Minerals are critical to total animal health and well being. The hormonal systems
that regulate reproduction and production of high quality meat and milk
depend upon a proper balance of minerals. Most soil and grass do not
contain a perfect balance. The long term goal of a farmer/ rancher should
be to stimulate the soil biology to a point where all the minerals that a ruminant needs become readily available.
There is no standard mix or treatment that will work in every situation. Since we are not veterinarians, we cannot prescribe a specific mineral mix for you.
What we have done is to present the accepted daily
requirements of a bovine. Your job is to determine the minerals that are available in your soil and grass. Once a baseline is established, you then can figure out a mineral supplement program.
We have designed the Mineral Calculator below to aid you in translating
what is actually in a bag of purchased, mixed minerals. The next column shows
the daily required amount and then the calculator calculates whether you
have more or less than the required amounts for daily consumption by the
bovine.
It is possible to buy an entire bag of a single mineral and then supplement or subtract from your existing minerals. You can actually
build your own mineral completely from scratch and customize it to your own
cattle, soil and grass.
Good luck and please let us know if you have any comments or feedback on using this spreadsheet.
