Minerals for Swath Grazing Cows

[Cows-R-Us]

I am swath grazing cows for the first time. They are grazing swathed oats. How do I get them to eat mineral. Calving doesn't start until April 20. Any suggestions?

[chalmers]

If they don't eat the mineral readily free choice you can try mixing it with a little Trace Mineral Salt, if that doesn't work you can try putting a little dry molasses in the mix. You can also switch mineral since different feed mills use different taste enhancers sometimes this will work. Try to put the mineral out on a weekly basis to keep it fresh. The other alternative would be to feed the mineral mixed in with grain on a weekly basis just to get it into the animals. In consultation with a nutritionist always make sure that you have a good estimate of what they should be consuming based on their diet. Hope this helps.

[gwf]

Dr. Bill Sanders has been a regular contributor to the Grain News and about a year and a half ago his article focused on Mineralized Salt and Minerals for cows. It would be worth your while to try and find the article. Our experience has been that cows will not lick salt or mineral all the time. They will sometimes go a couple weeks or a month with out touching it. If they have it available and it is dry and clean, they will take it as they need it. We use brown salt blocks and 2:1 mineral free choice. They prefer 2:1 over 1:1.
Hope this helps.

[Cows-R-Us]

I understand that greenfeed & swathed crop is high in Sodium. This is the reason I have been told that the cattle will not use as much salt and mineral if mixed with the salt. I agree that during certain times the consumption of mineral decreases. I tired just salt and they don't want it either.

Thanks for the suggestions>