wbvs58
Well-known member
Yeh Gizmon's dead heifer prompted me to relate my experience of finding one of my top young cows on her 2nd calf and finding her dead about 2 weeks ago. I put the sudden death down to botulism, I have warned about it before. I had 50 cu metres of composted chicken litter from a shed that had 2 batches through it and had spread it on some ground I had worked up to plant forage millet in. I had 5 cows that I had been watching closely 3 weeks after inseminating and let them out into the paddock for a couple of days before putting in with the bull where the litter had been dropped off and that area had a reasonable amount of litter that couldn't be scraped up without digging up a lot of grass so it had a thick layer on it and it was in there that I found her belly up after being about 3 days in there. Needless to say I have been through the herd and vaccinated all with Botulism now. Fortunately for me the calf is 3 mths old and is doing well with the help of just supplemental feeding and he is a very smart little fellow which makes it easier still, just wish that he had been a heifer.
I don't know if you have much trouble with botulism in the US but in Australia it is very prevalent in remote Northern areas especially during drought where Phosphorous deficient cattle will chew on bones. In Southern Australia chicken litter is reported to be an occaisional cause of it. I thought that this stuff being well composted would be OK and I got it spread out straight away however did not really think of the thicker layer on the dump area.
Ken
I don't know if you have much trouble with botulism in the US but in Australia it is very prevalent in remote Northern areas especially during drought where Phosphorous deficient cattle will chew on bones. In Southern Australia chicken litter is reported to be an occaisional cause of it. I thought that this stuff being well composted would be OK and I got it spread out straight away however did not really think of the thicker layer on the dump area.
Ken
