COBALT DEFICIENCY IN 

 SOILS AND FORAGES: 



How It Affects Cattle and Sheep 



Prepared by U.S. Plant, Soil, and 

 Nutrition Laboratory, Soil and 

 Water Conservation Eesearch 

 Division, Agricultural Research 

 Service 



Cattle and sheep grazing on 

 plants in some areas of Eastern 

 United States will sicken and fre- 

 quently die. The earliest settlers 

 noted these symptoms in their live- 

 stock, but were unable to find the 

 cause. In 1937 workers at the 

 Florida Agricultural Experiment 

 Station identified this ailment in 

 cattle as cobalt deficiency. 



Cobalt is one of the metallic ele- 

 ments and is similar in properties 

 to nickel and iron. It is not one 

 of the more abundant elements 

 found in the earth's surface, but it 

 is very common. 



Only ruminants — cattle, sheep, 

 goats, deer, and moose — require co- 

 balt in their diet; an infinitesimal 

 quantity of this element in forage 

 will meet their needs and prevent 

 the sickness. 



Why are certain soils 

 and plants deficient 

 in cobalt? 



Although cobalt is found nearly 

 everywhere, some rocks and soils 

 contain much more of the metal 

 than do others. The cobalt present 

 in soils is derived from the rock 

 from which the soil is formed. 

 Soils developed on basic, dark-col- 

 ored rocks that contain olivine and 

 pyroxene usually provide ample 

 cobalt for the crops growing on 

 them. Certain other soils are de- 

 veloped on geological material that 

 has been eroded, transported, and 

 deposited on low-lying areas. In 

 many cases, such materials lose a 

 portion of their cobalt. Some sandy 

 soils — especially the ground-water 

 Podzol soils developed on sandy 

 materials — will be low in cobalt in 

 the low-lying areas. Clays gener- 

 ally have higher quantities of cobalt 

 than do sands. 



The cobalt taken up by plants 

 is related to the soil on which they 



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