How much soil do cattle ingest? A review

Sue McConnachie; Edward Clayton; Lis Arundell; Bernie C. Dominiak; Pip Brock

doi:10.1071/AN24130

REVIEW (Open Access)

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How much soil do cattle ingest? A review

Sue McConnachie ^A , Edward Clayton ^B , Lis Arundell ^A , Bernie C. Dominiak

^A ^* and Pip Brock ^C ^D

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, The Ian Armstrong Building, 105 Prince Street, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia.

^B New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, Pine Gully Road, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650, Australia.

^C New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Port Stephens Fisheries Institute, Taylor’s Beach, Nelson Bay, NSW 2315, Australia.

^D Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Sydney Institute of Agriculture, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: bernie.dominiak@dpi.nsw.gov.au

Handling Editor: Robert Dixon

Animal Production Science 64, AN24130 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN24130

Submitted: 18 April 2024 Accepted: 11 September 2024 Published: 1 October 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Beef and dairy cattle commonly ingest soil when consuming forage-based diets in paddock feeding situations. However, the extent of this soil intake is poorly understood in the Australian environment and under Australian grazing systems. Therefore, the aim of the current literature review was to examine soil ingestion in cattle and the factors that affect ingestion. We found 11 studies containing soil-ingestion data, based in England, France, New Zealand and USA but none from Australia. A wide range in soil ingestion rates was reported and intake varied considerably with season, forage-pasture type, pasture-on-offer, stocking rate and grazing conditions. Generally, soil ingestion was lower in beef cattle than in dairy cattle. We considered the differences in reported levels, variables around those differences, and reliability of methodology used, and compared results with existing international guidelines. For Australian applications, we deduced and recommended that 0.5 kg/head.day is used until field-based research is conducted in Australia which might provide a more specific value for Australian conditions. Our review will inform future livestock management, particularly on contaminated agricultural land.

Keywords: beef, bovine, consumption, dairy, diet, ingestion.

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