Cattle drinking urine

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mgray

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We are currently wintering circa 90 breeeding cows along with circa 50 store cattle and 40 newly spent calves. We have a concrete floor building that is scraped out everyday the cattle are fed sillage with a bruised barley/ mineral mix on top. we have noticed that the cattle have taken to drinking their dirty water from the floor as well as the clean water in the tank, which was cleaned out prior to them coming in and monitored for contaminants. Although they are not suffering any adverse reaction there is obviously a deficiency which we would like to rectify, can anyone help?
 
If you find an answer to that, I'd love to hear it. I have seen cattle standing right next to an automatic waterer and turn around & slurp up muddy, urinated in, nasty water holes. Don't know why, they just like to do it.
 
Jeanne - Simme Valley":1au1781k said:
If you find an answer to that, I'd love to hear it. I have seen cattle standing right next to an automatic waterer and turn around & slurp up muddy, urinated in, nasty water holes. Don't know why, they just like to do it.

Hey! That's a good post, and exactly right. :clap:
 
what?":1fmm94em said:
PICA

USUALLY CATTLE ARE SALT DEFICIENT WHEN DRINKING URINE.


SULPHUR DEFICIENT WHEN EATING DIRT OR IS IT PHOSPHORUS ONE OR THE OTHER I WOULD HAVE TO LOOK IT UP.

Really. :? See below:

For pica:

SLURRY/URINE DRINKING

Persistent drinking of slurry or urine (sometimes drunk directly from other animals) occurs mainly as a herd problem in calved cows wintered indoors or in yards. The problem is more aesthetic than economic, as general herd health and productivity is usually normal. However, as infected urine or slurry can spread infectious agents (such as TB, Salmonella, Leptospira, BVD etc), the vice is undesirable.

CAUSES

The causes are largely unknown. Suggested causes include: metabolic disorders associated with high milk yield and low roughage intake (high quality silage (high DMD) and dairy ration); subclinical ketosis; subclinical acidosis (with craving for alkaline material); mineral deficiency (P, Mg, Na, trace-minerals).
Investigation usually is futile. It has aspects of a learned vice, associated with boredom: once it starts, it usually spreads rapidly through the group. Poor yard drainage, or poor concrete (allowing pooling of effluent, slurry or urine) is usual. Otherwise, there appear to be few etiological factors in common.
One can test blood and/or feed for mineral deficiency (Na, Cu, Co, P, Mg etc) but many cases investigated by us over the past 20 years have failed to confirm any specific deficiency as a main cause.
REMEDIAL ACTIONS: IDENTIFY AND CORRECT THE CAUSES

If detected early (when only a few animals are affected), removal of the culprits to a separate area may prevent the vice from spreading to the rest of the group.
Provision of extra roughage (some straw or hay) and 30% inclusion of pulp (beet- or citrus-) in the concentrate feed, improvement of yard drainage and resurfacing of pitted concrete occasionally helps.
If blood or silage tests indicate Na, P, Mg or trace mineral deficiency, feeding of salt or a high-quality mineral (see below) may be tried. However, salt or high quality mineral mixes, even at high levels, often fail to control the problem.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~progers/picaurin.htm
 
A much more simple explanation is, cattle are lazy and won't go through effort if they don't have to. If the puddle is easier to get at then a tank, simple :nod: they drink out of the puddle. No scientific study needed here. :roll: :roll: Nothing to do with salt, mineral or nothing else.
It does help to have the salt and mineral near the CLEAN water source, that way at least the critter will make the journey to the water when it wants salt and mineral. :cowboy:
 
SO WHAT, why don't cattle just simply lick salt, sure a lot easier then getting it from pizz and a lot more concentrated. :roll:
 
2 of my nurse cows lick their bull calves pisel and that makes them urinate. When urinating,the cows slurp up the urine??
It is only 2 of them though!
 
Missy":3p0owjpm said:
2 of my nurse cows lick their bull calves pisel and that makes them urinate. When urinating,the cows slurp up the urine??
It is only 2 of them though!

Every decent mother cow I've seen does it. But they lick somewhere else on heifers
 
This just seems like normal behavior in my herd. I feed plenty of salt and mineral. and plenty of water but the cattle still drink out of a slop hole or other cows urine.
 
I wonder if OP has chlorinated water, since he was so specific about having the watering facility clean. Until our show heifers get used to chlorinated water, they'll drink anything but that nice, cool, clean, CHLORINATED!, water.

OP, if you just got in new cattle, chances are they don't like the change in taste of your water, no matter how clean it is compared to the nasty stuff they'll slurp up off the ground.
 
Up here cows start drinking the brown water as soon as the snow starts to melt and create it. Only side effect I see is that it REALLY loosens their stool up. I was correcting a malpresentation this AM and the cow was trying to teach me a different meaning of the phrase "getting an ear full" :cowboy:

John
 
R. John Johnson":2feg7yje said:
Up here cows start drinking the brown water as soon as the snow starts to melt and create it. Only side effect I see is that it REALLY loosens their stool up. I was correcting a malpresentation this AM and the cow was trying to teach me a different meaning of the phrase "getting an ear full" :cowboy:

John


What were you listening for up there??? ;-)
 
mgray":gubobjlj said:
We are currently wintering circa 90 breeeding cows along with circa 50 store cattle and 40 newly spent calves. We have a concrete floor building that is scraped out everyday the cattle are fed sillage with a bruised barley/ mineral mix on top. we have noticed that the cattle have taken to drinking their dirty water from the floor as well as the clean water in the tank, which was cleaned out prior to them coming in and monitored for contaminants. Although they are not suffering any adverse reaction there is obviously a deficiency which we would like to rectify, can anyone help?


But urine is like a salt water and it is not good to a cattle. Even if they are not suffering any adverse reaction there is obviously a deficiency. :cboy:


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