Minerals in the nuts!

lalababa

Hi all, just wondering about the amount of minerals in beef nuts.
We never gave animals minerals down the years and we never gave nuts either (dry stock), only as a carrot to move them around. And I was looking at the nut bag and it had a long list of elements and minerals contained/added to the nuts.
Now I'm wondering is this a relatively new thing/craze like all the vitamins and crap they add to cornflakes and the like, and do people have to give minerals anymore or will the nuts do the job?
Also will be bulling heifers soon , would it help their reproductive system to give them a few nuts leading up to bulling? Many thanks in advance.:)

49801

minerals included in nuts and blends is the norm... not a new craze at all.

A rising plain of nutrition does improve conception rates for cows... so if you've poor fodder (like most of the country) of poor quality and the heifers are loosing condition a couple kgs of nuts will help conception rates.

himwdah

minerals are typically 25kg per ton, when fed on silage its normally about 100grams head a day. we feed minerals all winter to cows for better colostrum and better calves we did notice a differance, but wouldnt rely on meal doing the job at the low rates per day.

nhg

Thinking of giving a bolus to the animals (drystock) to ensure each gets the proper amounts of minerals etc any opinions on theses

6480

nhg wrote: »

Thinking of giving a bolus to the animals (drystock) to ensure each gets the proper amounts of minerals etc any opinions on theses

they are good as long as they stay down in the cow i use minerals in the water drinkers and find them good

shugsie

Have been using mineral lick buckets for the past five years,if they are going down in the tubs quickly usually means the grass is starting to get low in its feed value or that the animals are getting low in their own mineral content. Found that since we have been using the magnesium for the cows we are no longer getting down cows after calving which was a problem every year. This year I think I will use the feed blocks in the shed as the meal feed is up 60euro a tonne on last year

49801

shugsie wrote: »

Have been using mineral lick buckets for the past five years,if they are going down in the tubs quickly usually means the grass is starting to get low in its feed value or that the animals are getting low in their own mineral content. Found that since we have been using the magnesium for the cows we are no longer getting down cows after calving which was a problem every year. This year I think I will use the feed blocks in the shed as the meal feed is up 60euro a tonne on last year

Just my opinion but mineral buckets are only so so.... bully cows dominate the bucket and not everyone gets their fair share.... in the shed minerals sprinkled on the silage daily is a much cheaper and more effective. If you are slack on feed space twice daily might be necessary.

Decided to take notice of all the warnings about bad silage very low in minerals this year and am going the extra mile to give the cows a mineral bolus (2)... and will still probably sprinkle some on the silage for good measure.

I did use buckets outside while the cows were still on grass this autumn as I did not want to bolus them for Hi-mag but i did want to do something preventative for grass tetany as well as give them the odd bale of silage on the cold changeable nights.

himwdah

we use high iodine bolus going to grass and as our cows are aa we find the odd one neds topped up with liqithrive, hair goes dull, but we still put out high mag buckets but use alot less than we used to, still use mineral;s on silage