Copper is an indispensable constituent of all living tissues. It is one of the many elements, found in the cells of plants and animals, which in trace amounts are essential for their normal growth and well being.
Animal Nutrition |
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In animals, copper plays a part in the utilisation of iron for haemoglobin formation. An insufficiency of copper in an animal's tissues can occur in two ways. It can be a simple straightforward copper deficiency, brought about by an actual deficiency of the element in the fodder, or it can be of the complex type, in which the diet contains the normal amount of copper but some other factor or factors obstruct in some way its assimilation by the animal. A good example of this is molybdenum, an excess of which depletes the animal's copper reserves and the animal develops copper deficiency symptoms unless given additional copper.
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| Plant Nutrition |
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How to grow two ears of corn where one grew before is a problem that is with us all the time. Copper can help towards increasing yields and raising the productivity of the land, to keep pace with the rise in population. Over a century ago attention was first focussed on what we now know as the major plant nutrients - nitrogen (N) phosphates (P) and potash (K). It was not until many decades later, as improved analytical methods became available, that it was realised that, in addition to NPK, numerous other micro or trace elements are just as essential to the growth and well being of plants - a deficiency of any one element acting as a limiting factor.
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Publications
Bk 2 Copper in Farming 
By A V Coombs, McKechnie Chemicals Limited, 1971.
Section 1 - Animal
Nutrition
Section 2 - Plant
Nutrition
TN 35 Copper in Plant, Animal and Human Nutrition
Information is given on the occurrence of copper deficiency in both animals and crops. Details of the symptoms caused in crops and livestock by copper deficiency are given to assist in the recognition of deficiencies and information is provided on diagnostic procedures which should be used where problems are suspected. 1984. 84pp. (Out of print).
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