The drought we faced over the summer is having major effects on the health of calves and cattle throughout the province.  

Dr. Tiffany Pomarenski, owner of RY Trail Veterinary Services in Ogema, said that they are seeing a lot of vitamin and mineral deficiencies in cows.  

“We're seeing a lot of thin cows, a lot of cows that just don't have that energy to maintain the pregnancy, and if they do maintain the pregnancy, the cow themselves go down.” 

Pomarenski said that it is not a good spring as of right now with very little green grass.  

“As a result, unfortunately, we're going to see a lot of sick, weak calves. Just because the colostrum is not going to be the best, and colostrum is key for a healthy calf.” 

She added that you can inject your cattle and calves with vitamin A.  

“We're seeing a lot of vitamin A deficiencies, and that's because we didn't have any green grass. We didn't bail any green grass and vitamin A comes from beta carotene, which is in the green grass. We're also seeing a lot of high nitrates in our green feed and the nitrates basically, they bind or they don't allow vitamin A to be used by the cow.” 

Another problem Pomarenski has noticed is copper deficiency. She said feeding your cattle chelated mineral can help.