Injestion of Sandy Soil

[dcara]

Last year a friend that lives in an area that has sandy soil lost a horse to sand colic. I plan on moving some cattle to an area not far from him which also has similar sandy soil since the Bermuda seems to really thrive in that soil. I was curious if there were any similar problems with cattle injesting sand.

 

[George]

For animals to be eatting dirt,i would think they are lacking something,and finding it from the dirt.I would make sure they have minerals.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

havent ever heard of it effecting cattle, cattle got pretty tough digestive system, a horse can colic if you look at them cross eyed. dont think it would be a problem if so texas and florida would have plenty of dead cattle.

 

[Ryan]

We have very sandy soil. We keep plenty of minerals available for the cattle, and have not had any problems associated with the ingestion of soil.

Ryan

 

[ALACOWMAN]

For animals to be eatting dirt,i would think they are lacking something,and finding it from the dirt.I would make sure they have minerals.

it dont take much sand for a horse they can get enough by just normal grazing

 

[dun]

Sand colic is usually caused by feeding hay on the ground or horses grazing sandy soil. Horses and cattle eat differently so I don;t see that cows would inject it like horses do. There maybe also something about the different between a simple stomached animal and a ruminant

dun

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Sand colic is usually caused by feeding hay on the ground or horses grazing sandy soil. Horses and cattle eat differently so I don;t see that cows would inject it like horses

• do. There

maybe also something about the different between a simple stomached animal and a ruminant

dun

dun

has a lot to do with the stomachs and the teeth horses can gnaw down to the roots and then eat the roots. they can wipe a pasture out pronto ;-)

 

[jkwilson]

We live in an area that has both sand and clay soils. I've always been told that cattle wear out their mouths faster on sand from the abrasive action on their teeth. Rented sandy pasture a couple of years, but not long enough to know for sure.

 

[toby]

A little over a year ago there was information on one of these Boards about cattle and sand. The way I remember it is that some one had several head that were grazing in sandy soil and they came up lame. Some one on the Board reported that it was a true statement but can not find the response thought I had saved it in a special file.

 

[certherfbeef]

There is stuff called Sand Clear. You can get it at most any well stocked feed mill. Comes in a little 1 gallon bucket. Been a while since I bought any but it is well worth the cost if you don't want to loose your horse.

 

[andybob]

Bred cattle on sand most of my life,sold cattle to a ranch on Namib Desert sands,never lost any to sand ingestion. Interestingly, cattle often licked termite mounds for minerals, I would agree that a trace element deficiency may have caused the animal to take in excessive soil.