Clover Hay??

We're feeding hay with a good amount of clover in it we bought early last summer.  The cow's manure is very loose and some of the calves have loose stool, not scours, just loose like diarrhea.  We've run out of straight grass or we would be mixing it.  It's not pure clover, maybe half with the rest orchasrdgrass.  It's clean and not moldy.  Is there any cause for concern, if in fact it is the hay, or should I try to find some grass hay.  Could it just be high in protein causing the runs?  My wife is probably more worried than I, but I'm still a little concerned.

I would almost guarantee you that high protein is the cause.  You're feeding a legume hay, which is naturally higher in protein, and high protein causes looser stools.  As long as it isn't absolutely watery and the cows don't look gutted you have nothing to worry about.  If you want to add other grass hay to it, buy the cheapest you can find since it'll only be functioning as fiber to fill them more and slow them down.

Even straw would work well, but it isn't always easy to find either.

Too much clover can cause bloat, so kinda watch for that. If you haven't seen any bloat, maybe it's not gonna be a concern. It's worse on clover pasture than on clover hay, but if there's enough in there, it can be a pronlem.

If you're only side affect is the loose stools, the cattle would benefit from mixing with a high fiber, lower quality hay or other source of roughage if you could make that available.

Heard a horror story from my vet about someone wintered a bunch of cows on slightly moldy sweet clover hay and the cumurol (sp?) thinned their blood out so that when they dropped their calves, the navels were not clotting up and the calves were bleeding out and dying.  Maybe other clovers don't make the same problem.

GoWyo said:

Heard a horror story from my vet about someone wintered a bunch of cows on slightly moldy sweet clover hay and the cumurol (sp?) thinned their blood out so that when they dropped their calves, the navels were not clotting up and the calves were bleeding out and dying.  Maybe other clovers don't make the same problem.

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No, sweet clover is notorious for that & is the only one that I am aware of causing a thinning of the blood. If you ever have one that is having troubles clotting vitamin K helps enormously.

GoWyo said:

Heard a horror story from my vet about someone wintered a bunch of cows on slightly moldy sweet clover hay and the cumurol (sp?) thinned their blood out so that when they dropped their calves, the navels were not clotting up and the calves were bleeding out and dying.  Maybe other clovers don't make the same problem.

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That IS a horror story!... What's considered "sweet clover"?

I manage a set of cows, and the first spring I was there, we lost three FAST to bloat. I got educated on bloat on clover quickly...the hard way. I've lost a couple of calves that I can't explain...maybe three or four in three years now...I've wondered if there was something to do with the premises the cows are on that might be contributing to that... Calves seems perfectly normal...carried full term...not too big, and no indication of any trouble or trauma during calving. I had one cow that I actually had in the barn last fall, and I know it didn't take her too long to have the calf, but he was dead when I found him.

leanbeef - maybe you don't get sweet clover in your area, but here is a link to a description.

http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/yl_swclover.htm