Sundown black-max cow magnet

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Cattle are indiscriminate eaters, and on any place with fencing, machinery or baled feed they will eventually swallow a piece of wire, a nail, or a staple. Because of how the reticulum contracts, sharp metal tends to work its way through the wall rather than passing through — that is traumatic reticuloperitonitis, hardware disease, and depending on the direction it travels it can reach the heart. Treatment after the fact is expensive and often unsuccessful. A magnet is the cheap insurance. Given with a balling gun, it drops into the reticulum and stays there for the life of the animal, collecting ferrous metal into a ball that no longer moves freely enough to penetrate. One per animal is the standard, and it is a once-in-a-lifetime job — a good thing to do at the same time as another handling event so the animal only gets run through the chute once. Worth knowing about magnets generally: construction varies between the older alnico patterns and stacked ceramic ring designs, and they differ in shape, weight, and how well they hold field strength over years in a rumen. Check the specification for the pattern you are buying, and if you are unsure which style suits your handling equipment and your class of cattle, ask. A magnet that is awkward in your balling gun is a magnet that will not get used. Two practical cautions: keep magnets well away from anything electronic, from cards with magnetic stripes, and from pacemakers, and store them apart from each other and from loose steel in your shop, because prying two of them off a bench is a nuisance. A magnet reduces risk; it does not replace picking up wire and keeping the yard clean.