Long gone are the days when cattle roamed freely across this land with only a brand to mark their ownership. Barb wire has been invented and has closed in every tractable piece of ground to not only keep animals in, but also to mark ownership and keep animals out. Cattle once depended on free grazing to select ideal microbiomes to supply their nutritional needs based on season and stage of production. They had all the resources necessary to self-regulate their health and had merely to go get them. As we have changed our production style to more closely hem these animals into smaller and smaller spaces for the purpose of maximizing efficiency, the nutritional needs of these animals has not changed. What HAS changed is that the responsibility for regulating nutrition has shifted from the animal to the producer. If animals can’t roam to find the best intake to meet their needs like wildlife, then we need to bring those resources to them.
Salt, vitamins, and minerals are all interrelated to each other and play a critical role in all mammalians biological processes. Unfortunately, this is an often-overlooked aspect of a successful management strategy and is becoming worse as the propaganda machine for “natural production” tends to demonize standard management practices. There is a growing belief system that animals should be able to self-regulate and should only be presented with what nature provides. This idea works great, but only if the animal is given access to sufficient distinct microbiomes that have all the different things they need. And even then, in the face of adversity (such as drought or flood conditions), it may be necessary to supplement what has been compromised by nature. It isn’t the animals that have changed. Modern cattle have the same nutritional requirements to thrive as their historical ancestors. We didn’t breed any hardiness outand in fact we’ve made great strides to improve the gene pool in modern cattle. The problem is that we expect more growth and efficiency in a shorter time at less cost using fewer resources in a world that is hemmed in by laws, roads, and cultural stigmas.
The subject of vitamins and minerals is a complex subject and is very intimidating to even those people educated in animal nutrition. It is in a constant state of flux as we gain more knowledge. Look at the changes in the last 20 years to how we approach human nutrition! For the sake of this article, we are going to try to keep the complexity minimized and provide threads for deeper research and ongoing education. We are also going to try to focus on those things most relevant to production in Southwest Iowa and the challenges we normally see. The biggest interactions to be cognizant of are:
1. Sodium and Potassium: Sodium and potassium are necessary for normal nerve function. Nerves send signals using “sodium/potassium bridges”. If either element is out of balance, then nerves don’t function as expected and this can trigger a cascade effect throughout the body that impacts cognitive function, muscle function, hormones, etc. This can be the basis for poor display of estrus, altered feed and water consumption, dangerous behaviors, weakness and lethargy, and others.
2. Calcium and Phosphorus: These two must be in the correct ratio or “Milk Fever” is a potential risk. Milk fever is when a cow’s milk production removes too much calcium from metabolic processes and imbalances those processes. Animals with milk fever will often be unable to get up and will lay in a distinctive position with their head curled around and their neck in an “S” shape curve. Treatment is an IV of either calcium glutamate or CMPK. Be aware that animals given calcium gluconate can get a kind of “sugar rush” and can get up “mad”. It can create a dangerous situation, especially if the animal is normally quite gentle and this kind of response is very unexpected. High magnesium and potassium supplementation have been shown to benefit the prevention of milk fever.
3. Selenium and Magnesium: These two heavy metal minerals are very difficult to get to absorb into tissues but are critical for correct muscle function. We are generally deficient in selenium locally and deficiency could be as mild as poor effort calving (cow has poor contractions and gives up too fast) to prolapses. It can be as serious as an animal staggering around acting “drunk” to that animal being down and unable to get up. Magnesium influences selenium absorption and selenium can be tricky to supplement because it is possible to achieve “selenium toxicity”. Magnesium has no such “toxicity” issues and can be supplemented in high levels as long as cows are willing to consume it. Magnesium tastes bitter, so many times this will deter animals from consuming supplements formulated too high in magnesium. Generally, less than 6% magnesium is considered consumable and more than 3% is considered “high” in magnesium. The first step to managing selenium is to provide excess magnesium in the diet to ensure the selenium the animal is coming in contact with is being successfully absorbed. Magnesium supplementation also helps prevent “Grass Tetany”. Grass tetany is a magnesium deficiency often experienced on wet springs where the grass grows fast and lush…..faster than it can successfully uptake magnesium. There is significantly less magnesium per unit volume of forage and cattle can experience symptoms of poor muscle function (sometimes appearing like symptoms of tetanus) which can directly impact calving ease. Animals needing serious help will be unable to get up and hold their head curled around in an odd “S” curve. It is a distinctive position that is very similar to milk fever which is a calcium deficiency often observed shortly after birth when the cow freshens and engorges with milk. Because the symptoms are similar and often experienced under the same conditions, it can be difficult to separate milk fever from grass tetany and emergency IV treatment may contain aspects of both calcium and magnesium to potentially treat both maladies successfully in one treatment. Generally, it takes at least 6 weeks of magnesium supplementation to achieve the needed uptake to do any good. If the desire is to feed seasonally, then starting a minimum of 6 weeks before the onset of risk is necessary. What people forget is that often times first cutting hay is impacted the same way and that cows can experience magnesium deficiencies over winter being fed deficient hay harvested during this timeframe. That means in Iowa, 6+ months a year could present risk if conditions are met for forages to be deficient. Because of the benefit to selenium absorption and the ongoing risk of deficient forages, it is a valid decision to feed high magnesium supplements all year long. Feeding magnesium all year long also helps cattle develop a “taste” for the magnesium so they consume supplements more evenly all year rather than rejecting a change in supplementation for a period of time before giving in and ramping up consumption. They simply don’t know any different to have a preference for other supplement formulations. Selenium deficiency is called “White Muscle Disease”. BoSe (which is an injectable treatment near and dear to the cattleman’s heart) is a mix of B vitamins and selenium. It is very good at treating weakness in calves and cows around the birthing timeframe. It is an ingredient in making weak calves more robust and is often a go-to any time cows appear weak or have any kind of abnormal birthing like prolapsing. We can remove our dependency on BoSe shots if we do a better job of managing our selenium and a critical part of that management is managing magnesium.
4. Copper: Copper is needed for support of animal health and reproduction as well as to support the immune response. Copper is critical to normal hormone function and successful ovulation. However, excess copper can harm the display of heat and potentially reach toxic levels. It has been a common practice to put old copper piping in the water supply for feeder heifers to suppress estrus in those animals to get them to feed more efficiently. It is worthwhile to note that sulfur is antagonistic to copper, so the more sulfur in the diet then the more copper supplementation is needed. This can be a tricky one to balance, but is critical to manage.
5. Vitamin ADEK: These vitamins are critical to the support of immune function (amongst a variety of other critical things). Resistance to pinkeye, ringworm, and hoofrot can be improved with supplementation. Organic Iodine is worth mentioning with these vitamins. Organic Iodine mixed at a rate of 5-7 lbs per ton in feed can help increase resistance to ringworm and hoofrot as well as promote healing after surgical procedures like dehorning and castration. It is also a natural expectorant that will cause animals on this feed to develop a cough. This cough dislodges mucus and bacterial infections in the lungs. It can be a very good practice to use organic iodine to prevent respiratory infections. Feeding organic iodine to recently transported/stressed animals (like at weaning) can help avoid the need for antibiotics and smooth transitions.
6. B Vitamins: B vitamins are not easily consumed because they are denatured in the rumen and rendered ineffective. B vitamins delivered in the diet must be rumen stable. Cattle are not capable of producing their own B vitamins and instead rely on bacteria in the rumen to produce them. This is interesting, since a stable rumen is controlled by B vitamins. The bacteria literally produce the means to control their own environment. If the rumen gets too acidic (acidosis) from a sudden change in diet to grains, then this will kill off the bacteria producing the B vitamins and this will destabilize the rumen allowing pathogenic bacteria more able to survive in a compromised environment to thrive. This can lead to the death of the animal or at minimum a decrease in health and performance efficiency. Supplementing B vitamins via rumen stable supplements or injections can be a critical element to transitioning cattle to higher concentrations of grain in their diet with minimal impact to the rumen. We supply these vitamins to bridge any gaps in the bacterial production to ensure the rumen remains stable and the bacteria can adjust effectively. Cobalt is worthwhile to mention because it is necessary for the correct synthesis of B vitamins in the rumen. Supplementing cobalt with B vitamins and probiotics helps to maximize the effects of stabilizing the rumen making dietary transitions easier on the animal.
7. Sulfur: Sulfur helps regulate the satiation response making the animal feel “full” more easily. It is also linked to external parasite resistance. Animals with a lot of sulfur in their diet show less fly, mite, and lice pressure. This can be both a benefit and a detriment. We want to avoid sulfur in high-producing animals because it will limit their intakeand our goal is to get them to eat as much as they are capable of and for every bite to contain maximum nutrient density. Sulfur is counter-productive in this case. If you are trying to correct an underweight animal, then the last thing you want them to have is high sulfur in the diet. However, sulfur can also be a valuable tool in managing pastures, herd hierarchy competition, and regulating intake to help animals get more value from less as an efficiency and condition management tool. Cows fed Mix30 (which is high in sulfur) show decreased fly pressure, tend to graze smaller quantities at a time and more frequently maximizing the value received and feed conversion efficiency as well as minimizing damage to grazing ground, don’t compete for food sources as much allowing animals lower in the hierarchy a more significant share, and tend to not become overweight. Cattle will tend to binge feed on sources high in sulfur at first, but then as the sulfur in their system builds up it begins to have a regulation effect and they will only eat minimal quantities of the supplement to sustain sulfur levels. For this reason, it is easier to feed and manage sulfur all the time rather than introduce it periodically for short durations as management tool for specific situations and outcomes. It is possible to feed so much sulfur (especially in combination with sugars) that their system becomes imbalanced and this can impact their sensation of thirst. They will prioritize consuming supplements over water, especially in cold conditions. Corn syrup can present a risk since cows will attempt to drink it instead of water and become dehydrated. This is why the formulation of Mix30 is superior to a simple corn syrup byproduct. It is also worthwhile to note that garlic as a supplement has compounds that are sulfur based, so much of the value to adding garlic to the diet as a supplement is to get the effects of sulfur in lower levels.
There are a host of other vitamins and minerals not mentioned. This makes them no less important. There is tons of information regarding the criticality of micronutrients like zinc and manganese. But for the sake of simplification, we are going to gloss over these since these are often times not super problematic to source or balance in any of the products on the market. There is lots of company driven information used to market these products (like Availa4). There are tons of vitamin and mineral interactions to research and understand. Some compliment each other and are needed together in certain ratios to be effective. One without the other does little good. Others are antagonistic. If there is too much of one then it blocks the other. It is a nearly impossible challenge to fully understand and balance all aspects of an animal’s intake to ensure optimum levels of every single individual element. It is possible, but it would take licensing a nutrition software that has all the rules built in to manage it effectively. It is for this reason, some people prefer a mineral buffet where each individual element is represented in its own cubby in its pure form to allow the cow to choose which specific vitamins and minerals they need at certain times to allow them to manage optimum balances. The biggest challenge is some of these are not very palatable and cattle will often avoid them unless they are truly deficient. Part of our goal as a producer is to not let them get to that point.
So where is the happy medium? Most beef producers don’t want to dry lot their cattle in a very specific, controlled environment and customer mix a TMR (Total Mixed Ration) customized to each animal to control the nutritional balance of every bite that animal takes. That is a lot of expense, work, and complexity. There just isn’t the incentive or the consequences to justify this level of management. This is more of a “dairy farm” thing. Dairy cattle are managed much differently and can very quickly become deficient in nutrients because of their large volumes of milk production. They are handled twice a day to milk, so it isn’t a lot extra to use that infrastructure to feed and manage them as well. Dairy cattle tend to be larger with much larger volumes of intake to support their extreme milk production and for that reason are very sensitive to imbalances. Cows with just a bit of extra protein in their diet can enter into a state of ketosis and permanently damage their liver. The incentives to total control over intake are much greater in dairy cattle than in the typical cow/calf beef operation…as well as the consequences of mismanagement. The typical producer managing any cattle other than lactating dairy cattle in a commercial production setting generally don’t have the need, incentives, or consequences to consider this type of extreme management complexity, so it doesn’t hold a lot of value to explore this in detail. What we’ve established is that we limit the ability of cattle to seek out the specific microbiomes they need in order to get the nutrition to support their unique needs so we are obligated to help them in some way, but managing every bite is not really feasible or sensible. Where is the happy medium?
The simple answer is to provide multiple sources of supplementation and constantly rotate products in order to shift some of the responsibility to self-regulate back to the cows. There are classes of supplementation to consider and selecting from each will help create a well rounded offering that will generally be sufficient in providing the necessary resources to help each cow manage her own health effectively. The different means to delivering supplementation include (but aren’t limited to) acute treatments (injectable, topical, an oral products), liquid feed supplements (those fed in wheeled lick tanks), solid feed supplements (lick tubs), pressed dry supplements (blocks), and loose dry supplements (bagged products). Offering a selection of each helps ensure both diversity of nutrients as well as some level of intake control. It is important to note that it is normal for cattle to avoid supplements and consume very little for a period of time then gorge themselves on supplements making it hard to keep up with ensuring they have availability all the time. We would like them to eat supplements evenly so we know they are getting the right amount at all times and make our management easier. In fact, the acute treatments help achieve exactly this by helping to ensure minimum quantities in the tissues are being met so that there aren’t depletions driving spikes in consumption. Many supplements are flavorized to entice consumption (whether it is needed or not) for the simple sake of making intake consistent. This creates a system of supplementation that is more costly because animals are consuming resources they don’t technically need. But at the root of the topic, consistent consumption does not accurately reflect normal biological processes and animals will adjust need based on season, diet, and stage of production which drives spikes in consumption that are normal. It is a more effective management tool to understand normal consumption patterns (for the purpose of identifying deviations from normal and anticipating increase in need) than driving even consumption. At minimum, understanding your herd’s normal patterns will represent a cost savings that can be used to justify sourcing superior products that cost more.
1. Acute Treatments: These treatments are used to baseline minimum levels of micronutrients and to strategically bolster animals in specific scenarios. MultiMin90 has been a game changer for producers. This injectable supplement provided 1-4 times a year helps to baseline tissue levels of many of the elements identified earlier in this article to help ensure animals never experience dangerous deficiencies and are more capable of self-regulation. We also use B vitamins coupled with a probiotic treatment and an update to their clostridium vaccination (Covexin8) any time we change diets. This simple 3 product treatment is vital to easing weaning as well as the transition from pasture to feedlot. We also use injectable Vitamin E+AD in conjunction with SolidBac Pinkeye Implants to support resistance to pinkeye when we treat. It is important to have access to BoSe in the event of emergencies (particularly during calving season). We feel it is also important to have some calcium gluconate as well as CMPK on hand to IV animals showing signs of milk fever, grass tetany, or white muscle disease. We fully believe in the value of presenting acute treatments with a probiotic booster. Probios boluses or oral gel have been very effective for us as well as CattlActive oral drench. Of course, if we are going to seed beneficial bacteria then we should probably feed that bacteria with prebiotics like DiamondV.
2. Liquid Supplements: We are big fans of Mix30. This product has been proven to be a valuable management tool for us, especially on dry years when we want to minimize damage to our grazing forages and over winter feeding expensive hay. This helps regulate intake to maximize the nutrition they are getting even if it is not in maximum volumes as well as ease pressure from competition in the normal herd hierarchy. It has a nice balance of energy as well as protein and is helpful for managing sulfur in the diet. It is designed to offset/compliment dry forages (hay) and supply the nutrition that other sources are generally not as high in. It is also possible to buy a garlic supplement to add to your Mix30. Garlic supplements tend to increase capillary blood flow capacity (especially in the extremities). This can be helpful in increasing heat exchange in the summer to aid in efficient temperature control. This also helps counteract the constriction of capillary blood flow that results in loss of ears, tails, and hooves should an animal experience fescue toxicity or acidosis. Garlic is one piece of the puzzle to helpingminimize and manage the effects of endophyte toxicity. While it seems counterintuitive that a product that helps cool an animal in the summer would be a good thing over the winter, it is in fact valuable over winter as well. The increased blood flow also helps regulate temperature in cold conditions to minimize frostbite as well as keep cattle more active and generating heat. Garlic also helps control external parasite pressure from flies in the summer to cattle lice and mites in the winter as one piece of a parasite control program. There are other valuable products on the market to consider, but it is important to understand if they contain ionophores since this can potentially kill equines. The primary reason we offer Mix30 to our herd all year is to manage sulfur in the diet.
3. Lick Tubs: Lick tubs are made in such a way that they are generally superior in delivering vitamins in comparison to loose, dry supplements. The supplementation is often chelated in a way to survive rumen degradation because these tubs are generally heated (cooked) in order to make them liquid enough to pour into the tubs. They also offer a number of other benefits such as delivering extra protein, fat, sugars, probiotics, and prebiotics. Lick tubs are generally VERY palatable and cattle will prioritize eating them because it is like candy to them. They are made like a giant jawbreaker and this forces the cows to lick them in order to consume them. This is form of intake control by controlling how the cows are able to consume it is generally a good thing. It helps manually regulate consumption and reduce expense. However, if a cow really needs greater levels of something in a lick tub then it is impossible for her to consume more than she already is in order to get enough of that specific nutrient to support her need. It can also be a detriment that cows can only consume so much per day and have limitations put in place that the producer can’t change as needed. This is why lick tubs may not be a good choice for the sole source of supplementation. Because lick tubs are cooked, it is very important to source quality tubs. Just because a tub contains all the ingredients doesn’t mean they have not been denatured in the manufacturing process and are biologically unavailable to the cow to do any real good. We like to use SmartLic and Vitalix tubs in our herd, but we are constantly trying products from other companies to compare their effectiveness. We like the SmartLic NE-22 Mag formulation as our general year-round lick tub, but will use SmartLic FlaxLic for our weanling calves, finish steers, and for bulls over winter to bolster the fat in their diet. We also like the Vitalix #10 Elite Breeder formulation in our herd. We have found this to be a great formulation for cows in their third trimester of gestation as well as to support early lactation after calving. We really like the DiamondV prebiotic product used in the Vitalix formulations to support the effectiveness of our probiotic treatments. Prebiotics are basically food for probiotics and probiotics are the heart and soul of the rumen. There are TONS of lick tub formulations, so it may be worthwhile to work with a nutritionist to better understand all the different formulations across companies and select the best ones for you to use during different seasons and stages of production. It can get pretty complex pretty fast. Like many things, you can generally expect to receive more value for your dollar in feeding the products that cost more. Cost is generally a reflection of quality and effectiveness.
4. Blocks: We generally don’t feed blocks. They have the same potential for limiting intake as the lick tubs and are relatively the same as loose minerals in formulation. Often times, blocks are made by compressing a loose supplement under pressure and are therefore the exact same thing as a loose option only harder to eat. We find it more effective to offer loose supplements with lick tubs than to depend on blocks. They tend to be more effective at delivering minerals than they are at delivering vitamins just based on the way they are prepared (same as loose supplements). If we feed blocks, it is generally bloat blocks designed to limit the effects of legumes on the rumen to make grazing legumes safer. In that case, we aren’t depending on this product to meet nutritional needs, but rather to counteract a specific risk. Salt blocks face the same limitations, but there are some really neat formulations out there including sulfur and cobalt blocks. We tend to prefer feeding loose salt, but we will make a cobalt block available because of the importance of cobalt in synthesizing B vitamins and their role in rumen control. It is a way to ensure cobalt (as a specific element) is made available. One big advantage to blocks is they tend to be more weather resistant and will stay consumable when exposed to rain.
5. Loose: There are tons of varieties of loose supplementsand they are very versatile. You can mix them or add them to feeds or just allow animals to consume them free choice. The first thing to notate is that loose supplements are generally superior at delivering minerals rather than vitamins. This makes them opposite of lick tubs in that regard and therefore complimentary. That is the basis for justifying offering both at the same time. The second thing to notate is that they are generally susceptible to degradation with exposure to weather. It is important to protect the sources of these supplements by putting them in something protected. This could be as simple as a flap mineral feeder designed specifically for feeding supplements to cattle or placing a bunk inside and under a roof where it is protected from moisture and UV light. It may be necessary to clean out residual product if it becomes aged an it is obvious it won’t end up getting consumed. Salt is a very important loose supplement to have in front of your cattle at all times. Salt is directly related to biological functions because the sodium is linked to nerve function. Salt helps stimulate and regulate appetite. Salt supplementation will help maximize water and feed intake up to a certain level. Once this level is exceeded, animals will prioritize water over feed and will decrease feed consumption. This means salt content in a ration can help control intake to avoid acidosis. Mixing excess salt in feed when feed is first introduced can help prevent acidosis and issues associated with clostridiums (overeating disease). The big risk to using salt to limit feed intake is that animals will need a constant supply of fresh water to support the excess salt in their system. If they are on such a ration and water is cut off, they could become dehydrated and possibly die. There are tons of salt formulations available from those that are very simple to those that are supplemented with trace minerals, specific elements (like selenium and/or iodine), as well as used as a carrier for other supplements like garlic and vitamin packs. We like to use the Redmond and Sea90 salt products. They are natural mineral salts that contain a variety of trace minerals in addition to salt and come in various formulationincluding garlic and selenium fortified. We usually offer our herd both Redmond Garlic salt as well as Redmond Selenium90 salt. Animals have a choice to reduce the risk of selenium toxicity, but they have access to selenium if they need it. We also supply at least 50 lbs of salt per ton of feed in all of the feed rations we use for our animals. We also offer loose minerals. Our favorite loose mineral product is the Tracer amino acid chelated mineral. Not only does it supply all the value of a standard loose mineral, but it also provides necessary amino acids in a form to make both more biologically available to the animal. We usually try to offer two formulations of loose minerals. One Tracer formulation and one more conventional formulation with Availa4. At least one of the two products is a high magnesium formulation. This allows the animal to choose the formulation that best meets their needs. We also add at least 50 lbs of Tracer mineral per ton of feed to ensure base levels of consumption. Tracer mineral tends to be less palatable than the varieties that are flavorized to entice cattle to consume them evenly. Therefore, it can help train them to the flavor to include some in their feed ration and there may be a transition period to entice them to learn to like this supplement.
To summarize the message, the supplementation of cattle confined to a specific location is critical to their overall wellbeing. That supplementation does not have to be critical to control and there is a balance to be achieved between providing sufficient sources of the right things and enticing the animals to self-regulate their use of these sources. This can be a very complex topic with tons of products and formulations on the market to research and choose from with lots of linkages and interactions to consider between elements that are needed in conjunction with each other to be effective as well as those that are antagonistic to each other and need to be balanced for optimal results. Like anything, there will always be risks managing from toxicity levels to degradation and spoilage to unwanted effects. It is important to have a developed strategy and then constantly challenge that strategy to improve. This might be periodically trying new products, or it might be to change how the supplements are presented. Always do the math! Make sure your program is justifiably economical. It is easy to buy products that don’t generate measurable value and cheap products that end up costing more in the long run. Say perhaps you can choose between a $30 bag of loose mineral and a $45 bag. The cows may eat 2 bags of cheaper minerals at the same time it takes them to consume 1 bag of the more expensive mineral. The end effect of the two might be the same. If that is the case it is actually costing you $60 to get the same value, you could be getting from $45 by feeding the cheaper product instead of the more expensive product. Supplementation is the foundation of your success. It is the cheapest and easiest means of preventing the major issues that have the biggest impact tothe costs of a production system. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It is always more cost effective to prevent than to treat. Nothing has more impact on your overall success in more ways than your supplementation program. It is in every producer’s best interest to constantly study this subject and stay on top of the latest information to be as knowledgeable as possible.
On a personal level, it constantly amazes me how supplementation is overlooked in Southwest Iowa. In some cases, producers even come up with arguments to justify their decision to withhold the extra expense of supplements. It is my belief that we live in a very rich environment that is some of the best agricultural ground in the world. We see the lush vegetation and production capacity and we are lulled into a false sense of security. It doesn’t make sense that the lush grass that we might be able to stock at head per acre instead of acres per head might be lacking in one vital nutrient. I believe we assign too much to simple animal genetics beyond our control and not enough to nutrition and the role of nutrition in influencing epigenetics. We see a poor performing animal and we assume they just have poor genetics and there is nothing we can do about it. We don’t consider that there might have been a deficiency in the developmental process during gestation that resulted in “fetal programming” where the animal is predispositioned to certain metabolic processes as a defense mechanism against deficiency for their entire life….or that we can correct this by supplementing this animal to avoid fetal programming and correct this issue in the offspring she produces. Maybe calving issues have more to do with magnesium and selenium than they do with birthweight? Maybe the number of open cows in a herd has more to do with copper than it does with the quality of the bulls being used? The false sense of security in the quality of our feedstuffs became readily apparent to me when I went to work on a reasonably well knownranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska. I fully understand it is a COMPLETELY different production environment than I was used to and I was super excited to learn new management practices that I might be able to incorporate at home. We were running 100 to 400 cow/calf pairs in pastures that were 8 square miles each. Many pastures had only one windmill and water source. Cattle might walk in excess of 10 miles in a day and that is just to meet their water requirements. It was an “old cowboy” culture out in brand territory where cattle are legally required to be branded. One of the social highlights of the year was branding season when cowboys from all the ranches get together to help eachother brand, castrate, and vaccinate while practicing their roping and horsemanship skills. The very environment did not allow for cattle to be intensively managed or handled and many cattle were only handled once a year to receive any healthcare they might need (often at branding). Producers prioritize supplementation there. There are a lot of things we take for granted and expect from good producers locally that simply aren’t feasible to keep up with there. Cattle might not have a person lay eyes on them but once every few months. When gathers take place there are animals in the herd that don’t belong. We’ve sorted off bulls that came from nearly 100 miles away. There is one thing that is considered critical and any producer found lacking will be assigned a negative reputation. People are fired for being too lax. That is supplementation. Whether those cows are seen or not isn’t important, but the salt and mineral feeders must never run out and that is gospel. If an empty salt and mineral feeder is found, you’d think the person responsible had personally cursed outevery person who hears about it’s grandmother. It is something you don’t live down. Why? How is it we have producers in one environment who actually try to justify not supplying supplements to producers in another environment who might not ever work on a ranch again for getting caught accidentally letting a feeder run out? The simple answer is that these producers in environments where it is extremely challenging to handle cattle to treat them have learned that they can avoid the need to handle and treat cattle by providing sufficient supplementation. They know first hand what it means when cattle aren’t sufficiently supplemented, because those animals have a greater likelihood of dying before being treated. They aren’t confusing their production issues with genetics or any other cause that is treatable but beyond their control to effectively prevent. They know that correct supplementation is the difference between making money and losing money. That lesson has stuck with me and over the course of years managing production in various herds, it has proven to be true again and again across environments. It is a simple fact that nutrient supplementation is absolutely required.
Supplement your cattle!
