Magnets in mixer feeders can protect livestock

By Stephen Cadogan

Farmers with a magnet in their diet feeder know how much hardware contamination there can be in feed.

Livestock feeding equipment manufacturer Trioliet, based in the Netherlands, has drawn attention to this with figures from Wageningen University and Research Centre indicating that many thousands of cows are injured or die each year due to ingesting litter that has entered their feed.

According to Trioliet, many farmers are not aware that magnets in the diet feeder can remove this threat to cattle.

A number of manufacturers fit them as standard, or they can be retrofitted.

When Dutch farmer Pim Lenferink started using a mixer feeder with auger magnets for his 135 dairy cows, he discovered nails, barbed wire and screws and other undefinable metal objects, attached to the magnet — some with extremely sharp edges, and some as long as a ballpoint pen.

“Within a month we collected around 30 objects”, he said. “Every day, we find sharp metal objects on the magnet.

“We were so impressed that we immediately installed a magnet on the second auger.”

He speculates that these metal objects could enter feed if thrown away by school children or passing motorists.

Or crows could pick them up as nest building material and drop them in fields or feed areas.

Sharp objects might be more likely to crop up in by-products or hay and straw bales than in in grass silage.

Lenferink also discovered recently that the magnets in his feeder were covered with a thick layer of metal grit, made up of extremely small particles of metal, most probably from a batch of purchased concentrate feed.

He said, “This doesn’t immediately cause damage, but it shouldn’t be in there. We would never have been able to retrieve it without the magnet. As far as I am concerned, this should be a standard feature of every mixer feeder wagon. It would save a great deal of animal suffering, and the advantages significantly outweigh the amount spent.”