Targeted Pre-Tupping Nutrition
Targeted Pre-Tupping Nutrition
Knowing the trace element status of your flock at least two months prior to tupping is essential to ensure you have time to correct any problems in time for breeding.
By working with your vet and nutritionist, you can determine which trace elements, if any, require supplementation to ensure a successful breeding season.
Key trace elements to consider:
Copper
This is one of the most important
trace elements for reproduction. It is important for:
• Sperm production in rams
• Enzymes involved with oestrus and the onset of puberty
• White and red blood cell formation and in bone, collagen, and pigment.
Signs of deficiency include:
• A compromised immune system
• Anaemia
• Reproductive failure
• Ill thrift and poor fleeces
• Swayback in lambs - this is when the lamb’s nervous system is not formed correctly due to inadequate copper supply in
mid-pregnancy. This is often irreversible.
Copper should never be supplemented without first establishing there is a need. Excess can result in copper toxicity which can prove fatal. Bluefaced Leicesters, Texels and continental breeds are particularly susceptible.
While copper deficiency can be caused by insufficient copper in the diet, it is also possible sheep are ingesting adequate levels of copper, but high levels of other elements in the diet, such as molybdenum, sulphur or iron, are blocking the sheep from absorbing copper from the diet.
Cobalt
Cobalt is required by the rumen microbes to produce vitamin B12 which is important to thrive and for fertility. Cobalt is also critical for growth in lambs. Ruminants have little capacity to store cobalt, so it must be continuously supplied. Therefore, a slow-release, continuous supply form of supplementation, such as a bolus, is more appropriate for the management of cobalt deficiency.
Selenium
This is vital for muscle function and deficiency can result in white muscle disease. Deficiency is also a cause of impaired fertility, depressed growth, poor wool quality and reduced immunity.
Iodine
Like cobalt, iodine is a trace element that ruminants have little capacity to store, and a continuous supply must be made available. Where a deficiency has been identified and requires supplementation, a form that supplies trace elements at a controlled and constant rate, over long periods, should be considered.
Iodine deficiency can lead to:
• Poor growth/weight loss and poor fertility
• Abortion or still-born lambs
• Slow suckling and poor growth in lambs born alive to iodine-deficient dams. These lambs frequently have markedly enlarged thyroid glands, ie ‘goitre.’
Zinc
Zinc is essential to the function of around 300 enzymes that are involved in protein synthesis and metabolism. Deficiency causes poor fertility in ewes, poor sperm quality in tups and is associated with abortion, foetal mummification, lower birth weights and prolonged labour.
How to deal with trace element deficiency
When a trace element deficiency is identified, there are several management options, including free-access buckets or blocks, oral drenches and injections. However, for
trace elements which the body has limited capacity to store, it is better to provide a controlled daily supply by using a bolus.
Trace element boluses:
• Provide a convenient and controlled method of daily trace element supplementation. There are no variable intakes and no guesswork
• Are long-lasting and highly convenient, thus reducing labour costs.
Different boluses contain forms of trace elements which are more or less easy for the animal to access for use in essential processes. For example, many contain cobalt oxide to provide cobalt to the animal. In supplements that contain ionic forms of cobalt the oxide is removed and it becomes readily available at rumen pH so rumen microbes can utilise it more efficiently.
