> a beef speaker talked about how Cu strengthened the immune system in beef
and increased resisitance to
> parasites. I was feeding a mixture of a sheep mineral mix and kelp to my
sheep. When lambs went to slaughter > I had some liver samples analysed,
and to my surprise, the Se was fine (which we always are so concerned about)
> but the Cu was borderline deficient.
There is some on going research into using either a copper wire or copper
bolus in the sheep's rumen and demonstrating a reduction in parasite
numbers. The copper in these is not being absorbed by the sheep system and
stored in the liver. The copper in sheep issue is complicated by the
level of Mo, Mo binds with copper, excess Mo tends to create Cu
deficiencies. There is also an interation with Sulfer. On top of it all,
there are some breed differences, and I'd suspect individual differences.
Texel's for instance are very efficient at absorbing Cu, and levels
"safe"
for most breeds will kill them.
> I am thinking of trying a higher Cu mineral mix (different mixes for the
beef and the sheep). I can have liver > samples analysed when lambs, and
> steers, go to market in 6 months or so. But I am nervous.
I'd be nervous too. Testing forages for copper levels as well as having
livers analysied would be helpful, but copper is something that accumulates
over a lifetime. So testing livers from lambs sent in for harvesting
wouldn't tell you how much has accumulated in the adult flock. If you are
purchasing hay or grain from others parts of the country, could from from
high copper areas, or extremely low.
On of the sympotoms of copper defiency is "steely" wool.
> And then, I hear that hair sheep tolerate much higher Cu than wool sheep,
and I really wonder what is going on > with sheep. We have wool sheep bred
to a hair ram. (Then I think maybe we need to select for sheep that can
> tolerate a reasonable level of Cu...)
While there are some breed differences, this is a rather broad statement to
qualify ALL hair sheep as more copper tolerant.
Gene Schriefer
Shepherd
Dodgeville, Wisconsin USA
Commercial Texel-x and Charollais-x Sheep
