minerals for dry cattle

jfh

Hi,
as out KT meeting recently it was recommended that weanlings & stores should be supplemented with minerals, the weanlings are getting 1.5kg meal a day, stores on good baled silage.

is this common practice? not keen to go down the bolus route but would consider a shake on the silage if needed.

the sucklers always get a good precalver but wondering about the other cattle.
is Himalayan salt an option?
any comments appreciated.

_Brian

We used the bagged stuff, sprinkle on silage with meal, it’s a desperately crude method with little dose control and some waste.

We use bolus now all the time. It’s a surer way to know each gets their share and not too much/little.

ganmo

jfh wrote: »

Hi,
as out KT meeting recently it was recommended that weanlings & stores should be supplemented with minerals, the weanlings are getting 1.5kg meal a day, stores on good baled silage.

is this common practice? not keen to go down the bolus route but would consider a shake on the silage if needed.

the sucklers always get a good precalver but wondering about the other cattle.
is Himalayan salt an option?
any comments appreciated.

if you get a chance can you put up a pic of the label of the meal, they might be getting enough minerals from that.
Himalayan salt is just salt the levels of other elements in it aren't worth talking about, if your animals need salt it'll be ideal for them

Danzy

I'm using seaweed, they look great, lovely shine to the coat etc.

That is doing me good at the least.

Good for the ground anyway when slurry goes out.

Muckit

I use the loose mineral. Opened a bag and the product looks different even though same brand as last yr. A lot of white flecks through it that look and taste suspiciously like the stuff you'd put on chips. I could be 100% wrong. But l feel dooped.

jfh

ganmo wrote: »

if you get a chance can you put up a pic of the label of the meal, they might be getting enough minerals from that.
Himalayan salt is just salt the levels of other elements in it aren't worth talking about, if your animals need salt it'll be ideal for them

actually it seems like the meal that i'm given the weanlings has minerals included, liffey mills weanling creep.
it's just the other cattle that arn't on meal that i need to supplement

ganmo

Muckit wrote: »

I use the loose mineral. Opened a bag and the product looks different even though same brand as last yr. A lot of white flecks through it that look and taste suspiciously like the stuff you'd put on chips. I could be 100% wrong. But l feel dooped.

is there a salt content on the label?
the source of the salt might of changed so that its in a larger crystal than before. mineral manufacturers tend to play around with formulations a bit every year depending on ingredient prices and with new ingredients

Sami23

Danzy wrote: »

I'm using seaweed, they look great, lovely shine to the coat etc.

That is doing me good at the least.

Good for the ground anyway when slurry goes out.

What type of seaweed meal are you using and where do you get it ?

Bass Reeves

the recommendation for minerals is 20grams/100kgs to a miximun rate of 80 r 100 grams/ head depending on brand. Most ration have 3% minerals so the weanlings should be getting 45 grams/ head or enough for 225kgs LW. I always feed minerals for the winter. I think that the right amount of minerals is worth a kg or two of nuts. I also give cattle calcium for the winter in the form of Limestone flour at the much the same rate as minerals.

Muckit I be wary of minerals this year. Last year a factory in Germany that makes one of the ingredients went on fire and there is only one other suppier in the EU. I am lucky enough have a few bags leftover from last year. I always found the Dairygold superchoice brand very good and go out of my way to get it. Last year it was 16/bag I enquired it was 21/bag this year.
I imagine that you get away with feeding min's at about 75% of recommended rate. As all feed will have low levels of some minerals. To give a 400kg store the recommended rate will cost about 6.5c/head/ day and 5c/head/day at 75% rate.

Muckit

Well there you go. The bag I'm buying is half that price. How could that be? Sure any of them could have anything in them really.

Twas like a talk l was at last year given by a feed merchant. He was chastising farmers for not knowing the quality or feeding value of their silage by not getting it tested. Yet he mentioned nothing about going getting rations tested. Funny that.

I'd take his advice with a pinch of....

ganmo

Bass Reeves wrote: »

the recommendation for minerals is 20grams/100kgs to a miximun rate of 80 r 100 grams/ head depending on brand. Most ration have 3% minerals so the weanlings should be getting 45 grams/ head or enough for 225kgs LW. I always feed minerals for the winter. I think that the right amount of minerals is worth a kg or two of nuts. I also give cattle calcium for the winter in the form of Limestone flour at the much the same rate as minerals.

Muckit I be wary of minerals this year. Last year a factory in Germany that makes one of the ingredients went on fire and there is only one other suppier in the EU. I am lucky enough have a few bags leftover from last year. I always found the Dairygold superchoice brand very good and go out of my way to get it. Last year it was 16/bag I enquired it was 21/bag this year.
I imagine that you get away with feeding min's at about 75% of recommended rate. As all feed will have low levels of some minerals. To give a 400kg store the recommended rate will cost about 6.5c/head/ day and 5c/head/day at 75% rate.

The vit prices have dropped back so that excuse is a non runner

ganmo

Muckit wrote: »

Well there you go. The bag I'm buying is half that price. How could that be? Sure any of them could have anything in them really.

Twas like a talk l was at last year given by a feed merchant. He was chastising farmers for not knowing the quality or feeding value of their silage by not getting it tested. Yet he mentioned nothing about going getting rations tested. Funny that.

I'd take his advice with a pinch of....

Rations come with a label, the Dept do regular checks to see if the product matches the label

Bass Reeves

ganmo wrote: »

The vit prices have dropped back so that excuse is a non runner

Maybe maybe not. Most minerals being sold now could have been manufactured 6-8 months ago. So extra costs of production from Vits could still be in system. Hard to see any bag of Minerals for much sub 15/bag.

ganmo wrote: »

Rations come with a label, the Dept do regular checks to see if the product matches the label

Yes they do but they check it to what it says on the label. The label gives a list of ingredients in decending order or should. The department from what I understand test from the batch sample held in the millers mainly. Like baled silage ration in bags are lucky bags as well.

ganmo

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Maybe maybe not. Most minerals being sold now could have been manufactured 6-8 months ago. So extra costs of production from Vits could still be in system. Hard to see any bag of Minerals for much sub 15/bag.

the manufacturers might be using the summer prices to price their products but from june to sept they dropped a good bit. if you're buying a mineral for €15 a bag you'd want to be sure what minerals are in your silage

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Yes they do but they check it to what it says on the label. The label gives a list of ingredients in decending order or should. The department from what I understand test from the batch sample held in the millers mainly. Like baled silage ration in bags are lucky bags as well.

they test it against the spec, protein minerals etc not the ingredients.

Bass Reeves

ganmo wrote: »

the manufacturers might be using the summer prices to price their products but from june to sept they dropped a good bit. if you're buying a mineral for €15 a bag you'd want to be sure what minerals are in your silage



they test it against the spec, protein minerals etc not the ingredients.

Like I said they check what it says on the lablel. Big difference in a 16%P ration when the proten source is sunflower seed as opposed to soyabean meal. One thing we do not get on labels of rations is the UFL or the ME of the contents. It can be the same with minerals and Vits. It was a nutritionst that reccommended the superchoice from Dairgold.

Conflats

Bass Reeves wrote:

Maybe maybe not. Most minerals being sold now could have been manufactured 6-8 months ago. So extra costs of production from Vits could still be in system. Hard to see any bag of Minerals for much sub 15/bag.

Ideally you shouldn't be using minerals after 6 months from manufacture if the mix contains vitamins. The vitamins have a short shelf life and will degrade in the bag with environmental changes and loose efficacy