Organic nitrogen, and mineral contents in soil, forage, blood serum of beef cattle sampled in June-July or September-October from pastures of Cheju island

Organic nitrogen and mineral contents in soil, forages and blood serum of beef cattle sampled in June-July and September-October in 1987 from 12 different pasture areas of Cheju island were determined. The contents of all mineral studied were significantly different (p0.01) between soils of different pastures sampled in June-July, and the contents of P, Mg, Fe, Na, Ca and Zn were significantly different (p0.01) between soils of different pastures sampled in September-October. The contents of P and Ca were much higher in soils sampled in June-July than in soils sampled in September-October, but the contents of K and Mg were opposite to those of P and Ca. N, P, Mg, Cu and Co contents of orchard grass sampled in June-July were significantly different (p0.01) between the pastures, and K, Ca, Mg, Na and Co contents of orchard grass sampled in September-October were significantly different (p0.01) between the pastures. Cu, Fe, Na, Cu and Zn contents were higher in orchard grass sampled in September-October than in that sampled in June-July. Except for Mg, mineral contents of ladino clover sampled in June-July were different between the pastures, and N, Ca, Mg, Fe, Na and Zn contents were significantly higher in ladino clover than in orchard grass. The contents of Zn and Fe in blood serum of beef cattle sampled in June-July were significantly different (p0.01) between the pastures and the contents of K, Ca, Mg, Na and Co in that sampled in September-October were different between the pastures. No difference was found in serum mineral contents between beef cattle from different pastures. Serum Co content (0.07ppm) in the cattle raised in isidore was below the normal, Co deficiency being suspected. Serum contents of the other minerals were found to be normal in the cattle of all pastures. Only Fe content was significantly (p0.05) correlated between the content of forages and the blood serum (R