How do I find lead fragments in a paddock

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Just have a problem with lead poisoning of cattle in a paddock that we have found old battery fragments. Can anyone point me in the right direction to hire someone who has a metal detector service that is sufficient in size to cover a paddock of about 100 acres. Have had over 20 cows die and quite desperate to find an efficient and effective way of locating and removing the offending lead fragments.
 
We are at Kingaroy SE Qld....as for Gold I have no idea but we are in red volcanic soil to black /chocolate soils.
 
Someone might do it chesper for you if there is any prospect of gold to keep as well ,.... that'll help keep their overheads down (as well as their noggins) specially if they had to grid a hundred dollars. Otherwise you may be able to hold detector competitions over smaller parts 1-5 acres at a time by salting that particular area with some purchased gold nuggets to the value of what you might be thinking of paying per acre. And not telling how many nuggets there are till after the event is finished ,.... you could also have a prize for the biggest bit of lead, and, one for the most lead found too. Make it free camping and no entry fee ,.... make it 5 acres every month and you'd have it cleared in just over a year a d a half. :Y:
 
20 cattle deaths due to lead poisoning?
I don't think a metal detector is going to help.
It sounds like you have or had a major industry nearby.
I remember a school closing near Wollongong due to lead levels in the playgrounds, contaminated by fall out from copper/steelworks from years gone by. I don't think battery fragments are the cause of your cattle deaths sadly.
Checkout the industry's near by and the the way the wind blows, you may have a compensation case.
 
Kingaroy had a significant RAAF presence during WW2, maybe get some soil testing done from your paddocks, and check RAAF flightpaths and weapons ranges history.
 
G'day Templeton and welcome to the forum.

So you have had veterinary testing and confirmed it is lead poisoning? How long have you owned the property and do you know what it was formerly used for? How long have your cattle been sick and dying?

How are you already finding the fragments?

Some of the gold detectors we prospectors and fossickers use are extremely sensitive and can find metal fragments to down under 50 milligrams. Though, if there are too many and they are too small it is likely that your property has been contaminated quite severely, sorry to say.

Maybe the best remediation might actually be to bulldoze the entire pastures and remove the soil until it is clean, which would be very expensive.

100 acres is a very large area to metal detect and remove every metal fragment, it could take many many years and there would still be metal in the ground.

This is very unfortunate to hear mate, sorry.
 
davent said:
20 cattle deaths due to lead poisoning?
I don't think a metal detector is going to help.
It sounds like you have or had a major industry nearby.
I remember a school closing near Wollongong due to lead levels in the playgrounds, contaminated by fall out from copper/steelworks from years gone by. I don't think battery fragments are the cause of your cattle deaths sadly.
Checkout the industry's near by and the the way the wind blows, you may have a compensation case.

It certainly can be Dave.
http://www.thecattlesite.com/diseaseinfo/217/lead-poisoning/
 
Not good :N:, like others have said get the soil tested and research the history of the property. All the best I hope you find a resolution to your problem.
 
Why not get a Detecting Club to hold a rally there and get them to grid the area over a few weeks, Being non ferrous they will dig most of it,

Don't Plough the ground that way all the metals stay where they are, You need to find where the lead hot spots are with a detector and stake them off, If the lead is effecting the cattle then it is close to the surface, So you won't need powerful machines to find it, a bunch of folks from here could get together and do it.

hope that helps,

John.
 
Would be impacting cattle prices as well? How much lead ends up in the meat? Some tuna have been hit heavily.
I'd say it's been one but maybe 2 areas that's affected, so clean that up by earth removal and you're OK. Just gotta find those areas.
If detectorists can even find one area, then you may be out of the woods.
The other option is to fence the paddock and divide the stock to determine where the problem lies, but that's a longer term solution.
 
BigWave said:
Would be impacting cattle prices as well? How much lead ends up in the meat? Some tuna have been hit heavily.
I'd say it's been one but maybe 2 areas that's affected, so clean that up by earth removal and you're OK. Just gotta find those areas.
If detectorists can even find one area, then you may be out of the woods.
The other option is to fence the paddock and divide the stock to determine where the problem lies, but that's a longer term solution.

Yep that's right, Cattle seem to have set patterns when they walk in a field so it would not take long to find the hot spots, They often have set tracks that they prefer to walk and then they branch off of them, So it should not be too hard to start finding the deposits.

J.
 
davent said:
I just wonder how much lead a cow would need to eat in order to kill it, x 20!
I mean as a kid, I used to bite spilt shot to close it on my line, I copied my grandpa! He lived to 96.

Same here Dave, I never gave it a thought it was just something we did, I had a Mate die from lead poisoning, He was a plumber and I think it must of been breathing all the lead fumes from soldering pipes together, It was a terrible thing because he left a wife and two young daughters behind.

John.
 
I used to hold a mouthful of slug gun pellets to keep my hands free as a six year old ,.....
N I L I V E D........ :lol:
edit in:- I should say, that's when I started doing that. :Y: ]:D
 
What can I say...everyone is soooo helpful. Yes have had vets do bloods on sick animals and autopsy's on dead ones...definitely lead...and yes sadly can not be used for human consumption now ..ie these animals can not entre the food chain. The property has been burnt and then cultivated - did find chopped up and burnt pieces of an old battery that had lead exposed. According to the DPI(Dept of Primary Industries) one battery can kill that no especially if the battery has been burnt as Heatho mentioned. We lease the entire 1000 acre property and only one paddock affected - hence looking for a larger type of metal detector that can detect lead fragments that may have been plowed into the ground.:)
 

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