Grass Tetany

Wednesday Apr 9th, 2014 37 Views Land & Livestock Report

Welcome to Open Range, I’m KayDee Gilkey. Stay tuned because after the break I’ll check in with our field reporter, Greg Martin for the AgriBeef Minute.

Thanks KayDee. Springtime is here but there could be a danger lurking in your pastures. It’s called grass tetany and Dr. Mike Mehrens with Performix Nutrition Systems explains.

MEHRENS: It most occurs in the springtime right after a cow has calved and it’s typically one of your best cows nursing one of the biggest calves. And that cow is putting out a lot of minerals in her milk.

Grass tetany is then basically a mineral deficiency in the cow.

MEHRENS: She will go down. Get very agitated, nervous, convulsive. Things like that and if she’s not seen immediately, which is more typical than not in a beef cattle operation where they might be out on a range somewhere where this happens, she will die.

The solution can be as simple as a one-a-day.

MEHRENS: It is that same situation. She gets an imbalance. The feed has a lot of potassium in it and a lot of protein and often she doesn’t have enough calcium and magnesium and salt in her diet to stand that huge change in her metabolism.

I’m Greg Martin and that’s today’s AgriBeef Minute.

Thanks Greg. Don’t forget Greg will be back each Wednesday with the AgriBeef Minute. Agri Beef Co - Real Families, Great People, Exceptional Beef. I’m KayDee Gilkey.