked at the Easi-Trace from Mayo Healthcare, its administered through drinking water and has Selenium, Copper, Iodine & Cobalt all in one treatment. Has anyone used this or what are folks using..
We're finding that the Pre-Calver lick bucket isn't great as the tamer cows are bullied away...

Cheers

whelan1

do you lepto , maybe do a blood test for minerals , maybe put out more mineral blocks at the one time

leg wax

i use alltrace bolus when the cows are dried off

dar31

cosecure +i bolus at drying off lasts for 6 months
if done at drying off, should see you through till the cow is back in calf

as whealan1 said more buckets with the cows, usually one bucket per 20 odd cows
hard to know if buckets are any good, quality wise, better than nothing though

money spent on minerals is never wasted, will pay you back in the long run, imo

snowman707

we use "Lifeline" from Uniblock http://www.uniblock.ie/ for both cows and ewes and find them excellent, haven't vaccinated for scour in years,

red bull

I find nutribio precalver mineral very good, spread it on silage daily, a bag does 35 cows for a week for about 18 euro. had lots of problems before I started using it last year.

wiggy123

i use the lifeline for the suckler cows, find it works well for me..good silage, in small amounts is good for cows..

pakalasa

I fill those small plastic drinking bottles with the precalver mineral dust (S. Choice from Dairygold). I use a small funnell and keep the bottles in the yard ready for use. Very handy.
I means I don't have to be lugging heavy bags around when I'm in a hurry. The bottles are ideal for spreading it around too.

djmc

I would give them a shot of multivitamen injection aswell it works faster and its cheap woud do them no harm.

BeeDI

Never in my life used any of those mineral things! I just think it's one more way for the "system" to take money from the farmers pocket!
Running 15 cows. Bull with cows April 01 till middle of June. Anything not in calf in this window, get's the gate as fat cow by Xmas. Only sent 1 away in the past 10 years or so.
Only ever had 3 or 4 cases of keeping the cleaning of 25 years of farming.

For me, if a cow is dosed for fluke, fed reasonable quality silage, getting a dash of meal and general care otherwise, will never need to lick a bucket of something or other.

B

whelan1

BeeDI wrote: »

Never in my life used any of those mineral things! I just think it's one more way for the "system" to take money from the farmers pocket!
Running 15 cows. Bull with cows April 01 till middle of June. Anything not in calf in this window, get's the gate as fat cow by Xmas. Only sent 1 away in the past 10 years or so.
Only ever had 3 or 4 cases of keeping the cleaning of 25 years of farming.

For me, if a cow is dosed for fluke, fed reasonable quality silage, getting a dash of meal and general care otherwise, will never need to lick a bucket of something or other.

B

you're a lucky one so:D

red bull

For me, if a cow is dosed for fluke, fed reasonable quality silage, getting a dash of meal and general care otherwise, will never need to lick a bucket of something or other.

B[/QUOTE]
Probably some minerals included in the dash of meal:)

bbam

Well I got the Easi-Trace from Mayo Healthcare. It just sits into the drinking trough and replace every week... €67 to cover 10 cows for 8 weeks. I have a busted shoulder so this is a good option..

Our year is going from bad to worse, had a cow last night put her calf bed out straight after calving, average sized calf and no problems in calving... Not looking so hot thismorning.

Have lost two calves from five and now cow not looking so hot.. It'll take some creative accounting to balance the books this year..

We keep hi-mag bucket with the cows during the summer, silage is good quality, cows treated for fluke etc... Don'y feed any meal only dairy for a few days after calving..

djmc

bbam wrote: »

Well I got the Easi-Trace from Mayo Healthcare. It just sits into the drinking trough and replace every week... €67 to cover 10 cows for 8 weeks. I have a busted shoulder so this is a good option..

Our year is going from bad to worse, had a cow last night put her calf bed out straight after calving, average sized calf and no problems in calving... Not looking so hot thismorning.

Have lost two calves from five and now cow not looking so hot.. It'll take some creative accounting to balance the books this year..

We keep hi-mag bucket with the cows during the summer, silage is good quality, cows treated for fluke etc... Don'y feed any meal only dairy for a few days after calving..

Feed cows 2kg per cow of maize soya or high energy meal before calving
Cows need to have energy and strenth to calf easly.

John_F

djmc wrote: »

Feed cows 2kg per cow of maize soya or high energy meal before calving
Cows need to have energy and strenth to calf easly.

wo! you need to do this in the last 2-3 weeks now like :P very important to do it not alone for energy for the cow but also to aid the cow in the transition between dry and calving, the feed in a cows rumen is broken down by bacteria and these bacteria produce volitile fatty acids(VFA's), this is the energy the cow uses, different bacteria break down different feed so if the cow goes from all grass silage diet to a high level of meal then the bacteria needed to break down the meal wont be there and can cause mild acidosis and scaring on the rumen (causing long term in efficiencies) all of which is a good basis for feeding meal before calving


appologies for the lecture :pac: and granted this may be difficult to apply with farm set up etc.

RobinBanks

This is what I have been doing for the last few years. Spending allot of money but weanlings are getting the prices at the sales.

Vaccinations:
All cows are injected for fluke a month before housing. Again one month after.
Injected with rotovec 3 weeks before calving.
Dressed with Botox for lice at housing.

Minerals:
Pre-calver powder from Nutribio. Spinkled on feed. All cows fed from start of housing period.

Feed:
All cows fed round bale silage. Once cow is within 8 weeks of calving they are moved to a pin where they are fed on barley straw, molasses, pre-calver mineral and 0.5kg/head of soya bean meal.

All my cows are continental breeds, Charlaois X and Limousin X. All bulled to BB, BA and CH bulls. Often have to pull calves but havent had any major hassle.

FarmerBarleymow

I contacted www.MagentaDirect.ie as I'd bought stuff off them before. Told them what I needed and they got the main guy from their mineral suppliers to call me and go through my requirements in detail. Very happy with service, products and prices.