Grass Tetany
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Every farmer in our Shire will be alert to the possibilities at this time of year of their stock getting grass tetany.
This is especially so in lactating cows, 6 years or older.
Affected animals are usually found dead in the paddock making it a scary disease to encounter.
It is the main cause of death in adult females in our region.
Since the last burst of snow and cold, wet weather, reports are coming through of losses on some properties of one up to ten or more cows.
With animals now worth $1000 to $1500 each, such losses are very costly.
Grass tetany can be a very complex disease of interactions between various elements and the environment, though I will not deal with those complexities here.
In simple terms, grass tetany is caused by a lack of magnesium in the bloodstream.
It is an essential element for many things, especially muscular function, where it causes muscular relaxation.
Because of this, some of the earliest anaesthetics contained magnesium.
By contrast, calcium has almost the opposite effect, being necessary for muscle contraction.
Levels of magnesium and calcium need to be in balance in the body for it to function properly.
For example, the ability to walk normally or use jaw muscles to graze and masticate food, involves limb or jaw muscles alternatively contracting and relaxing under the influence of the correct levels of magnesium and calcium.
If calcium levels fall, as seen in dairy breeds soon after calving, then a cow may get milk fever.
Because she can't contract her muscles, she becomes flaccid, goes down and may become comatose-like.
The heart and respiratory muscles are last to shut down.
If calcium is injected into the bloodstream to reverse this position the animal will usually miraculously recover.
Almost immediately, the cow can stand up and start functioning normally, such as resuming grazing and normal intestinal movements.
It is as if the affected animal has been brought back from the dead, the recovery is so rapid and dramatic.
Sadly, the same successful response is not seen with magnesium deficiency.
If you find an animal that has gone down from grass tetany, unless they are in the very early stages, you will be lucky if they recover.
The reasons for this are varied and often not well understood, especially in fat beef cows.
Best results are when you act early and promptly, preferably when they are still able to stand.
Prevention, of course, is even better.
If you see one animal affected, it should sound alarm bells that the rest of the herd is likely to have low magnesium levels too.
Every effort should be made to reverse that situation before others become visibly affected.
The most susceptible animals are fat, lactating cows, usually 6 years or older, especially if they are drawing on their reserves and losing weight.
They will usually be on short, lush grass, full of water or grazing oats.
Think of yourself trying to survive on lettuce leaves.
Throw in the stress of cold, wet weather or cold winds without shelter and the stress is magnified.
Of course, transporting such cows long distances or locking them in saleyards for long periods, is a recipe for trouble too.
Cattle normally have fairly low blood magnesium levels to begin with, so have little accessible reserves to play with, especially if a calf is dragging the magnesium out in the milk supply.
Add to this the fact that a cow only has a very limited ability to source magnesium from body stores.
It means that in effect, a cow losing magnesium through milk must replenish most of that loss through what she eats.
Short or lush green pasture or cereal oats does not supply enough magnesium quickly enough.
Clover or lucerne is much better but their growth can be near absent in our cold winters.
Lucerne or mature pasture hay are better sources of magnesium if available.
The other critical factor to remember is that the cow cannot effectively store magnesium for any length of time, so she needs a constant and regular intake, preferably on a daily basis.
In short, if a cow is feeding a calf in June, July or August in a Blayney Shire winter, you should give some thought to providing her regular sources of magnesium by supplements in her feed.
Another important point to have in mind with grass tetany, is if one animal shows signs of magnesium deficiency, than you can be assured many others are not far behind.
Because treatment of grass tetany animals that have gone down has a very low success rate, often approaching zero, it is usually prudent to be taking action at an early stage.
Climate Capers
Bill Shorten's announcement that he will move to have 50% of Australia's energy needs supplied by renewable energy by 2030, within 15 years, stunned many observers.
He says he is yet to cost the proposal or have it considered by shadow cabinet.
Some analysts are already putting a price tag on this of $65 billion, which has led some to question whether such a vast sum could not be better spent elsewhere.
After all, the $65 billion is aimed to produce no more electricity than we produce now, just to produce it differently.
Obviously electricity prices would have to increase markedly to recover these huge capital investments, not to mention the fact that the electricity produced would be much dearer.
The aim of doing this, of course, is to lower carbon dioxide emissions which we are told forces the temperature up, empties our cities' reservoirs and through rising sea levels floods our coastlines.
This mantra has become the new religion and no amount of money is large enough to be offered up to its altar.
No heretic dares question any of this for fear of being labelled a denier or flat earther.
Against this background it is worth examining a few facts.
Australia presently contributes only 1.3% of the world's man-made CO2 emissions, a total of about 550 million tonnes a year.
By comparison, China alone pours 10 000 M t.
Each and every year this figure increases by more than Australia's total emissions.
Both the Coalition and Labor have agreed to reduce our output of CO2 by 5% by 2020.
However, China has told the world it intends to keep increasing its output up until 2030 when it will then have a look to see if any reductions are possible.
To many people's disbelief, this was welcomed by Labor and the Greens.
Look at the simple maths of what even our expensive 5% reduction means.
5% of 1.3% equates to a mere 0.065% of the world's output.
This will mean we will be contributing 1.235% of the world's CO2 instead of 1.3%.
Experts calculate that this reduction of ours, at the cost of billions of dollars, could lower the world's temperature at the end of this century by only one ten-thousanth of a degree.
This is an amount too small to be able to be measured, making some wonder if the dollar, cost, the loss of net jobs and the lowering of our living standards is worth it.
In fact, China's increases in just a fortnight wipes out all our efforts for reductions.
Throw into the mix the fact that India's emissions are on track to pass those of China and that Brazil and other countries are producing huge increases too.
If that scenario is not bizarre enough, consider this.
To pay for our costly contribution to lowering CO2 we have to ship out ever increasing quantities of coal to countries like China and India.
Go figure.
Now we have an announcement that some of our reduction is to be achieved by an even more expensive pathway than previously decided on.
Barnaby Joyce said recently that the world has gone mad.
Maybe he was on to something.