PATB
Well-known member
Does anyone feed kelp and wish to share there experience? I am looking for alternatives to the ever rising mineral prices. Does kelp have copper in it?
feeding kelp?
- Thread starter PATB
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Anonymous
Guest
Kelp-- don't you need water to grow kelp? Except today in our pea soup freezing fog with near 100% humidity- we might be able to... :wink:PATB said:
PATB
Well-known member
The mythical gobal warming will have the ocean at my door step in 50 years 
. I am looking for alternatives to present mineral program.
. I am looking for alternatives to present mineral program.Grassfarmer
Well-known member
I tried it for a couple of years and was rather disappointed. First year worked great and looked it was the solution to everything. Second year not so much, had a bad outbreak of pinkeye which the kelp did nothing to address. Showed the value of testing a product over 2 different years.
It's expensive - way more than any mineral I've ever fed unless you can get it cheap out there.
It's expensive - way more than any mineral I've ever fed unless you can get it cheap out there.
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Anonymous
Guest
Yep-- I pretty much had the same experience as Grassfarmer...I bought the mineral with it in it one year- never really saw any advantages worth the extra expense...
But its kind of hard to prove a negative...
But its kind of hard to prove a negative...
RobertMac
Well-known member
Did the mineral hide the flawed genetics of a pink eye problem?Grassfarmer said:
As a commercial producers, feed the mineral.
As a seedstock provider, sell the pink eye cows.
PATB
Well-known member
We need to supplement with mineral or a source of selenium and copper and a few other minerals. I thought seaweed might work but the cost is more than the proposed gains. We have had 1 eye infections in the last 10 years and that was due to hay chaff or grass seed this winter. I am willing to try new things if it is cost effective.
Grassfarmer
Well-known member
RobertMac said:
We don't have a pinkeye problem, only on a very occasional year do we see any. It just so happened that the second year we tried kelp we had the worst outbreak I've seen - I think the year was the difference not the kelp. I was just highlighting the fact that the kelp didn't prevent it which is one of the things its claimed to do.
The first year we used kelp as the sole mineral we had best ever conception rate, no lame cows, no pink eye. The second year we had average conception rates, average# of lame cows, a lot of pinkeye.
I realised then that the weather and type of growing season had a bigger influence on these things than mineral program. It was part of my learning experience that set me on the road to a minimalist mineral program. From the dearest program (straight kelp) to the cheapest (which we use now) there is no appreciable difference in any aspect of cattle performance. That is the case on our place anyway
Ben H
Well-known member
I haven't bought kelp, I don't think I can get any closer to the source. One local supplier is selling a coarser mix per request of customers. By skipping the milling it brings the cost down. I picked up a sample at the ag trade show and put it on the snow for the girls. They balked at first, but then they tried it. Quillan's (Kentucky Graziers Supply) had a neat idea in one of their newsletters. They promote piped water systems, they had the idea of a chemical pump on the watering system so you could dispense solubilized kelp into the water.