Recently, we've received a number of queries on cattle scouring post-housing.
"What is causing it?"
"I dosed them at housing - did it work?"
"Do I need to dose them again?"
"Could it be fluke?"
When we house cattle, as well as changing their external environment, we're also changing their internal environment, that is, the rumen microbe population. The makeup of this population (type of microbes) are based on the animals' diet. When we change that diet - e.g. grass to conserved forage or concentrates - the microbe population changes too. But this doesn't happen instantly. It takes weeks to transition the rumen microbes to a new diet and during this transition period, digestion can be affected and this manifests itself typically as a loosening of the dung.
High DMD
So, if cattle are housed and in the coming weeks suddenly become very loose or skittery, it is most likely down to a dietary change. Feeds like high DMD grass silage are often high in leaf and low in digestible fibre and will often exacerbate this problem. However, once animals appear content, are eating, drinking and ruminating (cud chewing), it is not a major cause for concern.
Note very loose animals' tag numbers and keep an eye on them in the subsequent days. Ensure they're drinking, eating and ruminating.
Offering long, stemmy forage like straw, hay or fibrous grass silage can help to tighten animals up.
The main thing is to ensure that cattle are behaving normally in all other aspects apart from their dunging.
The issue should fix itself within a month.
Recently, we've received a number of queries on cattle scouring post-housing.
"What is causing it?"
"I dosed them at housing - did it work?"
"Do I need to dose them again?"
"Could it be fluke?"
When we house cattle, as well as changing their external environment, we're also changing their internal environment, that is, the rumen microbe population. The makeup of this population (type of microbes) are based on the animals' diet. When we change that diet - e.g. grass to conserved forage or concentrates - the microbe population changes too. But this doesn't happen instantly. It takes weeks to transition the rumen microbes to a new diet and during this transition period, digestion can be affected and this manifests itself typically as a loosening of the dung.
High DMD
So, if cattle are housed and in the coming weeks suddenly become very loose or skittery, it is most likely down to a dietary change. Feeds like high DMD grass silage are often high in leaf and low in digestible fibre and will often exacerbate this problem. However, once animals appear content, are eating, drinking and ruminating (cud chewing), it is not a major cause for concern.
Note very loose animals' tag numbers and keep an eye on them in the subsequent days. Ensure they're drinking, eating and ruminating.
Offering long, stemmy forage like straw, hay or fibrous grass silage can help to tighten animals up.
The main thing is to ensure that cattle are behaving normally in all other aspects apart from their dunging.
The issue should fix itself within a month.
Learn about stomach and gut worms in cattle