Facial Eczema (FE). Part 5. Farm Information.(Dairy Cattle). Zinc oxide. Long-term dosing.

Agriculture, Farming, animal husbandry, animal health, disease, Facial Eczema, advice on prevention, recommendations, zinc, zinc oxide, long-term dosing, recipes.

By Dr Clive Dalton

Original 1991 information written by Dr Barry Smith and Dr Neale Towers, Ruakura Agricultural Research Station, Hamilton, New Zealand.

5. Facial Eczema: (Dairy Cattle). Zinc oxide. Long-term dosing.

• Milking cattle are best dosed daily, this gives best protection and, once the cows are trained, causes less disruption in the shed.
• Milking cattle can be protected by dosing at 2 or 3 day intervals. Do not dose at greater than 3-day intervals as the high zinc doses will cause milk fever in a small proportion of the cows.
• Dry cattle can be dosed twice weekly, or at weekly or fortnightly intervals.
• Dose rates need to be increased to account for less efficient protection and the length of interval between doses if not dosed daily.
• Zinc oxide dosing can be expected to markedly reduce, but not totally prevent, FE outbreaks.
• Daily dosing should reduce the number of animals affected and the severity of the damage to the livers of affected animals by 80-90%.
• Twice-weekly (lactating) and weekly dosing (dry stock) by 70-80%.
• A more stable and concentrated drench can be made by including either a commercial stabiliser such as CoZinc (Coast Biologicals Ltd) or Maximix (Bell-Booth Ltd), or a liquid "farm" strength seaweed fertiliser such as Maxicrop (Bell-Booth Ltd), Green Label Response (Coast Biologicals Ltd) or Sea Magic (Yates Ltd).

Remember: Not all liquid fertilisers are seaweed based.

• Stabilisers have two advantages:
• (1). They increase the ease of mixing and drenching.
• (2). They allow the mixing of more concentrated drenches and therefore use of smaller drench volumes.
• Make sure you use the right dose rate for the type of drench mixed.

Note: Proprietary mixes such as Cozinc (Coast Biologicals Ltd), Maximix (Bell-Booth Ltd) and Nu Zinc (Nufarm Ltd) should be mixed and used as recommended on the product label.

Recipes
Unstabilised drench

• Mix 1 kg zinc oxide with 2.5 litres of water.
• Sprinkle powder on water and leave to wet.
• Stir until smooth and lump free.
• If too stiff to flow through drench gun, add a little more water.
• If too thin to stay in suspension, stir in a little more zinc oxide powder.
• This produces about 2.7 litres of drench.

• Daily dosing: 7 ml/100 kg liveweight.
• 3-day, weekly: 10 ml/100 kg liveweight x No. of days between drenches

Stabilised drench

• Mix 1 kg zinc oxide powder with 1 litre of water and 200 ml of "stabiliser".
• Mix the stabiliser and water first.
• Sprinkle powder on the water and let settle and wet.
• Stir to a smooth creamy paste.

• Daily dosing: 3.6 ml/100 kg liveweight.
• 3-day-weekly: 5ml/100 kg liveweight x No. of days between drenches.

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.