It’s easy to think about feeding mineral during breeding season. Some people also think about it before calving. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to forget about the needs of your herd during the rest of the year. Maybe it’s because other tasks are prioritized ahead of putting out mineral. You’ve got to get your bulls tested. Those heifers need to be synched for that expensive semen you bought. The calves need to get their first round of vaccinations. The cows need to be preg-checked. 

There is just one problem with that prioritization scheme. All four of those other tasks, along with basically everything else that happens with a live animal on your operation, are heavily reliant on mineral and vitamin nutrition to get the best results.

Mineral Prevents Issues 

That’s because every chemical reaction in the body (the cattle’s and yours) rely on at least one vitamin or mineral in some form or fashion.  Hoof health is getting a lot of attention in the last few years, thanks to hairy heel wart and other ailments. Hooves, just like our fingernails, are made of keratin and zinc is one of the critical components of keratin. If your animals have a hoof-related issue, the genesis of it could go back months to either a deficiency or an antagonism of zinc. The largest immune tissue in the body also has a high zinc requirement: skin. By the way, hair is also made of keratin, so if you want your cattle to be slick and shiny, zinc is necessary there too. 

Zinc is just one example of an almost endless list. Selenium is necessary for good sperm development so that they don’t end up with bent tails or no tails at all. A sperm without a tail is going to have a hard time fertilizing the egg. Magnesium and calcium are needed for proper muscle contractions (grass tetany or milk fever). Entire books have been written about how just ONE mineral or vitamin affects some aspect of your animals’ lives that, in turn, heavily affects your checkbook.

Feeding Mineral Year Round

We’ve established that these reactions need vitamins and minerals, but also consider when they happen: EVERY DAY! Conception only happens once a year (if you’re lucky and plan well), but hoof and hair growth, proper muscle contractions, and immune function all happen every day. If we’re going to have a cow that raises a calf every year, that means that all of those other biochemical reactions have to happen on time.  A cow never gets a day off and neither does her body. It’s up to us to make sure that she has all the necessary nutrients in the correct amounts when she needs them to do that job for us. If she doesn’t get a vacation, then neither should your mineral feeder.