The Right Now� Mineral Solutions Guide
“We don’t need to feed mineral out here.”
Answer: Are your cattle achieving the highest level of production efficiency they can today? Probably not. Will a balanced mineral supplementation program improve reproductive efficiency, decrease calf sickness and death loss, enhance vaccine efficacy and increase feed utilization? Very likely!
The NRC Nutrient Requirements of Beef Cattle publication lists mineral intake requirements for prevention of deficiency symptoms. These are not necessarily the levels required to optimize cow-calf performance and production. Annually we analyze grass and hay samples from ranches throughout the country, and consistently we find these forages are lacking minerals necessary to meet minimum requirements. Making this issue even more challenging, land management, weather patterns and environmental conditions alter the chemical make-up of forages each year. If the nutritionally perfect range, pasture or hay is out there, it hasn’t been identified yet!
