Unnecessary costs associated with vet bills and lost production from lost calves are certainly not things we want as graziers. We want to reap the monetary reward for carrying a cow in our business for a 12 month period and keep every dollar in our pocket. I want to share with you a simple way that we have done this and give you an understanding behind what went on.
Quite some years ago now we had pretty dramatic calving issues (dystocia) with our heifers. When I say pretty dramatic, I mean pulling around 50% of calves. I can’t recall if it was a dry season, or what specific conditions may have contributed to this anomaly (as this certainly was not the norm for us), but it was clearly not a great occurrence.
Frustrated by what was happening, we pulled out ‘Healthy Cattle, Naturally’, a cattle health book by Pat Coleby.
Now I wanted to speak to Pat Coleby to get an update on this issue, but I was informed by her family that unfortunately Pat is no longer advising. I have decided however to still share our experience – although brief this week, it is to the point and hopefully helpful to you. It was a simple and effective solution for us.
So what did Pat’s book tell me about our calving problems? Pat Coleby reports that a potassium deficiency can result in a “constriction of the blood vessels to the uterus and cervix in the final stages of pregnancy. When this happens, the correct presentation and muscular contractions do not occur as they should”1. Pat Coleby suggests supplying the necessary potassium to the heifers (or cows) in question via apple cider vinegar.
If we can add apple cider vinegar to the animals feed or water prior to calving – then we will help to prevent the problems from occurring. But back to the mob of heifers that I mentioned at the start (of which we had been pulling up to 50%); we didn’t have the luxury of prevention measures as we already had the problem and were in the middle of calving! So after reading Pat Coleby’s suggestions on apple cider vinegar we actually got the remaining pregnant heifers into the yards and drenched them with 60ml of the same. The cattle were in a paddock where they were drinking from a dam (pond), so we had to improvise as to how we could get the apple cider into them on a continuing basis until the end of calving. We had some lick drum rollers on the farm, which we added molasses, water and apple cider vinegar to, which worked well.
It was SOME years ago now that we had this experience, so Derek and I can’t remember the exact figures, but we went from pulling around 50% of the calves to all but zero. We can’t recall if we did still pull one calf after that, but the point being, it was a MASSIVE improvement and after the problem had become acute. This was achieved with a natural product and at a minimal cost.
PREVENTION
The ideal situation is to prevent the potassium deficiency problem ever occurring. So, a pasture or feed lacking in potassium is a reflection of the soil that it grew in either lacking potassium (or it not being available to the plant). In the case that levels in the feed may be low, due to soil or seasonal conditions, then adding apple cider vinegar to the water may be a good prevention measure for calving heifers. Pat Coleby suggests in her book, 100ml per head three times per week in the 6 weeks leading up to calving, as a preventative. She suggests watering it into hay if you are feeding it, but as I mentioned, we have put it out in lick drum rollers and also in trough water.
A few things to note that Pat Coleby suggests in her book that I mentioned:
- Much apple cider vinegar now available is 3 or 4 times the strength of the standard concentration, from which Pat determines her rates. Water it down accordingly.
- Always seek the bulk unpasteurised product.
Apple cider vinegar is about AUD$80/20L drum, so it is really very affordable for the outcomes that can be achieved. It is also readily available, as it is used quite regularly in the horse industry.
As well as potassium, there are also other trace minerals in the cider vinegar, and Pat Coleby also reports that it helps maintain the correct pH in the body.
For us the apple cider vinegar was a simple, natural and easy solution to our calving problems. It saved us the potential cost of vet bills, the cost of our time pulling calves and the risk of a lost calf.
I wanted to quiz Pat Coleby about sheep, but as I mentioned she is not contactable for work any more. You can however, access her sheep equivalent book “Healthy Sheep, Naturally”, which I’m sure will be equally as informative as the cattle edition.
Have you had any experiences with other things helping with calving (or lambing) problems?
References
- Coleby, P. 2002. Healthy Cattle Naturally. Landlinks Press, Collingwood.