Why do farmers spread magnesium? Here we cover the cattle health aspect of applying magnesium or causmag to your fields.

It is a well-known fact that prevention is better than cure. If livestock develop metabolic issues, this can easily lead to costly veterinary bills and even livestock death. 

The Vogal Mag 45 spreader is a small but wise investment for the prevention of magnesium deficiency amongst stock.

1. Magnesium supplementation is an important tool to help aid the prevention of metabolic issues in cows. Magnesium also plays an important role in milk fever prevention (hypocalcemia).
2. Ensuring animals get the recommended daily amount of magnesium will reduce the risk of milk fever and grass staggers.
3. This is particularly important for the two to three weeks of pre-calving through to when spring pasture growth rates slow down.
4. It can be difficult to supply cows with enough magnesium purely through the water supply. We want to take a multi-factorial approach when supplementing magnesium. Combining magnesium chloride through water as well as dusting onto pasture or silage on a daily basis is an effective method of achieving a cow’s recommended daily intake of magnesium.

Dietary requirements of magnesium will vary depending on cow liveweight and breed. Nutrient requirements are driven by the size of size of the cow and level of production of the cow.
Vogal Mag 45 spreaders are a tool to effectively spread Causmag and lime flour (calcium carbonate) onto pasture efficiently. For larger operations the 120L capacity hopper spreader is also available. The spreader's design contains specific features to assist with making this job as low maintenance as possible. Particular attention is made to ensure that the fine dust is evenly disbursed behind the spreader and not forward onto the operator and quad bike.

Source: DairyNZ - https://www.dairynz.co.nz/feed/feed-management/early-spring-management/magnesium-calcium-and-energy/