Farming 1,350 feet above sea level comes with more challenge and adversity then the average lowland farm. But John Cooper has a secret weapon for ensuring animal wellbeing in all-weathers – a trace element bolus.
John runs a herd of 50 Blue Grey and Charolais-cross suckler cows along with a flock of 1,100 Welsh Mountain on his tenant farm in Dartmoor. John runs a flock of Herdwick sheep on some common land that he has grazing rights to.
Soil testing some two decades ago revealed that the land was only supplying a tenth of the required cobalt. Follow-up blood testing of the sheep grazed on the land confirmed the deficiency severity. ANIMAX Tracesure has offered a solution ever since.
The Welsh Mountain ewes scan at 115 percent. Lambing starts in mid-April and lambs enter the food supply chain from mid-July at 6-12kg deadweight. They are bolused with ANIMAX Tracesure Sheep with Copper twice a year – the first at the end of July and the second at the beginning of December. Ewe lambs are bolused in the autumn. The Herdwicks, which prefer rough grazing instead of the field, are only rounded up twice a year so they are not scanned.
The cattle calve all the year around and the offspring are sold as suckled calves at Sedgemoor Auction Centre after weaning at 7-10 months. They are also offered ANIMAX Tracesure twice a year – the first at the beginning of May before turnout and the second at the beginning of December.
“The boluses improve the whole wellbeing of the animals and are definitely a worthwhile expense”, says John. “Since we’ve been bolusing the cows we’ve noticed that their coats are a much deeper and more defined colour. Black is black and white is white,” says John.
