Yes, fast growing spring pasture usually has lower mineral levels than
slower growing pasture in summer.
Our autumns have rains after usually dry summers during which time soil
nutrients increase so pasture grows rapidly after rains, so much so that
animals scour from high nitrates in the short pasture and worm infestation
can increase, aggravated by a low mineral content of fast growing pastures.
On 21/4/06 14:05, "Ann Tiplady & John Sease"
<ann.tiplady@worldnet.att.net>
wrote:
> Someone commented recently that resistance to parasites drops in spring (or
> at lambing? which usually are together - but not always). This got me
> pondering. I once spent a summer in the Northwest Territories (Canada)
> doing biological research work for a minerals exploration giant. The area
> of the work included a band of Dall's sheep and caribou, and there was a
> hotsprings where animals would come to eat mud, presumably for the
minerals.
> I had the not-so-fun task of once a week changing the film in a time-lapse
> camera, and at season's end I got to view every frame of film and count
> numbers of animals at the hotsprings. The Dall's sheep in particular had
to
> leave their preferred habitat (grassy mountain sides and cliffs) and come
> down in to the forested valley bottom to use the hotspring. After all the
> films were counted it was blatantly obvious that the animals used the
spring
> almost solely in late winter/early spring. For a week or two the sheep
were
> at the spring often, and then they disappeared back to the cliffs for the
> rest of the summer. From that time on there were virtually no large animal
> visitors (once a bear) until late summer, when there was a small peak in
> visits (which I think were only caribou - I don't remember clearly).
> Something like 90 or 95% of the visits were in the late winter/early spring
> period, and 5 or 10% in later summer/early fall (in that part of the world
> fall is a very brief season.
>
> I am wondering if the known increase in parasites during spring and my
> observation of the visits to the hotspring could be related.
>
> This has got me thinking that livestock might consume much greater
> quantities of minerals in spring. I've never before thought to watch for
> this. What are your observations?
>
> Ann
> Vermont
>
> _______________________________________________
> Graze-l mailing list
> Graze-l@witt.ac.nz
> http://graze-l.witt.ac
.nz/mailman/listinfo/graze-l
>
>
> This communication - including any attachments - may contain legally
> privileged information, and is confidential to the addressee. If you are
not
> the intended recipient you should delete the communication and contact the
> sender immediately. If you have received this e-mail in error, you must
not
> read, copy, disseminate, distribute or otherwise use or disclose any part
of
> this communication, or any information on matters or persons to which it
> refers. WITT reserves the right to monitor all e-mail communications sent
> through its network.
>
>
>
Best wishes,
Vaughan Jones
Hamilton
New Zealand
