Over recent weeks we have dealt with several cases of sudden deaths, in one or two year old cattle grazing crops. In most cases the deaths appear to have been caused by clostridials. Some of these cattle had been vaccinated with 5in1 but deaths were probably caused by Clostridium Sordellii, which is not included in 5in1 vaccine (but is in 10in1 vaccine).
If you are likely to graze cattle on winter crops or fodder beet, best practice is to vaccinate twice four weeks apart with 10in1 Clostridial vaccine. While this vaccine is more expensive than 5in1 (Covexin 10in1 costs $1.17 a dose, while Ultravac 5in1 costs $0.56 a dose.) Given the current value of cattle ensuring you have the widest protection possible makes a lot of sense.
In one case of deaths, although clostridials were suspected at first, the deaths in weaners were actually caused by bloat. Occasionally especially after heavy frosts we do see bloat in cattle being break fed kale/swedes or turnips. Problems occur even when one would think feed intakes were too limited to allow bloating to occur. Normally the problem can be solved by feeding the cattle more roughage (hay / balage) to improve rumen fill.