Pink eye and mineral use

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bigbluegrass

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I haven't had a case of pinkeye in my little cow herd in over 10 years. When the cows got pinkeye last time I was not feeding any mineral. The year after I had the last outbreak of pinkeye I switched to a mineral sold at Southern States. The formula for that mineral was changed in the last few years and it is now made by Cargill. I was a bit frustrated that Southern States quietly changed the formula, so I switched to another mineral this year. I went with Vita Ferm. Most of the summer I have been using the VitaFerm Heat. The last 2 weeks almost half of the herd has had pinkeye. What do you think, is the mineral use a contributing factor or is this just a coincidence?
 
Just a coincidence. I vaccinate with an autogenous that targets both moraxella bovix & bovoculi, use mineral with CTC and am diligent about fly control but I've still had calves get it this year. Pretty much everyone I know is having outbreaks, including my vet with his own herd.
 
Mineral is a huge part in fighting pinkeye, but its still just part of the control.
Vaccines, CTC, fly tags, back rubbers, keeping pastures short, even Long Range can play a part in a FULL pinkeye control program.
 
Mineral is a huge part in fighting pinkeye, but its still just part of the control.
Vaccines, CTC, fly tags, back rubbers, keeping pastures short, even Long Range can play a part in a FULL pinkeye control program.
Everything else is the same, the only variable that has changed since last year (and really in the last 10 years) is the mineral. Coincidence?
 
Reducing stress is key. So the question is - - are mineral(s) nutritionally limiting for your set up?

We see the mineral (iodine) being the most impactful on foot health.
Interesting that the pinkeye showed up after I stopped the daily rotations for a few weeks and kicked the cows into a partially wooded area to clean it up. Maybe that was more stress than they could handle?

How would one go about answering that question (if mineral(s) are nutritionally limiting in my set up?)?

I looked up the iodine in the two minerals. The one I was using was 60 PPM. The one I am using now is 200 PPM. They should be getting more iodine than before. Selenium was 52 PPM and now it is 26 PPM. Cobalt was 75 PPM and now it is 40 PPM.

Soil tests show the soil is low in phosphorous. The new mineral is 5% in P the old was 6%.
 
Interesting that the pinkeye showed up after I stopped the daily rotations for a few weeks and kicked the cows into a partially wooded area to clean it up. Maybe that was more stress than they could handle?

How would one go about answering that question (if mineral(s) are nutritionally limiting in my set up?)?

I looked up the iodine in the two minerals. The one I was using was 60 PPM. The one I am using now is 200 PPM. They should be getting more iodine than before. Selenium was 52 PPM and now it is 26 PPM. Cobalt was 75 PPM and now it is 40 PPM.

Soil tests show the soil is low in phosphorous. The new mineral is 5% in P the old was 6%.
I looked up the iodine in the two minerals. The one I was using was 60 PPM. The one I am using now is 200 PPM. They should be getting more iodine than before. Selenium was 52 PPM and now it is 26 PPM. Cobalt was 75 PPM and now it is 40 PPM.
Sounds like a different rate of expected daily consumption as in 2 oz/day versus 4 oz/day. The Cargill minerals are better than the prior Southern States minerals. We can still get them even though SS sold out around here this year. But I seldom use them and use another source.
 
BTO do a couple tissue tests of their forage and then have a specialist develope a mineral mix from scratch. Soil testing is indirect and not as useful as tissue testing.

Better feed has a dramatic effect on pinkeye occurrence. Folks like to blame it all on flies, which are very visible, but usually a high fly population coincides with poor er stemy pasture forage...
 
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I have a friend in KY who noted 2 things: a lack of decent shade in a pasture in the rotation was a catalyst for pinkeye. He added a shade structure and it greatly decreased. And BFE's comment on corn plays into another of his observations. He put Mix30 out free choice and did not see much consumption in the summer but when he did pinkeye disappeared and when it ran out it would come back.
 
Interesting that the pinkeye showed up after I stopped the daily rotations for a few weeks and kicked the cows into a partially wooded area to clean it up. Maybe that was more stress than they could handle?

How would one go about answering that question (if mineral(s) are nutritionally limiting in my set up?)?

I looked up the iodine in the two minerals. The one I was using was 60 PPM. The one I am using now is 200 PPM. They should be getting more iodine than before. Selenium was 52 PPM and now it is 26 PPM. Cobalt was 75 PPM and now it is 40 PPM.

Soil tests show the soil is low in phosphorous. The new mineral is 5% in P the old was 6%.
bigbluegrass check the recommended consumption rate on those two minerals. Sounds like one might be 2 oz. per day and the other 4 oz per day.
 
The Southern States mineral does not list a feed rate, directly. It says "Feed at a rate to provide not more than 3 mg/head/day of supplemental selenium." I am a little rusty on how to convert from 52 ppm selenium to 3 mg/head/day and end up with a total oz per head per day of mineral. Any help would be appreciated

VitaFerm is 4 oz per head per day.
 
Pinkeye or what we call New Forest eye has been bad in the UK as well this year so it looks like it been a global thing. Usually we get it with our yearlings in our river field but strangely enough that field was ok this year and instead we got it bad with the young calves out with their momma's which we have never had before. After treating most of the calves with eye injections all summer I gave the herd mineral lick (which I don't normally bother with) with added garlic which some say helps keep the flies off.
 
My uncle in 40 years of raising cattle, Never had pink eye in his herd. He Always fed Mineral really heavy. Then 3 years ago he didn't feed Mineral for about 8 months due to financial difficulties. He had a huge pink eye break out in his herd. He went back to feeding Mineral. No more problems with pink eye..
 
There isn't really 1 thing in particular I think you can pinpoint the cause of why you get pinkeye bad on a random year. You can vaccinate for it, put out mineral, fly control, etc. and even the best thought out plans still may not prevent it. The 1 thing I bet you is that if you had it bad this year that next year you probably won't have a problem with it. We put out mineral and pinkeye vaccinate cows and calves before turning out to summer pasture and last year we had it bad after having several years in a row with basically no pinkeye. We changed vaccines this year and even with extreme drought this summer where you think the irritants may be worse because it's so dry we didn't have 1 case of pinkeye. Our vet even says just when he thinks he finally has a good pinkeye protocol figured out you get a bad outbreak and have to switch things up and the cycle starts over again. He does believe that after you have a bad year of it your herd tends to build up some immunity to it and the next year or few usually things are great because of it.

Raising Herefords we hear all the knocks that Herefords are more susceptible to pinkeye and eye problems and how eye pigment has a factor in that and have come to realize with experience that is mostly hogwash. Tell me how it's genetic and breed specific when we can have a summer free of pinkeye yet the commercial operation just down the road can have a bad outbreak of it and have a black angus bull get it so bad he was nearly blind. Last year when we had it bad some of the worst eyes were calves that had heavy pigment yet some calves with no pigment never got even a touch of it. I think pinkeye is one thing that no matter how well you try to avoid it there is always a chance you'll have a problem with it some year.
 
Sometimes I wonder if mineral feeders are like hay rings.....meaning it makes it hard for all of them to eat unless they are plenty of room for them to get some. Then some cattle may not like the mineral your feeding. I've started feeding mineral in bunk feeders....several can gather around at once, but it will get wet unless covered....thats why I like the purina wind and rain .
 

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