Phosphorus deficiency.

Limestone Cowboy

Did anyone ever come across phosphorus deficiency in cattle? I was talking to someone the other day that was telling me they are having awful trouble getting their cows in calf for the last couple of years and the cows are fighting to eat any bits of plastic they come across. They are farming winterage type groung so it wouldn't be fertilised and would get a bit of hay and a few nuts in the winter, They would be fairly well looked after but something is amiss. They asked their vets about it and he just gave them a bottle of multivitamin. They bolus the cows after calving but they are very slow to come bulling and getting an awful lot of repeats aswell. A quick Google brought up phosphorus deficiency. Just wondering if anyone had any experience of it?

blue5000

Not very common now, but was in the past, like 60 years ago. An ag adviser visited a farm one winter where the cattle looked really miserable, the expert quickly assessed that the cattle had osphorosis, and the farmer replied. 'sure all they're gettin is hay and a few turnips'

Seriously though it does happen, eating sticks, stones etc is a symptom.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=522844&d=1597265067

Mooooo

You can get hi phos licks, ideally off the ground so badgers and the like won't get them or get some in ration but obviously if not getting meal that won't help. The eating plastic and stones etc is a sign of it.

patsy_mccabe

Could it be Copper deficiency? I have to inject my cows here every year before mating. Any year I don't do it, I seem to get a lot of repeats.

Base price

About 30 odd years ago I had a suckler cow that started biting her tail. She stripped all the hair off what she could reach and the skin was broken and sore. Vet at the time said that it was phosphorus deficiency and gave her an injection which sorted the problem. I think it was more common years ago and they were know as tail biters. He also recommended that I inject all the cattle with copper.

trixi2011

Very common in dairy cows the last few years you can add phos to meal and feed it or add it to the water. It's a condition they call pica

50HX

Is the copper injection a deep injection or standard muscle injection?

Castlekeeper

50HX wrote: »

Is the copper injection a deep injection or standard muscle injection?

I'm not sure what the difference is.
It's intramuscular, short term and can cause abscesses, a bolus would be safer and longer lasting more the standard practice .

Base price

50HX wrote: »

Is the copper injection a deep injection or standard muscle injection?

Always inject copper in the neck. We use Kruuse (aluminium hub)1.6 x 25mm needles for normal injecting but I get a few 1.6 x 38mm from the Vet for injecting copper into older animals. Calves get boluses so we don't inject them with copper.

patsy_mccabe

Injecting Copper - Use a heavier needle and pull the skin on the neck to one side when injecting. That way, the hole in the skin doesn't line up with the injection site underneath.

Farney Farmer

Cows were doing the same here a couple of months ago. Chewing anything they could find. I threw them a couple of salt licks for a few weeks and they soon stopped. Not sure if the lick cured it or it just ran it’s course. Conception rates didn’t seem to be affected tho. All good now anyway.

Sugarbowl

I have a cow that finds it hard to rise in the cubicle during the winter. Was told that was a phosphorus deficiency as well. It’s expensive enough to buy the little bottle of it.

Say my name

For what it's worth.

I used to have this slight problem occasionally down through the years. I had cows picking at stones on the roadways in the spring. Occasionally.
Since I full-scale spread basalt dust on the farm three/four years ago. Touchwood that problem never showed again.

Now I did get all the soil pH sorted and spread a little more phosphorus too. But it looks like its one less problem to worry about.

jfh

I used this after the cows calved,
https://www.glanbiaconnect.com/shop/product/Calesa-Phos-Mineral-Block-15kg/9021939

Lady Haywire

Hoofcare man said the cattle here last year were low in Phos when he spotted cracks in the cow's hooves, used a high phos lick over the winter & feet seem much better, all came in heat quickly this year too. Couple that missed copper injections did repeat though, D'oh!

patsy_mccabe

Saw this today in the Kerry Store in Ennis. Hi Phosphorus lick.
They seem to do a Copper one too.

Info Here;
https://grasslandagro.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/99076-EUROBLOC.pdf

Lady Haywire

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Saw this today in the Kerry Store in Ennis.

That's the one we used over winter

Hard Knocks

Lady Haywire wrote: »

That's the one we used over winter

Did you hang it or leave on the ground?

Lady Haywire

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Did you hang it or leave on the ground?

On the ground, they horsed through it. Put the second one into a bucket though.
Have a garlic/general one out the field now & it's in an old drawer from a locker