minerals and salt?

[cowman]

Where do you get yours? Do you just buy a generic product, one size fits all, or what?
Once upon a time we used to just buy at UFA or one of the local feed mills but for several years have been getting a custom blend mineral/vitamin mix from a local plant that specializes in that business. We mix the salt in at different rates as we have one piece of land where they can literally eat you out of house and home with salt, if you let them! We have a native grass quarter where they hardly eat any!
We are selenium deficient as well as copper and zinc deficient so add extra to the mix. The owner of this mineral plant is a nutritionalist and really knows his stuff. His product might be a bit more expensive than the generic brands but we think it is worth it.

[charliep]

I use a chelated mineral mixed with salt due to the high sodium content in my well water.
Sodium ties up the essential minerals and its a proven fact that red cattle require more copper so I started using this mineral blend 16 years ago with excellent results.
It costs more than a regular 16/16 mineral and I find that when the cows are fed greenfeed they really go through it, but if they need mineral in their system I indent to make it available.
I put it in the calf shelters as well.

[DaneG]

I use mineral from cargill called right now,I've been using it for about 6 months cows sure eat it well.it's about the same price as others 1:1 19.00 2:1 21.00 delivered to the yard.

[cowman]

I'll check for what I pay, not real sure but I think it is right around that $21 range.
The first time I ever found out we were copper deficient was back in the eighties when we noticed spots on alphalpha and did a detailed feed test. Now just about all the farmers around here put copper on their crops.

[cowman]

I pay $35.00 a bag for the mineral I use. I have never had a bout of scours since I started using it, and the fertility in the herd improved significantly as well.

Lack of adequate mineral can cause all kinds of problems, weak calves, retained placenta, etc.

[paladin]

Emerald1 - what is the brand of mineral you use & is it widely available?

[PureCountry]

We use trace mineral blocks from our local feed n' farm. They're made by Champion I believe. WE used to just throw out the old blue blocks and the red iodized and hope for the best, but after going through some samples with a forage/nutrition specialist from Ab Agric, he suggested using only the trace mineral blocks. It's worked very well. They don't eat any more than they did before, and that first year our weaning weights increased 75lbs.

Coincidence? Maybe. But the cattle look better.

[PureCountry]

paladin, I get my local feed store to pick up bags of mineral from CO-OP feeds in Edmonton. I use the Elite Breeder premix that contains chelated mineral.

I am sure there are others on the market but this is the product I have used for 16 years.

[rain]

I am curious guys. When you buy Chealated minerals. Which minerals and what percent are chealeted. I have never seen a tag that tells me what is chealeted or what % of chealates. I have seen hefty prices however.

[rain]

The Co-Op feeds Elite Breeder Pre-Mix used to clearly state what was chelated etc., I guess I don't pay attention to the tags anymore because I've been using it for so long.