What wrong with my dads cattle

mamato3 · #21 09/13/10, 10:40 AM

OMG thats the mint we have. We lost 1 more this am. He has them locked up but there is some of that in there pens.
Dad sold all the old unproductive ones this spring and bought younger ones. Oldest ones that died was 14 the youngest i think was 2 yrs. The big thing is they have all had older calves on them.
Bad thing is some of his heifers are starting calve hope it does not kill those mamas. Got to see if i can get him to leson to me and get rid of that mint.

francismilker · #22 09/13/10, 12:48 PM

Not trying to second guess anyone aboves opinion here........just throwing this idea out there.

I've heard that this time of year when you move cattle to a new pasture that has a large growth of mature Johnson Grass that it can be harmful and even fatal provided you've been in drought type conditions. The johnson grass develops a high nitrate level and is toxic to cattle until after a significant enough rainfall to "wash" it down.
Supposedly, they die of bloat type conditions. Just a thought.

Cheryl aka JM · #23 09/13/10, 01:46 PM

I was told the same thing. I've got a lot of johnson grass in my upper pasture and I was told that after any stressing event such as a drought or the first frost I have to get the animals off the johnson grass for about a week. Apparently after a week whatever makes it toxic gets less toxic.

matt_man · #24 09/13/10, 09:01 PM

Johnson grass also is high in prussic acid after periods of drought. We don't actually have any growing in our pasture areas but we had talked to our vet about it when he was out here because we let our cows graze there in the spring and they love the stuff. He said he has seen more cows die of perilla mint than eating johnson grass and he's not seen very many of either.

Perilla mint usually grows in areas where the ground has been disturbed or around corral pens, hay rings, etc...