During my years of consulting and working with mineral foliar applications I have see dramatic effects on a plants nutritional content following the foliar application of boron.
- Decreased MU – I have seen MU levels decrease from the mid 30’s down the low 20’s
- Significant increase in pasture nutritional quality
Application rates of 100gm/ha & 200gm/ha of B have been used with significant results. One farmer apply 1kg/ha of B as a foliar MU his MU decreased from 35 to approx. 15 within a few days.
I have found that 100gm of B/ha applied every 6 weeks as a foliar is enough to maintain a lower MU level.
Benefits
- Reduced MU means increased milk quality
- Reduced pasture protein = higher quality pasture protein
- Increased available pasture ME as rumen organisms have a lower level of degradable protein to deal with. Excess protein intake effectively reduces available ME’s as rumen organisms use some of the ME to process protein into ammonia so on high protein pasture cows can be energy deficient
- Increased pasture quality
- Reduced costs as the farmer can reduce supplements
- Increased fertility due to reduced blood N
- Reduced foot scald – reduced N intake – reduction of excess blood flow to the feet – reduced blood pooling in the feet – reduced hot feet – reduced infection
Note: Protein is total plant N x 6.25, spring/autumn rye grass pasture can reach 5% to 5.5% total N. eg 5% N x 6.25 = 31.25% protein.
The problem with spring rye grass protein is that it is not all high quality protein, some will be in the nitrate form which is toxic protein. This can especially be the case is urea has been applied