Rearing Animals [BE.RA]

When we think about magnesium deficiency, we automatically think about grass staggers.  Many suckler herds do not experience problems with staggers in the spring and it tends to be in the autumn that staggers is more common, due to changeable and stormy weather conditions and a high passage rate of lush, wet grass through the digestive tract.  For autumn calving cows, the risk of staggers is lower pre-calving compared to lactating cows at this time as they have a lower requirement for magnesium.  However low magnesium pre-calving can cause metabolic issues around calving time such as subclinical milk fever or slow calving syndrome.