Bobby,
I pasture my cattle in a pasture with 80% Durana clover. Of course clovers, alfalfa, and lush green grass are the cause of frothy bloat. When the foams start building up, it puts so much pressure on the cow stomach that the valves will not open to let gas escape. (I am explaining this without using medical terms)
I do not know what area you are in, but if you can put out a bale of dry hay, preferably pick one a bit on the stemmy side, this reduces the incidence of bloat. Dry stemmy hay is something they will look for as it buffers the bloat. People are always wanting to know why their cows will go eat dry hay when there is green grass out. This is the reason. They may not be bloating, but it is like you taking an alkaseltzer for gas or a Tums. They crave it. The stemmier the hay, the more it will bust up the bubbles as I read this before, but I cannot find the article again. Possibly one with a coarser stem,
not sticks and garbage. I am not saying that you feed baled mares tails and such to your cows, but someone else reading this may do so. I see farmers around here bale anything that is 5 feet tall with no nutritional value what so ever and feed it to their cows. And they are starving enough that they will eat it. It needs to be a grass that they will eat or it will do no good. My first cutting each year has a green grass that comes up along with the bermuda, and it have a bit of stem in it. I always use this hay for the clover pasture.
When I am speaking of stemmy, I am talking about a bale with a bit aged of grass in it. Thicker stems. Not one that was cut in perfect shape with tiny soft leaves does the job.
If you are close to a Farmer's Co-op in the South, they sell a mineral mixed with Rumensin. This will be cheaper than the bloat blocks as the cattle will quit going to the mineral to eat the molasses in the blocks. Here is a mineral from Co-op as an example.
Look at this chart, and there is a Supreme Cattle Mineral w/Rumensin listed as #96561. This particular mineral is made to be fed free choice. (make sure that this mineral is only available to cattle as it will kill horses) Not only does this mineral cut down dramatically bloat, but the rumensin is a product that allows your cattle to digest the feed more efficiently. You will see a greater gain with less money. If you see a product that lists Monensin or Rumensin, it is the same ingredient. This product also prevents coccidiosis.
Don't dump this mineral on the feed and make them eat it unless you figure out how much you need to add. Feeding it free choice, they will not eat too much of it. But when mixing it with feed, you can feed too much of it. This is one of the better products for beef cattle and dairys as well. It even increases the milk production.
This article will tell you of how Rumensin/Monensin (Ionophore) greatly reduced the incidence of bloat.
http://beefextension.com/research_reports/1998rr/27.html
and another.
http://www.albertafarmexpress.ca/20...-the-risk-of-bloat-when-pasturing-on-alfalfa/
My pastures are so thick with clover that I have had some farmers tell me that I am going to lose a cow my pasture. These are people that do not keep up with new products and studies that change by universities and research trying to improve things for the farmer.
I always tell them how I keep it from happening, and they look at me, and I wonder what they are really thinking. :lol2:
But, they see the same cows, so fat that they look like they are on a heavy corn diet, and they are still alive.
I have not had one cow to bloat. I did have a young bull brought here from the other farm that wanted to bloat because he was eating so much grain as he lost his mom and was not eating the mineral and hay. I started measuring the mineral by weighing it to see how much I needed to get in his system. He then begin to eat the mineral afterwards. It does have a different taste, and they may lightly eat it in the beginning, but they will start consuming it just like they did their previous mineral before in a few days.
I hope this helps.
Chuckie
