The Stakes
ADVERTISEMENT
for Wheat Pasture Bloat Have Never Been Higher
By Jackie Nix, Animal Nutritionist, Ridley Block Operations
I
Protect Your Investment with SWEETLIX® Bloat Guard® Blocks Bloat Guard®
t’s a great time to be in the cattle business! With record cattle prices and beneficial rains coming into the area, it is coming together to be a very good wheat pasture season for stocker cattle raisers.
However, along with those record prices come record risks in terms of money tied up in stockers.
We all know that wheat pasture bloat is a major concern for stocker operators. Wheat pasture bloat (also known as frothy bloat or Sudden Death Syndrome) is associated with cattle grazing lush, immature, wheat pastures (or alfalfa or clover or other cereal grain pastures). Death can occur in as little as 30 minutes from the onset of symptoms under ideal conditions, but commonly occurs within 3 days of turning calves onto new pastures. Death losses of 1 to 5% are common during bloat conditions and can go as high as 10% to 20% in severe outbreaks. In today’s economic environment where every calf is worth a minimum of $1000,
losses can rack up quickly! Even sub- acute, non-lethal cases of bloat are costly. The discomfort caused by mild bloat, will cause cattle to eat and drink less resulting in lowered weight gain and a smaller payday.
To understand how to protect cattle against wheat pasture bloat, we have to understand what is occurring in the calf’s body. Bloat is an accumulation of gas in the rumen marked by abdominal distention. Bloat results when the animal is unable to belch gases out normally. Left untreated, gasses expand the rumen, compressing the heart and lungs and can result in death. In wheat pasture bloat, the gases mix with the proteins found in immature wheat to form a very stable foam within the rumen. Because gas is trapped in thousands of bubbles, it is impossible for the animal to belch it out. Since the gas is trapped in foam, it is necessary to introduce an antifoaming agent into the rumen. Poloxalene (Bloat Guard®
) is such an anti-foaming agent. is the only FDA-approved
additive for the prevention of wheat pasture bloat in cattle. Bloat Guard® acts to reduce the surface tension in the bubbles so that they can combine with other bubbles and burst, thus releasing the gas. Because Bloat Guard®
acts as
a surfactant within the rumen, it has no residual effect. Once the rumen contents containing Bloat Guard®
passes out,
the calf is left unprotected for bloat. For this reason, it is critical that calves consume Bloat Guard®
each and every
day to maintain protective levels of Bloat Guard®
.
Unfortunately, dead calves not only mean lost profits, but your initial investment is lost as well. For the value of these two calves, you can protect over 400 head of stockers using SWEETLIX®
Bloat Guard® Pressed Blocks.
SWEETLIX.COM l 1-87-SWEETLIX ADVERTISEMENT
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