With more settled weather in the forecast, we should be back to more normal grazing conditions quickly. If there is a lot of grass on-farm, the decision must be to reduce the amount of supplement being fed when cows are out full time. Cows must get supplemented with magnesium to reduce the risks of tetany. Meal feeding is probably the easiest way to get magnesium and other minerals into cows, but alternatives exist that don’t require feeding supplement. Water dosing systems are available that can supply magnesium and other minerals. Some farmers use magnesium flakes dissolved in water. On the Shinagh farm, Kevin Ahern punches holes in a full bag of magnesium flakes and lets this dissolve in the big 500l water troughs. All the flakes are dissolved in about eight hours. A new bag is used every day, or whenever the cows move on to a new paddock. On wet days, Kevin will paddock dust with cal-mag dusting.
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Grass tetany:
With more settled weather in the forecast, we should be back to more normal grazing conditions quickly. If there is a lot of grass on-farm, the decision must be to reduce the amount of supplement being fed when cows are out full time. Cows must get supplemented with magnesium to reduce the risks of tetany. Meal feeding is probably the easiest way to get magnesium and other minerals into cows, but alternatives exist that don’t require feeding supplement. Water dosing systems are available that can supply magnesium and other minerals. Some farmers use magnesium flakes dissolved in water. On the Shinagh farm, Kevin Ahern punches holes in a full bag of magnesium flakes and lets this dissolve in the big 500l water troughs. All the flakes are dissolved in about eight hours. A new bag is used every day, or whenever the cows move on to a new paddock. On wet days, Kevin will paddock dust with cal-mag dusting.
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