Selenium for beef cows

[tom stalker]

My beefers have access to mineral blocks and have a minerial supplement added to their grain. The heifers are pregnant and due in April / May.
My neighbor told me that Selenium[b:110fc38e2b] greatly[/b:110fc38e2b] helped their heifers during calving
I've have read about Selenium and see it's benefits but.....does Selenium greatly help during the calving ?

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Cattle and goats need a mineral with Selenium if you live in a deficient area.

 

[bobwny]

You can get yellow selenium salt blocks.put them out along with your mineral blocks.

 

[Dave H (MI)]

Your questions was does it help with calving. There are a lot of research documents about selenium on the web. I would read several of these before I took a fence row suggestion from any neighbor. But then, that is me and I check things out six ways from Sunday before I pull the trigger on anything. I had a late friend who raised bison and he had to add selenium to their diet because we are deficient here. At the time I heard that cattle were less sensitive...but I would still do it if it were me. We use the selenium blocks for goats here. I don't see what it hurts to try it.

 

[centash]

Selenium in it's VitE form are used to prevent WMD white muscle disease. Have your
feeds analyzed to know for sure whether it's needed or not.Too much can be toxic. Ben

 

[rrlund]

Helps with conception.

 

[s,mac]

We are in a very Selenium deficient country. We feed Selenium salt year round makes a world of deference. Very seldom do we have any weak calves if we do we inject them with BO-SE as per label. Steve

 

[LonM]

Cattle have a pretty narrow tolerance for Selenium. By that, I mean that the window between too little and too much is fairly small. And as others have said, your location makes a big difference. Your best bet is to talk to a Veterinarian or someone in Extension in your area. Next best would be a feed rep/nutritionist that knows your area and what mineral deficiencies are common...
Good Luck!
Lon

 

[donjr]

Keep selenium in front of the cows. If you don't, the calves may exhibit some weakness and develop 'white muscle disease'. It
decreases their immunity abilities and ability to walk. They just lay down and die one night and you're left wondering what
happened...

 

[caterpillar guy]

MI is a highly deficient selenium area. We fed it to cattle back when we had the milk cows.

 

[tom stalker]

Thanks to all for your answers and experiences

 

[rdandersom]

It's probably worth getting your feed checked. I am in a selenium deficient area and we used to lose hogs to mulberry heart until the vet
wrote us a prescription for extra selenium in the supplement. A lot of dairy guys give a selenium shot at dry off. However, selenium is very
toxic. One dairyman accidentally gave a cow a second shot and the story I heard was that most of her hair fell out.