What Is the Importance of Vitamin E and Selenium in Cattle?

Shortfalls of vitamin E and selenium are a key issue in cattle, but few realise how these can impact on the performance of your livestock.

Researchers have found that 97% of cows in very early lactation have an imbalance of vitamin E at calving. Further research has also found that in addition to this shortfall of vitamin E; 89% of UK grazed grass has a shortfall of selenium.

Grasses and forages can often be low in selenium due to the levels of selenium found within the soil, and vitamin E declines in conserved forage from immediately after being cut; conserved forages can contain 20-80% less vitamin E than fresh grass, highlighting the importance for antioxidant supplementation.

Low levels of these crucial dietary components will put the animal more at risk of developing oxidative stress.

What Are the Functions of Vitamin E and Selenium for Cattle?

Both selenium and vitamin E are crucial antioxidants that are critical to the health of an animal, especially during periods of higher stress such as calving, lactation and drying off.

Agrimin have developed a new slow-release bolus that aids in the recovery of cows post-calving as well as aiding with milk production and productivity.

It can take up to 100 days for a cow’s vitamin E levels to replenish back up to recommended levels following pregnancy, which means that they will not be fully recovered and operating at their full potential.

What Are the Symptoms of a Vitamin E or Selenium Shortfall?

These shortfalls in vitamin E and selenium are a bit of a hidden problem but they are hugely important to the transition cow. Research has shown that dairy cows in the UK rarely get the recommended levels in any of the lactation stages, meaning neither the cow or calf are fulfilling their maximum potential.

An imbalance of antioxidants will lead to slower recovery for the cow and a poor start in life for the calf that may not be getting everything it needs from the colostrum.

Supplementing with the antioxidants selenium and vitamin E supports immune function as well as helping to regulate the thyroid hormones that are involved in fertility and reproduction.

Vitamin E and selenium also help optimise cyclicity so can improve calving intervals as well as protecting the embryo from oxidative stress during its crucial development stages. Antioxidants help to protect cells from oxidative stress which is key for recovery in periods of stress and when calves are first growing. The improved immune support will also help reduce incidences of scours in young calves.

Research also shows that cows are up to 9.4 times less likely to develop mastitis and have high somatic cell counts if they are supplemented with vitamin E. All the ingredients in the ESey BREEDER bolus help to improve milk quality.

Prevention of Vitamin E and Selenium Shortfall

As we said, Agrimin has now created a specific bolus range to address the challenge of a shortfall in vitamin E and selenium.

The ESey BREEDER bolus has a slow-release mechanism that ensures cows get the recommended levels of vitamin E and selenium they require during stressful periods like the transition of diets from the summer to the winter ration. The ESey bolus supplies the animal with its full daily requirements of antioxidants for approximately 60 days. Boluses are an easy way to supplement animals, and the grape extract found within the ESey bolus will act as a multiplier, enhancing the effect of the vitamin E by 8.25 times.

The ESey BREEDER bolus can be used any time of year but is designed for periods of stress; including transition, pre-calving, periods of heat stress, changes in diet from fresh grass to conserved forages, or where diets are particularly high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).

The range also includes the ESey FINISHER bolus, which offers similar benefits to finishing beef cattle, optimising daily liveweight gain to hit target weights quicker and helping meat quality and redness.

What Are the Causes of a Vitamin E or Selenium Shortfall?

Diets high in PUFAs e.g., the dairy cakes and concentrates typically fed in winter, will increase the animals' requirements for antioxidants – they will increase it 100-fold for vitamin E and 10-fold for selenium.

A selenium imbalance can also occur where adequate selenium is provided, but it is prevented from being utilised fully. For example, high dietary sulphur can affect selenium bioavailability.

In recent years, milk yields have been increasing, however this has come at the expense of a decline in reproductive performance.

Climate change and increased chance of heat stress has only worsened this decline and it is only going to continue getting worse. Heat stress will delay post-partum recovery and impairs the cow returning to oestrous. Adequate nutrition and supplementation can reverse these effects and improve reproductive performance.

Supplementing with antioxidants helps increase the longevity of the cows in the herd. Culling cows that cannot get back into calf and bringing in new heifers is unsustainable both environmentally and financially. Increasing a cow’s longevity in effect cuts down methane and nitrogen excretion and betters animal welfare as well as performance – fewer animals are needed in a non-productive state.

Vitamin E and Selenium Supplementation for Cattle

The dairy industry faces incredible pressure, and the ESey bolus is a simple and easy solution to making sure you get the most out of your cows.

This new bolus is the first in a range of new products Agrimin plans to launch in the coming months, and the animal health expert is focused on three key elements – resource efficiency, animal welfare and the environment.

Agrimin is aiming to make sure farmers get the most out of their livestock, that their animals are healthy and that they can help to protect the environment too. They are doing this by developing a range of state-of-the-art bolus technologies and using its world-class in-house research expertise.

If you would like to know more about the role of vitamin E and selenium in optimising cattle performance or have any questions about the ESey bolus range, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our experts at [email protected]