Friday, September 20, 2013

WARNING, GRASS TETANY ALERT!

Alert, here is an email that was sent to me from a breeder in Pagosa Springs:

"Hi Vern,

I just lost my awesome registered halter broke show cow to grass Tetany,  . . . . . .  Now I find myself with one producing cow and an orphan calf that I am bottle raising.  I will keep my little orphan but she is not going to be producing that good highland beef for awhile.  So this brings me to you looking for a replacement cow.  . . . . . . I live in Pagosa Springs. . . . . . I thought I would check with you first, but I really want something tame and halter broke and I know that is not a priority for a lot of ranches, so I may wait and go to the stock show, however if you come across something let me know.

Also you might want to put a note out to all of your mailing list about grass tetany, it is a real problem here with all the rain, I had never heard of it until it was too late to save my cow.  There is some info online on it if you hadn't heard of it either.

Thanks"
 

Grass Tetany is mainly caused by low magnesium in the cows blood serum and is caused by grazing on succulent immature grasses which some of us are seeing with the renewed monsoon rains in Colorado. Here are more details and ways to remedy this:
http://cattletoday.info/grasstetany.htm
Vern,
970-497-9842