Yesterday, I moved the cows to a new paddock. Every month, I try to give my cows preventative check ups. This consists of deworming and mineral replacement. I have read a lot about ways to deworm, and we use different methods for our different animals. With the goats, chickens, and pigs, we put diatomaceous earth in their feed. However, with our cows this is different because we don't feed anything other than grass. So in comes Apple Cider Vinegar.
When we first started administering ACV, I would fill the water trough with water and add 1 ounce per gallon of water in the trough. Then I would have to turn the water off, so that when the cows drank, it wouldn't fill back up and keep dilluting the vinegar. The problem was that I had to check the water every couple of hours to make sure it wasn't dry. Sometimes, I would go out and the trough would be almost full. Then other times, it would be completely dry. In comes the Chemilizer.
This makes things so much easier. Hook it up to your water source, drop the pump sciphon in a bucket of ACV, and connect it to your water trough. For every gallon of water that flows, 1 ounce of ACV is applied. No more checking, no more worrying if they are getting enough water. You figure that on average, a cow consumes 1 gallon of water for every 100 pounds of weight. So a 700 pound beeve will consume about 7 gallons of water daily needing 7 ounces of ACV. By doing this 3 days out of the month, you should have no problems with internal parasites and worms.
I also supply trace mineral blocks for 3 days. Without these, your cows will begin lacking the natural minerals that are sub par on your pastures. We are in a building phase of pasture renovation for the next couple of years so this is much needed for us. It is amazing to see that when these blocks are put out, the cows that have been with us the longest rarely go to the blocks. The newer beeves sit and lick and lick. They make a ground up mineral feed but it is much easier for me to put out blocks in pans than to move a covered mineral trough around. Much cheaper also. Hopefully in the future, trace minerals will all be provided by our pasture grasses. That will be down the road though.
So this is why I say that the beeves are at the Dr.'s office for this rotation. Without healthy cows, you get poor performance with poor gains. If you are wanting to try ACV with your cattle, I highly recommend the Chemilizer for its simple assembly and easy use. Only happy, feeling good cows here.
3 comments:
oh..wow...who would of ever thought about all of this...oh course, smarty pants' j-bob...you have always jumped in head or feet 1st (sometimes over your head) but always trying to do the job right..so keeps you learning, experimenting and making for a sucessful farm...way to go j-bob...and all this time ...i thought us humans were the only ones drinking the apple cider vinegar...so the cows were drinking it too...interesting...moo-moo..love ya' momma sandy
Hehe... Jbob = ACV...is kinda like Rachell Ray = EVOO. WHo woulda thunk it, giving animals ACV to get rid of parasites. That is pretty neat. Question exactly how many gallons of ACV do you go through in a month, and where exactly do you go to get that much organic ACV, Kayla and I can't even find it in our local grocery store.
David
For farmers and landscapers you can buy organic ACV in bulk from the Natural Organic Warehouse. Also high grade orange oil for flys if you still need a spray after the ACV.
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