Interrelationship among mineral in soil, forage, and animal tissues 2. Copper and molybdenum

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with samples from six farms to study the interrelationship among mineral levels in soil, forage, and animal tissues during the wet and dry season of the year. Soil extractable copper was normal, 4.4 ppm, only on farm 1. Mean soil levels between 0.7 and 1.9 ppm were considered low on the other farms. Soil extractable copper means were 2.1 and 1.5 ppm during the dry and wet season, respectively. Forage copper values were deficient on farms 1,3,4 and 5; with a mean copper of 2.7 ppm on farm 3 there was a toxic level of Mo (9.2 ppm. Forage copper was 5.4 ppm during the wet season compared to 2.4 during the dry season. Liver copper levels were normal on all six farms, due to mineral supplementation. Soil extractable molybdenum was considered high on all six farms, and ranged from 16 to 24 ppm. Apart from farm 3, the other farms had nontoxic forage Mo value between 0.1 and 1.4 ppm. Normal liver molybdenum values were in evidence; a somewhat higher figure (3.8 ppm) found on farm 3 was, however, below the considered toxic level of 4 ppm.