Is this a symptom of a mineral deficiency in lambs?

DJ98

Lambs are belclare x but a lot of them have real red ears with no hair on them e.g the one beloe

ganmo

skin suggests zinc
my dad says flaky ears like that as a sign of cobalt deficiency, never heard/read anything to back that up

but it could be sunburn

DJ98

ganmo wrote: »

skin suggests zinc
my dad says flaky ears like that as a sign of cobalt deficiency, never heard/read anything to back that up

but it could be sunburn

Was told it twas cobalt as well but again never read anything to back that up!

ganmo

DJ98 wrote: »

Was told it twas cobalt as well but again never read anything to back that up!

cobalt is the second biggest deficiency in the country after copper so it'd no harm to get some into them anyway

DJ98

ganmo wrote: »

cobalt is the second biggest deficiency in the country after copper so it'd no harm to get some into them anyway

What would you recommend giving them?

ganmo

cheapest way is to get some cobalt sulphate and mix it with warm water

15gm of 21% cobalt sulphate powder in one lire of water (2.5 oz/gallon) and used at the rate of 10ml per lamb

Username John

https://www.agridirect.ie/product/colbalt-sulphate

My local vet crowd only had the pre-mixed with B12 stuff when I went looking before.

Lano Lynn

cobalt will do no harm
but I suspect it is just from the Finn in the makeup of the belclare as the breed is so new and has a very small genepool the insidences of 'throwbacks' is going to be higher

1. FS-lamb-5-1024x700.jpg

Username John

Lano Lynn wrote: »

cobalt will do no harm
but I suspect it is just from the Finn in the makeup of the belclare as the breed is so new and has a very small genepool the insidences of 'throwbacks' is going to be higher

1. FS-lamb-5-1024x700.jpg

Jaysus, they're a woeful looking yoke

ganmo

Username John wrote: »

Jaysus, they're a woeful looking yoke

they look better with black eyes

http://static-12.sinclairstoryline.com/resources/media/73621bb8-e3ac-4faf-a1f9-473745ac30bc-120413_sheepbig.jpg?1447049295492

Green farmer

Lano Lynn wrote: »

cobalt will do no harm
but I suspect it is just from the Finn in the makeup of the belclare as the breed is so new and has a very small genepool the insidences of 'throwbacks' is going to be higher

1. FS-lamb-5-1024x700.jpg

I think lanos on the ball. Just the genes, however the cheapest bottle of cobalt will only do them good. Think I bought a 2-5 litre bottle recently for €12. I thought about buying the cobalt sulphate power before and mixing it, but after finding out the links to cancer, I though it safer to pay the bit extra for the already mixed stuff that doesn't carry the any risk.

J.O. Farmer

Green farmer wrote: »

I think lanos on the ball. Just the genes, however the cheapest bottle of cobalt will only do them good. Think I bought a 2-5 litre bottle recently for €12. I thought about buying the cobalt sulphate power before and mixing it, but after finding out the links to cancer, I though it safer to pay the bit extra for the already mixed stuff that doesn't carry the any risk.

With a 2.5 litre bottle only €12 how many lambs would you need to be dosing to pay you to buy the powder and mix it up yourself nevermind cancer risks.