Health and Nutrition
I don't profess to know all there is to know about this topic but I thought I would share some of the things that have worked for us. I have long had an interest in the topic and early on in breeding Dexters we had the dubious honour of having 17 bull calves in a row a veritable disaster when grading up as you can only progress through the levels to purebred through the female line. We tried everything but finally it was through nutrition the problem was solved and I was introduced to a book called "Healthy Land for Healthy Cattle" by Pat Coleby. Most of the things I will share with you come from this source. I have tried and tested all of them and tweaked them a little for our conditions, I hope she wont mind.
Mineral Lick for Cattle
1 Kg Kelp meal
1 Kg Copper Sulphate
1 Kg fine yellow Sulphur
2-3 Kg Dolomite
(Pat Coleby's recipe uses about 6 kg of Dolomite and you can buy it already made in this format. I have cut down the Dolomite because our soils are not badly Calcium/Magnesium deficient but are badly deficient in the other three ingredients in the lick so this actually makes the lick stronger for our conditions Pat lives in the eastern states where minerology of the soils are quite different) If you are in the Eastern states of Australia follow use 6 Kg of Dolomite. Inland areas of WA with red soils can use 3-5kg of dolomite.
IMPORTANT.. when making the lick there needs to be twice as much dolomite as there is copper sulphate to counteract toxicity of the copper. The lick should be kept in a dry place as rain/moisture will inactivate it.
Mix all ingredients really well and either feed out for animals to help themselves or I find dressing their favourite grain or pellets with lick until they get the taste for it works. A desert spoon per adult cow is a guide but sometimes if they are very deficient they will eat quite a bit more than this when self feeding untill the minerals are balenced. Western Australian soils are Copper/ Cobalt and Selium deficient especially near the coast. This lick is OK to feed to horses,sheep, goats and Alpaccas( but if you are feeding Alpacca mix there is no need as it already has all this in it.)
Benefits---the Copper keeps the cattle worm free so you don't need to worm them and helps with the expression of deep rich coat colour in the cow and also in the unborn calf. Sulphur repels external parasites including ticks, lice and mosquitos. Dolomite (calcium and magnesium in the correct ratio) protects aganst mastitis, arthritis, warts, milk fever, grass tetany and is essential for bone growth, blood and nervous systems and muscular health. Kelp meal provides Iodine, Selenium,Sodium, Zinc, Boron and Cobalt which are some of the most important but also many other elements in trace amounts that are needed for good health. When feeding the lick you can expect your cattle to have shiny rich coloured coats be worm and external parasite free and utalise their feed better ie less feed required to achieve good body condition especially when on dry feed.,
1 Kg Copper Sulphate
1 Kg fine yellow Sulphur
2-3 Kg Dolomite
(Pat Coleby's recipe uses about 6 kg of Dolomite and you can buy it already made in this format. I have cut down the Dolomite because our soils are not badly Calcium/Magnesium deficient but are badly deficient in the other three ingredients in the lick so this actually makes the lick stronger for our conditions Pat lives in the eastern states where minerology of the soils are quite different) If you are in the Eastern states of Australia follow use 6 Kg of Dolomite. Inland areas of WA with red soils can use 3-5kg of dolomite.
IMPORTANT.. when making the lick there needs to be twice as much dolomite as there is copper sulphate to counteract toxicity of the copper. The lick should be kept in a dry place as rain/moisture will inactivate it.
Mix all ingredients really well and either feed out for animals to help themselves or I find dressing their favourite grain or pellets with lick until they get the taste for it works. A desert spoon per adult cow is a guide but sometimes if they are very deficient they will eat quite a bit more than this when self feeding untill the minerals are balenced. Western Australian soils are Copper/ Cobalt and Selium deficient especially near the coast. This lick is OK to feed to horses,sheep, goats and Alpaccas( but if you are feeding Alpacca mix there is no need as it already has all this in it.)
Benefits---the Copper keeps the cattle worm free so you don't need to worm them and helps with the expression of deep rich coat colour in the cow and also in the unborn calf. Sulphur repels external parasites including ticks, lice and mosquitos. Dolomite (calcium and magnesium in the correct ratio) protects aganst mastitis, arthritis, warts, milk fever, grass tetany and is essential for bone growth, blood and nervous systems and muscular health. Kelp meal provides Iodine, Selenium,Sodium, Zinc, Boron and Cobalt which are some of the most important but also many other elements in trace amounts that are needed for good health. When feeding the lick you can expect your cattle to have shiny rich coloured coats be worm and external parasite free and utalise their feed better ie less feed required to achieve good body condition especially when on dry feed.,
Calving
I Just one tip that helped us with calving is to feed your cow cider vinegar as she approaches calving. The potassium in CV helps with stretching of skin and ligaments. Pat Coleby recommends a month or two before calving but it is never to late, I have fed it the day before calving and seen a dramatically visible softening. You can dress their concentrated feed, pellets etc with it and they soon get used to the taste. I usually separate off the pregnant cows and put CV in the water trough and they love it. It can also be put into a spray bottle and sprayed over the hay. Pat Coleby says 250ml per cow 3 times a week and I guess that is for a full sized cow as we use a bit less for the Dexters probably about half a litre in a week. When we first started using it it was expensive and hard to find but now you can get 2 litres for about $5 in the supermarket. This would last two of my cows nearly two weeks in their water. We have the fastest calving cows and even the heifers have no problems and never have any tears or rips. Before we used CV we did.
A1 and A2 in milk
I know this page is mostly about the health management of the cows but just a note on the human health benefits of having Dexters. Reading all the published papers on A2 milk it appears the jury is still out deciding if A1 milk is to blame for heart disease, Autism, Schizophrenia and Epilepsy but all are agreed that some 13 percent of the population have a varying reaction to A1 Protein and the products it metabolises into in the human body. Some of these products most certainly cause at the very least bloating and intestinal discomfort and are also to blame for some of these people having more serious health problems. Most people having a house cow are trying to lead a more natural life free of chemicals and additives in their food by producing their own. It is nice to know that the Dexters are either low in A1 or free of A1 proteins and that we can test individual cows to be able to know what they carry. All the house cows we now sell come with their test results. On another note we all know that grass fattened meat is better for your health and Dexters fatten well on grass. The meat is low in external fat with moderate marbling and reputed to be low in saturated fat compared to other breeds. On top of the health benefits it tastes great too!
Too many bull calves
Overfeeding of legumes such as Lupins, Lucerne, Peas, Soyabeans and cape weed pastures depletes Iodine and our soils are very Iodine deficient anyway, Since we have been feeding " the Lick" the lack of Iodine has been rectified by the Kelp and we have been much more careful about feeding legumes. Lack of Iodine causes the female foetus to be re absorbed as they have a greater need of Iodine than males. The males live to be born but are often week and sickly. As soon as we started using the lick and cider vinegar we had lots of girls born and now (15 years later) it is almost to 50/50 with the girls just winning.
Vitamin C for snakebite
Well with summer here you might see the odd snake about and while having the cows around the house does seem to keep the snakes away it only takes one to be a problem. Pat Coleby' s books give details about using vitamin C to treat snakebite. Since reading her books we have always had a vial of injectable Vitamin C in the fridge and some large syringes and 18 gauge needles for intramuscular injection. The large gauge needle is needed as the fluid is slightly sticky. Signs that an animal has been bitten are enlarged pupils that don't shrink down when exposed to light, incoordination and collapse. The treatment for a cow is 25mls in each side of the neck (50ml total) followed up by the same an hour later. A cow bitten on the udder generally wont get sick but it will permanently wreck the udder. Continue to give Vitamin C powder orally until fully recovered usually a day or so. A calf dose is at least 20 mls. The 100 ml vials Vitamin C come in are usually 2mls to a gram strength and can be bought from most stockfeed suppliers. I was first alerted to this treatment for dogs and it works well. A a friend rang me and she had seen her dog bitten by a snake and her mother had put a bottle of Vitamin C in her fridge after talking to me about Vitamin C. She was all a panic didn't know what dose or how to use it and her dog was starting to look wobbly. I talked her through the injections and the follow up and the dog, a bouncy Staffy, started to recover immediately and had no lasting effects. A dog of 30 to 50 kg needs 10 to 15 mls of vitamin C in the side of the neck (avoid using the back legs as its too easy to do nerve damage). Medium dogs say Kelpie size 5 to 10 ml. Jack Russell size would be 5 mls. With small dogs snakebite sometimes kills instantly but the vitamin C has saved many a Jack Russells life. It is well tolerated so overdose is not a big worry the main side effect would be diarrhoea. The funny thing about the injection is a sick animal will not feel it but a well one will let you know that it hurts so if they make a fuss you know it is time to continue with oral powdered vitamin C as they are in recovery. We have also used Vit C injections in cattle to counter massive infection and have had complete recovery. Vitamin c powder rubbed into spider bite and tick bites will relive the pain and bring down the swelling guarding against infection. Injectable vitamin C can be given orally in a panic or emergency(tastes awful) when you cant find the needles and even human Vitamin C tablets can be crushed up and given orally so long a the animal is conscious and can swallow. So for just over ten dollars you can have your vial of injectable Vit C large syringes and needle and be ready for the worst. We live more than 30 minutes from medical help so if I get bitten I will be using it on myself can't harm me and I might be able to avoid the risk of anaphylactic shock from antivenin.
Pinkeye
I have heard a lot over the years about cattle farmers having a lot of trouble with pinkeye especially when it is dry and dusty or when the flies are bad. It is highly infectious and spread by flies as well as cows and things like halters and posts that get rubbed on. Most times for us a closed up eye that is weeping means a grass seed ( never pinkeye). On inspection usually you can only just see the tail of the grass seed in the very corner of the eye and removal gives instant relief to the cow. We will usually put some pinkeye powder in just for good measure in case the grass seed has brought an infection with it. For some reason this year we have had a few cases of pinkeye. Now as I mentioned in my blog it has been a very dry summer and windy too that means dust. Also several times I have run out of mineral lick and about ten days after that is when pinkeye shows up. We have had the odd runny eye that weeps because of dust and even a little puss in the corner that usually clear by itself with a helpful lick from a friend. Pinkeye however is severe and comes on quickly and the eye runs like a tap and the cow is very resistant to opening it. When you do look at the surface of the eye it is cloudy and often centred at a spot which is a developing ulcer. One application of pinkeye powder usually fixes it but it is a good measure to follow up with a second dose the next day. If you leave it the ulcer will grow and the eye can rupture causing loss of the eye so it pays to keep an eye out for it (pun intended). I believe the mineral lick we feed protects us from pinkeye normally, maybe the sulphur keeps the flies away and itself is like an antibiotic or maybe a lack of a trace element predisposes to pinkeye. With the lick we have all trace elements covered and we have had no more pinkeye now that they have constant access to the lick (and its still dry and dusty).
article to come
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Pasture seeds I have tried that have been successful
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