TITLE:
Assessment of pasture and plasma minerals of cows: A case study in Pakistan
AUTHORS:
Zafar Iqbal Khan, Kafeel Ahmad, Muhammad Khalid Mukhtar, Farhad Mirzaei, Ghulam Hussain
KEYWORDS:
Soil; Forage; Serum; Ruminants Productivity; Punjab; Pakistan
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.4 No.2,
February
26,
2013
ABSTRACT: An investigation was
conducted to evaluate the nutrient level of grazing livestock as influenced by
the sampling periods in Punjab state districtSargodha,Pakistan.
Twenty composite soil and pasture and twenty five blood samples were collected
at two different sampling periods dur ing December 2010 to March, 2011,
respectively. Higher soil content of all elements except iron was observed
during December than those found in Mach at the 2nd harvest during
this pe riod but all mean values were above the critical levels investigated
for soil for the requirements of forage crops. Forage, potassium, magnesium and
copper levels did not differ between samplings. Calcium, sodium, zinc,
manganese, cobalt and selenium were higher during December, while reverse was
true for forage iron reflecting the soil iron contents. The sodium, manganese,
iron and selenium in forage were found to be deficient than the requirements of
livestock during both sampling times in this investigation. From the four
minerals assessed in the serum calcium, magnesium and zinc levels were high
after the December in March. The macro mineral which were found to be moderately
deficient at this animal farm are sodium and magnesium. Micro elements most
likely to limit livestock production efficiency are copper, zinc, manganese and
cobalt. Specific mineral supplementation should be supplied containing copper
and zinc, as both pasture and blood plasma samples exhibited their deficiency.
The present investigation suggests the requirement and provision of an
appropriate specificity tailored mineral mixture to ruminants in this specific
studied area. The objective of this study was to determine deficiency or excess
of various minerals to have the knowledge of the status of different minerl
elements for supplementation if necessary.