Mind about mineral intake in your herd

We have all heard the phrase, “it’s the little things”. The saying applies to the livestock industry as well. There is no single management practice, feed ration, or genetic trait that drives profitability. Profitability is really a summation of lots of little things coming together to create a profitable system. This should come as no surprise, as minerals are important in a cow herd.

Minerals are a required nutrient, just like energy and protein. It can be easy to forget about minerals or cut back on mineral supplementation when feed costs increase. The problem with this is that many feeds are deficient in at least one or more minerals.

Importance

Minerals are extremely important for optimal reproductive performance, and growth.

Livestock requires many different nutrients to support growth, milk production, and body tissue maintenance.

Often minerals are separated into two categories. The minerals that are required in relatively large amounts called macro minerals. These minerals are often listed on feed tags with a percentage sign following them. Then there are those needed in lesser amounts called trace minerals usually listed in parts per million (ppm).

These terms have no relationship to the metabolic importance of the specific mineral in the cow’s diet. A trace mineral can be just as important to health and performance of an animal as a macro mineral. The amount of specific minerals that cattle need includes age, rate of growth, stage of pregnancy, and stage and level of lactation.

The essential macro minerals for beef cattle are calcium, phosphorus, chlorine, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and Sulphur. The trace minerals needed are copper, chromium, cobalt, iodine, iron, manganese, nickel, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc. Those minerals may function as physical components of bones and teeth, electrolytes in body fluids, metabolism of nutrients, nerve conduction, reproduction, immune response, and many more.

Deficiencies

Unfortunately, early mineral deficiencies can be difficult to diagnose. This is because at first symptoms of mineral deficiency are sub-clinical. This means that the farmer is not losing cattle to mineral deficiencies and lab tests hardly detect these sub-clinical deficiencies. However, when herds have sub-clinical mineral deficiencies, performance is undoubtedly left on the table.

According to Dr Moses Mwesigwa, the programme Leader in dairy research at National Livestock Resources Research Institute (NaLIRRI) in Nakyesasa, to avoid, sub-clinical mineral deficiencies, a farmer should provide a good quality complete mineral supplement to the herd 365 days of the year.

He says extension workers can give mineral recommendations to farmers and that they should be a good starting place for selecting a good quality mineral supplement.

For a start, he adds, there is a marked variance in mineral and salt intake depending on mineral concentrations in the soil, water and forages. Forage maturity is a key factor, as supplemental mineral intake decreases when grass is lush and green. Mineral content in forages is naturally higher in soils with greater fertility.

During periods of drought when forages lose nutritional value, supplemental mineral intake seems to increase.

To know how much mineral your cattle should be consuming, follow the recommendations on the bag as a starting point. From either blocks or in loose form, a beef animal needs about 50g per day.

Dr Mwesigwa says that beef cattle usually need much more salt during periods of heightened activity (such as calving or lactation) or under stressful conditions such as heat stress in the dry season.

What to consider

Dr Mwesigwa says that salt is among the key minerals every farmer should consider buying all the time.

Salt is included in mineral mixes both as a source of sodium and as an intake manager.

Once placed, cattle licking salt blocks or eating loose salt (both of which contain about 39 percent sodium and 61 percent chlorine) are not really seeking to meet their requirements for sodium and chlorine. Rather, they are satisfying an intuitive dietary craving, which if not satisfied will lead to an eating disorder called pica. This syndrome is often defined as a cow’s desire to eat things that do not have any nutritional value. Pica can be caused by a shortage of minerals and particularly a phosphorous deficiency.

Farmers do not need to worry about toxicity caused by mineral or salt overconsumption, says Mwesigwa. While there is no benefit if cattle overeat mineral, it also will not harm them. The kidneys will flush out excess minerals in the body. He says that salt (sodium) is not stored to any appreciable amount in the body compared to other essential minerals such as calcium/phosphorus (bones) or copper (liver). Sodium eaten by the cow is instead absorbed into the blood, filtered out by the kidneys and returned to the blood as required by the cow’s tissues.

He says that overconsumption will add an unnecessary expense, though.

Mixing salt with mineral supplements regulates intake more effectively than providing a separate salt source. If a salt block is available, cattle will likely crave only the salt and not consume mineral. The exception is if cattle run out of mineral.

If cattle simply are not eating the mineral, as is common with high magnesium mixes, the taste may be too disagreeable. In that case, add a more palatable feedstuff to the mix, such as soybean meal, dry molasses or brewer’s spent grain.

Availability and location of clean water can impact mineral intake. Mineral supplements generally have a high salt content, and cattle will want a drink after consuming mineral. Placing mineral feeders relatively close to water sources can help in mineral intake.

Because a mineral’s source greatly influences absorption or bioavailability, mineral supplements must contain sources of high bioavailability. The supplement should provide adequate intake of the various minerals to balance the supply from the forage and the animal’s needs while also being cost effective.

Minerals

Necessity

Often minerals are separated into two categories. The minerals that are required in relatively large amounts called macro minerals. These minerals are often listed on feed tags with a percentage sign following them. Then there are those needed in lesser amounts called trace minerals usually listed in parts per million (ppm).