Dairy and beef young stock supplemented with slow-release trace element boluses before turnout are hitting growth targets. Tracesure Cu/I slowly releases the four trace elements over a six-month period which makes it ideal for giving to stock before spring turnout.
Aled Davies, operations manager at Animax Ltd, the company which manufactures Tracesure Cu/I, says it supports the ability of livestock to process forage. If young stock are being handled for worming pre-turnout, Mr Davies says it makes practical sense to bolus at the same time.
“All cattle over 200kg can be bolused, this includes young calves in their first year at grass or indeed heifers in their second year,’’ he says. “It is a good product for cattle of all ages, including mature cattle, and there are obvious benefits to giving it to youngstock when growth rates are a priority.’’
Pedigree Limousin producer Karl Connell boluses his herd with Tracesure Cu/I before turnout, and again at housing in October. The herd’s conception rate has increased from 50% to 95%. Mr Connell, who owns the Carrickmore herd, turned to the leaching trace element bolus because there were issues with the fertility of the purebred Limousin breeding cows.
“Cows had not been coming into season, we were getting cows with silent heats. When we were artificially inseminating the cows we were hitting them at the wrong time, they weren’t really showing good heats,’’ says Karl, of Oldcastle, County Meath.
Since bolusing, fertility rates have been the best he has ever achieved. “We scanned the cows and we had a 95% strike rate compared to 50% last year. We put this down to the bolus. The cows have been coming in with really good strong heats,’’ he says.
Karl also boluses his young bulls and has had an excellent response with feed conversion rates. “The bulls are able to convert more food and it puts a great shine on them.’’ Even in a year of poor weather they have thrived. “They look healthier this year. We have had poor weather conditions but thankfully the stock are in good condition,’’ says Karl.
He runs the cows on a paddock, grass-based system with no meal inputs. Karl says the value he gets from the bolus is more apparent now than ever. “We are in a profitable game at the moment. Empty cows are no good in anyone’s herd. It is a working cow we need in our herd and any cow that is not working is not wanted here,’’ he says.
(Source – Farming Life – 15/04/2014)