Ruminant Mineral Nutrition. The Effect of Copper Injections on Weight Gains and Haemoglobin Levels of Cattle Pastured on Ground-Water Soils in The British Columbia Interior.

Fifteen cattle, with the typical copper deficiency symptoms of scouring and emaciation, gained .45 pound more daily after receiving copper injections than the control group in a three-month period. Copper injections did not prevent scouring on this ranch in the North Okanagan Valley. Copper deficiency symptoms have occurred in this area whenever cattle have been restricted to forage from ground-water soils though animals improve when moved to upland soils. Dairy calves and beef cattle are most frequently affected. Subclinical deficiencies may be more important economically than the easily recognized severe deficiencies.The average copper level in pasture forage on this ranch was 10.2 ppm and copper content of forage was not related to scouring. The average molybdenum level was 8.8 ppm but the molybdenum content of 9.7 ppm in affected forage was high compared to 2.2 ppm in forage from a pasture where scouring did not occur and 4.2 ppm in pasture which caused less scouring. The average copper to molybdenum ratio was 1.0 in the affected forage which was low compared to the ratio of 4.3 in forage from the pasture where scouring did not occur and 2.3 in forage from the pasture where there was less scouring. Manganese tended to be higher in non-scouring forage. Sulphur contents were high but not related to the degree of scouring. In a 1957 survey on farms not far from this ranch, no difference was found between the copper and molybdenum contents of scouring and non-scouring forage though copper was double and molybdenum comparable to levels found on this ranch. However, in the survey, scouring forage contained .65 per cent sulphur whereas non-scouring forage only contained .26 per cent.