With the unsettled weather, farmers should be on high alert for magnesium.
On Saturday morning, we found a cow dead on our Tullamore demonstration farm.
While there were magnesium buckets placed in the paddocks with the cows, we had ceased feeding cal-mag along with 1kg of meal a week ago. In hindsight, this was a mistake. This due to the fact that the cows were grazing good-quality pasture as well as the unsettled weather at present.
No doubt a contributing factor was that on Friday calves were disbudded and cows were shut into the yard during this period, therefore increasing stress levels further.
In response to Saturday morning’s event, farm manager Ger Dwyer is reintroducing cal-mag back into the diet immediately plus increasing the number of buckets in each paddock.
Furthermore, anything that will increase stress levels will be postponed until weather conditions become more settled. Cows will also be herded three times daily to ensure any problems are identified early
Note: the Irish Farmers Journal is in the process of establishing a demonstration farm consisting of a 100-cow suckler herd and a 200-ewe flock in Tullamore, Co Offaly. There are 113 spring-calving suckler cows on the farm with 93 calved.
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Grass tetany questions answered
With the unsettled weather, farmers should be on high alert for magnesium.
On Saturday morning, we found a cow dead on our Tullamore demonstration farm.
While there were magnesium buckets placed in the paddocks with the cows, we had ceased feeding cal-mag along with 1kg of meal a week ago. In hindsight, this was a mistake. This due to the fact that the cows were grazing good-quality pasture as well as the unsettled weather at present.
No doubt a contributing factor was that on Friday calves were disbudded and cows were shut into the yard during this period, therefore increasing stress levels further.
In response to Saturday morning’s event, farm manager Ger Dwyer is reintroducing cal-mag back into the diet immediately plus increasing the number of buckets in each paddock.
Furthermore, anything that will increase stress levels will be postponed until weather conditions become more settled. Cows will also be herded three times daily to ensure any problems are identified early
Note: the Irish Farmers Journal is in the process of establishing a demonstration farm consisting of a 100-cow suckler herd and a 200-ewe flock in Tullamore, Co Offaly. There are 113 spring-calving suckler cows on the farm with 93 calved.
Read more
Grass tetany questions answered
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