# Magnets in your cows?



## Stubbornhillfarm (Mar 29, 2013)

Do any of you have magnets in your cows?  

We are purchasing two heifers and the farmers we are getting them from said that they each already have magnets in their stomaches and that we should get one for our heifer that we currently have.

I've never heard of such a thing.  They said that any animal that eats hay should have one.

What says you all?


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## brentr (Mar 29, 2013)

I'm not a current cattle owner, but was raised on a dairy farm.

Dad put magnets in every cow as they joined the milking string (first freshening).  It was very important to him.  Thinking is that if a cow ingests wire or other foreign metal, the magnet keeps it in one place.  Minimizes complications (doesn't eliminate entirely). It is amazingly easy how wire/metal can get into cattle hay - bolts shearing on haymaking equipment like swathers and balers, barbed wire that gets left in the field, etc.  

I would endorse the suggestion you received and get a magnet in your heifer.  Cattle magnets are not too expensive and easily deposited with a pill gun.


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## jhm47 (Mar 29, 2013)

It doesn't hurt anything.  Only problem is that non-ferrous metals will not be attracted to magnets.  Anything made of copper, brass, etc. will not be affected.  We don't do it, simply because we have too many cattle to bother with it.  Also, ours are out on pastures where the incidence of nails or other metal debris is nonexistent.


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## WildRoseBeef (Mar 29, 2013)

We've never put magnets in the steers we had simply because it wasn't necessary.  In your case, if you're purchasing hay that knowingly or has a risk of having metal objects in it, then it might be a good idea, otherwise it will merely remain an option, not a necessity.


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## Stubbornhillfarm (Apr 1, 2013)

Thank you all for your replies.  We purchase our hay from a very reliable farmer.  However, like anything else...how would one be sure that there is no metal in the field or that something didn't come of some of the hay equipment?  The two new heifers already have the magnets, so no worries there.  I suppose we will just wait until the calf is born and when the time comes to put a magnet in it, put one in our current heifer as well.  

Thanks again!


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## secuono (Apr 1, 2013)

This is the weirdest thing I've ever heard....
Wouldn't all hay eating animals 'need' this, too?
How do they not disintegrate over time?


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## SheepGirl (Apr 1, 2013)

Magnets are put in cattle to help prevent hardware disease. You can buy them at a lot of feedstores. I think that it's usually just cattle they're put into because cattle tend to be confined, unlike sheep and goats, and things make their way into confinement areas--wire, nails, screws, etc--and cattle (the ones I've been around, anyway) like to put things in their mouths that shouldn't be there. By putting the magnet into the cow's rumen (through bolusing), the metal is attracted to the magnet and prevents it (for the most part) from tearing up the rumen. The metal and magnet just sit there until the animal is butchered, when it is removed and the magnet can be reused.


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## Cricket (Apr 1, 2013)

I've never had magnets, but am going to put one in my heifer this year.  We lost a cow where I work last month to suspected hardware disease.  She suddenly developed a lot of swelling in her lower chest area and died within a few days.  Apparently, by the time you see the symptoms, there isn't much point in calling the vet.

We're really careful about nails and such, but it's been 30-odd years since we moved here, and I can't tell you how much barbed wire we've pulled out of the ground over the years and still turn up occasionally.

Just as an aside, my husband (retired heavy equipment mechanic) uses cow magnets in his shop to find dropped metal objects.  He couldn't find his and I picked him up one at the feed store.  He wasn't even a little impressed with it's pull and thought it wore out too quickly.  He prefers the ones you buy from the vet.  The last one was $5.00


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## Stubbornhillfarm (Apr 1, 2013)

Cricket said:
			
		

> I've never had magnets, but am going to put one in my heifer this year.  We lost a cow where I work last month to suspected hardware disease.  She suddenly developed a lot of swelling in her lower chest area and died within a few days.  Apparently, by the time you see the symptoms, there isn't much point in calling the vet.
> 
> We're really careful about nails and such, but it's been 30-odd years since we moved here, and I can't tell you how much barbed wire we've pulled out of the ground over the years and still turn up occasionally.
> 
> Just as an aside, my husband (retired heavy equipment mechanic) uses cow magnets in his shop to find dropped metal objects.  He couldn't find his and I picked him up one at the feed store.  *He wasn't even a little impressed with it's pull and thought it wore out too quickly.  He prefers the ones you buy from the vet.  The last one was $5.00*


*
*


Good to know!


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## she-earl (Apr 1, 2013)

We have occasionally used magnets in our dairy cattle.  You need to know which animals have received a magnet because you can create problems by giving a cow a second one.  The can polarize to each other and thereby close off or pinch something that should not be pinched or closed off.


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## PattySh (Apr 1, 2013)

When Tinkerbelle left to visit a Hereford herd to be bred last summer we put a magnet in her. I felt the risk of an "old farm" pasture with misc equipment and possibly pieces of old barbed wire around made a magnet necessary. I have not been too concerned about hay from same farm , different fields no fencing etc. Was very easy to give to her with bolus applicator, took minutes.


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## secuono (Apr 1, 2013)

Well, that's something no one ever tells you when asking about cattle...


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## Stubbornhillfarm (Apr 2, 2013)

I agree Secuno.  I am sure if you are raised with cattle perhaps you would know.  But it is really the first I remember hearing of it.  Something to consider for sure.  Especially for us where we are in hopes of starting a nice little registered herd.  I don't want something to happen that could possibly be avoided.  

she-earl, that also makes a  good point to keep detailed records in your own herd and then make sure if you purchase cattle that you know the facts too.  

PattySh, I think you made a wise choice.  Better safe than sorry and I quess for a $5.00 magnet and a few minutes of time it is well worth it!


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## jhm47 (Apr 2, 2013)

Keep in mind that magnets only work on ferrous metals (iron).  They have no effect on copper, brass, etc.  

FYI:  Symptoms of "hardware disease" are this:  Animal standing with it's feet spread apart (front to back, head and ears drooping, depression, and no appetite.  They usually show nearly all of these.  A magnet will sometimes correct the problem even if they are standing like this and real badly depressed.  I'd also give them a course of broad-spectrum antibiotics to ward off any infections.


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## Elm Tree acres (Apr 2, 2013)

Yes farmers are known for leaving  copper, brass and other valuable metals lying in the field   
As always jhm is right and just to add any ground subjected to frost will eventually reveal anything buried over the last 100 years
We use magnets here as the pastures used to be grape vines so wire, staples and all sorts of ironware keep surfacing, another one to think about is in drought conditions overgrazing pasture is a big risk for mouths collecting debris

EDIT - had to add this - I know a farmer who goes to the slaughterhouse and retrieves used magnets


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## WildRoseBeef (Apr 2, 2013)

Even though we never bolused the steers we had for metal (one because they were only there for a year, and two the costs, so it wasn't practical), I'd make it my personal mission to go out in the pasture and in the corrals to find any sort of metal laying in the ground, from rusty nails to barbed wire and everything else in between, including twine.  I didn't go along with a magnet, I used my eyes to peruse the ground to find metal things that were the same colour as the earth they were lying in.  My pockets would be so full by the time I was done, and I'd keep going back again and again to find more and more stuff.  I've no idea if this was related or not, but the cases of foot-rot (and likely potential hard-ware disease cases) we had in the past became non-existent by the time I was done purging the corrals of bits of metal and stuff that I could find.


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