magnets

[lancemart]

How old does a calf have to be to inject a magnet int its stomach?
My heiffer is now 7 months old is she old enough?

 

[dun]

We used to do it as yearlings.

 

[bigbull338]

im with dun if your going to put a magnet down her do it at the yearling age.putting magnets down them is prevention.

 

[KenB]

How old does a calf have to be to inject a magnet int its stomach?
My heiffer is now 7 months old is she old enough?

Lance, I'm not sure how to respond to this. My first thought is, why not clean-up all the iron and metal crap you have on the property instead, before inserting a magnet inside the stomach of each and every animal? I appreciate your mentioning this topic as it has never occured to me that we could insert a magnet into the stomaches of our animals to attract odd pieces of metal!!! Thank you for the reminder!!

But after looking into it, it seems it would just be easier to clean up the junk!!

I don't thing many cow go around eating junk.
Most of the metal that they would injest would come from small pieces that get mixed into feed or baled up with the hay.

 

[bigbull338]

you put the magnet in a plastic balling/pill gun an put it down the cows throat or mouth.an she will swallow the magnet.

 

[MikeC]

Magnets aren't used nearly as much now as they used to be when feed sacks and hay bales were tied with wire.

Don't remember the last case of Hardware I saw?

 

[KNERSIE]

How effective are the magnets form your experience? I am not really a believer.

 

[MikeC]

How effective are the magnets form your experience? I am not really a believer.

I don't think anyone really knows HOW effective they are.......but we had several cows die from Hardware back in the 60's, started putting them in all the replacement heifers and never had anymore after that, that I remember.

But then again, sacks and bales were afterwards tied with string......................

I think they are effective but to what degree is another question.

 

[Earl Thigpen]

Live and learn.

Never heard of this one so as I sit here thinking about it a couple of questions come to mind. 1) What keeps the magnet from passing through? 2) If the magnet grabs hold of something (and doesn't pass through) wouldn't it tend to keep the hardware in one spot where it would really do damage?

Like I said, never heard of forcing a magnet down the throat of an animal. Even magnetic drain plugs on oil pans must be removed from time-to-time to clean the metal off them.

Yawl have a good one.

 

[MikeC]

Live and learn.

Never heard of this one so as I sit here thinking about it a couple of questions come to mind. 1) What keeps the magnet from passing through? 2) If the magnet grabs hold of something (and doesn't pass through) wouldn't it tend to keep the hardware in one spot where it would really do damage?

Like I said, never heard of forcing a magnet down the throat of an animal. Even magnetic drain plugs on oil pans must be removed from time-to-time to clean the metal off them.

Yawl have a good one.

I think the magnets keep the material from moving through the intestines that are more vulnerable.

 

[bigbull338]

right if the metel is small enough to pass through the stomach it could puncture their intestines an kill emm.using the magnet keeps junk like that in their stomach.an no they wont pass the magnet.

 

[dun]

Depending on the situation they can be a valuable asset or totally useless. They would be useless if the cow never injested and metal objects. They are pricelss if it does. The only time we did it reularly was when we were feeding wire tied bales.
I've removed magnets at slaughter and was amazed that a magnet that is only the size of my little finger was now bigger then my thumb from the stuff attached to it. The metal that gets attached will breakdown/rust.

 

[lancemart]

How old does a calf have to be to inject a magnet int its stomach?
My heiffer is now 7 months old is she old enough?

Lance, I'm not sure how to respond to this. My first thought is, why not clean-up all the iron and metal crap you have on the property instead, before inserting a magnet inside the stomach of each and every animal? I appreciate your mentioning this topic as it has never occured to me that we could insert a magnet into the stomaches of our animals to attract odd pieces of metal!!! But after looking into it, it seems it would just be easier to clean up the junk!! Thank you for the reminder!!

Most of the junk is cleaned up, but evry once in a while I find a piece of metal. Also, when fixing fences, we lose a nail here and there. I try to be really careful, but I do lose nails from time to time., I do use a balling gun, I thought everyone used magnets, I am suprised at the response. They are only a buck a piece and if they don't do any help, but only help, I thought it was a good investment. What I get out of thise thread is that I should place the magnet with a balling gun in the heiffers stomach when she is 12 months old. I will have to wait until July.
Thanks everyone.