Most of us have experienced the discomfort of bloating after eating too much or too quickly. It can be painful and inconvenient: for livestock, severe Bloat caused by the build-up of trapped fermentation gases, can be fatal.
Bloat is the distention of the Rumen, which displays as a swelling on the left side of the animal’s abdomen. It can be intensely painful, increase stress levels, and impede an animal’s mobility. At its most extreme, bloat can increase pressure on the lungs to the point where bleeding occurs, hampering an animal’s immune system and making it more susceptible to infections.
Bloat can occur at the same time as green grass, so anytime from Autumn through to late Spring. In our experience, for every animal in your herd or mob obviously bloated, at least another 10 are also negatively affected. At its most lethal, we’ve seen death rates of up to 20% in grazing animals.
Green Feed Bloat is exacerbated by an imbalance of nutrients in the pasture or crop.
David Ginter, AIM CEO and Technical Director said, “it’s paramount to compensate for the poor balance of nutrients in the feed, which are critical to the strength of signals that tell the Rumen muscles to contract and relax so built up gasses can be expelled efficiently.”
“If the neuro muscular system isn’t working as well as it should, the risk of Bloat increases markedly and that’s where we come in,” he said.
In addition to the impact on an animal’s health, Bloat causes poor conversion of feed, which is a waste of expensive natural resources. Affected animals are also far less productive, which means the proportion of Methane and other Greenhouse gases emitted per unit of saleable meat, milk or wool produced can increase.
It's common for affected animals to stop grazing and this, together with the increased demand for nutrients caused by stress, can lead to either poor weight gain or substantial weight loss. Bloat elevates human stress too because it takes precious time and labour to deal with.
To mitigate the risks of Bloat, we suggest introducing stock to challenging feeds slowly, to allow time for proper adaptation. Feeding out roughage during the first few days can also help reduce the risk of gorging.
Keeping vaccinations up to date is also important because some deaths attributed to Bloat can in fact be caused by the Clostridial disease, Pulpy Kidney.
Dr Lyndall Short, Vet 2 You Veterinarian in Port Vincent, said, "Balancing highly digestible green feed is critical to preventing the cascade of changes that lead to Bloat".
"We have seen first-hand on the Yorke Peninsula the the use of Grazemax Ultra Lick has not only halted Bloat outbreaks associated with feeding of highly digestible medic pasture but has prevented that exact situation from occurring in subsequent years," said Dr. Short.
Talk to your AIM Technical Sales Specialist about choosing the right Grazemax solution to re-balance the challenges that lush green feed present to healthy rumen muscle contractions could mean fewer headaches for you and your herd or mob this Bloat season.
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