Rock salt blocks

kerry cow

Any one using or experience of these rock salt rocks blocks .see 1200kg bag for 600 euro and was told would feed 100 cows foe winter .????

Bass Reeves

I have seen figure where cows and cattle in general require high amounts of salt. Figure like 50-100 grams/day if I remember right. I got rock salt one year for stores for first 4-6 weeks they did consume (through lickling) an awfull lot. There is supposed to be trace elements in the rock salt as well. The amount of minerals is related to the colour of the salt.The darker red the salt the higher the mineral contents.

Minerals themselves are very important as it calcium to young (growing) stock. IMO I would make sure any cattle had access to the right minerals first a general purpose beef mineral costs about 18/bag which equates to about 7c/head/day for 500kg+ cattle, then cubicle lime which costs about 2c/head/day for the same weight cattle and finally salt. The price quoted seem high I be shopping around and see if IO could access ordinary rock salt.

On salt 100 grams/day for 120 days is 1.2kg for 120 days. It costs about 5c/cow/day. However if you are giving access to these himalyan salts animals will not need as much normal minerals. They can be cut back by 20-30% at a guess. On the beef side I feel if you feed minerals for the winter you do not need to worry about there access to the same for the first 80-100 days at grass.