Though just one part, minerals are important to your cattle. The proper balance of protein, energy, and minerals is needed for your livestock to perform at their best. Putting out a lot of mineral will not do you any good if the other areas are lacking. Selecting the right mineral program is essential for the production of your cattle.
Finding the right balance is a combination of art and science. It takes knowing what your pasture is providing as well as what your animals’ needs are. It also requires some trial and error to find out what will work and what will not. Here are 4 things to consider when planning out your mineral program.
Is your pasture lacking?
Studies have shown that forages here in Texas are deficient in certain minerals. Usually the mineral that is most found to be lacking is copper.
Trace mineral deficiencies have been found to be the root cause or major contributor to many health problems that occur in cattle. Research studies and field experience by veterinarians have shown that a deficiency in trace minerals within the cow’s diet can cause all sorts of problems. Some of the problems are things like Mastitis, stillbirth, calf scours, weak calves as well as other problems.
So you can see that ensuring that your cattle’s mineral needs are being met can benefit you in other ways.
What minerals do you have?
Before going out and purchasing a bag of mineral you must find out what is already being provided.
Having some forage samples tested is a good way to find out what is already available. This will tell you what your forages may be lacking in and what you will need in order to fill in the gaps. Since minerals can also be found in water you should also have some samples taken from the various sources on your place to be tested as well.
A visit with your local veterinarian and county extension agent can also give you some idea of what minerals are needed. They will have a good idea based on previous experiences and tests what deficiencies commonly occur in your area.
Now there are tables out there that can provide you with the average mineral content of certain forages in your area but it is not always best to go by those alone. They just provide you with a general average and your forages may be on either end of the extremes on this scale. It is always best to go ahead and have them tested so that you will know for sure.
Finding the right mineral balance
Now that we have discussed some problems that can occur if you do not provide adequate minerals to your cattle let’s talk about finding the right balance. Just providing the minerals that are lacking may not be enough to solve the problems that could occur.
Certain minerals that are present can counteract and even prevent the absorption of others. Sulfur and iron are two such minerals that can do this. Diets that were found to be high in both of these can stop the absorption of both copper and selenium.
When choosing a mineral program you will want to select one that provides the ones that work best together. The results of the forage and water tests that you have done will tell you which ones to look for. A good zinc-to-copper ratio of 3-to-1 is the preferable one.
Picking a mineral program
Once you have the test results you can now mover forward on selecting the mineral program that will work best for you.
You can take the results to the cattle nutritionist that you are currently working with and they can provide you with a recommendation that will work best.
A mineral program is good if all of the animals are eating the amount that is needed. Monitor the amount that is being eaten to make sure that the required consumption rate is being met. You can figure this out by taking the total amount that was eaten divide that by the total number of days that it was out then divide that by the total number of cows that are in the pasture the mineral is in.
You may have to make adjustments to either increase or decrease the total amount that is being consumed. Some ways that you can do this is by either moving the mineral feeder further or closer to certain areas. I discuss more about how you can do this here.
If you are wanting more information on this subject Texas A&M has a paper out that discusses these subjects in more detail and it can be found here.
Review
A good mineral program is an essential part in the overall nutrition plan of an efficient cattle operation. Some factors to look at in order to choose a balanced mineral program are:
- What minerals are currently provided on your place and what may be lacking?
- Have your forages and water tested to find this out
- Once you know what gaps are needing to be filled you will need to find the right balance?
- Some minerals may counteract and prevent the absorption of certain minerals
- Once you have the knowledge choose the mineral that matches what you need
