By Steven Eddie, ECV Nutritionist
Mixing home-grown cereals and forages with bought-in straights can often be the cheapest way to produce a balanced diet that will ensure peak performance from the stock on your farm. These feeds however are often lacking in the essential minerals and vitamins required for optimal health, production and fertility. This means that correct mineral supplementation is a crucial component when formulating on-farm rations. East Coast Viners Animal Nutrition offers a full range of powdered mineral supplements suitable for Dairy, Suckler, Beef and Sheep ensuring there is a product for each system and price range.
The starting point when considering on farm rations is to get home-produced forages analysed. By sampling the forages available, informed decisions can be made and rations tailored to each farm. Fresh grass, pit silage, baled silage and hay vary greatly so it is important to know their nutritional and mineral values. Ensuring your stock are not being over or under supplied key nutrients could lead to savings in feed costs by guaranteeing stock get exactly what they need. Forage analysis is offered by ECV and can be arranged by speaking to a Nutritionist or Feed Advisor. Silage samples can be taken by a member of staff or alternatively sample kits can be posted out with instructions.
By working in partnership with ECV, our Nutritionists and Feed Advisors are always happy to discuss your feeding programme and help select a mineral that will suit your stock and ensure the best performance and return.
The range of bagged minerals offered by ECV has recently undergone an overhaul. Working in partnership with our mineral supplier, Scotmin Nutrition, each product has been reviewed to ensure the formulation is providing meaningful inclusions of all minerals, vitamins and trace elements whilst falling within the legally permitted levels for mineral supplements. Some products within the old range had similarities and these have been combined to allow the range to be more streamlined. This has allowed for more efficient ordering, production and storage of bagged minerals allowing us to keep production costs down. Raw materials are carefully selected based on their quality and bio-availability with the aim to produce a palatable product that performs well. Many of the higher spec minerals for breeding stock now have a greater inclusion of chelated minerals. These help to improve absorption and retention of essential nutrients. Chelated trace elements can help to overcome deficiencies caused by high levels of antagonists or heavy metals often found in forages. A table containing information on the bagged range of mineral supplements can be found on page 6.
Why Supplement Livestock on Forage Diets?
Whether conserved or fresh, most forages do not generally meet the animal’s minimum dietary requirements for minerals, trace elements and some vitamins.
Grassland management and soil nutrient status have a major impact on the availability of forage mineral and trace element levels. Efficient animal production requires a balanced diet and mineral supplementation at appropriate levels is a key part of efficient livestock production.
Why Are Minerals Important?
Minerals are essential to maintain a healthy animal. They are involved in the immune system, energy production, the hormonal system, blood production and the reproductive system. Excess amounts and deficiencies manifest in different ways, ensuring dietary requirements are met will maintain a healthy and productive animal.
Clinical and sub-clinical deficiencies have a negative impact on animal performance (e.g. lack of dietary Copper), conversely excessive amounts can lead to toxicity and even death. Animals have known requirements and optimum performance is reached when dietary levels meet animal requirements.
Positive and Negative Interactions
There are many interactions between minerals, some positive and some negative.
Positive interactions include Sodium increasing Magnesium availability and Selenium increasing Copper availability. Conversely, some minerals are antagonistic to others such as Molybdenum and Sulphur reducing Copper availability and Potassium reducing Magnesium availability.
Having the correct balance and including chelated minerals where issues are known help to maintain animal performance and avoid deficiencies.
Mineral - Enzyme Interactions
Minerals and trace elements play many important roles in metabolism, particularly as enzyme components or co-factors. The proper functioning of enzymes requires the correct mineral(s) to be present at the necessary concentration in the body – adequate supplementation is necessary.
Mineral and Trace Element Content of Grass
Whether conserved or fresh, most forages do not generally meet the animal’s minimum dietary requirements for minerals, trace elements and certain vitamins.
The type of grasses, the age and level of clover in a sward also have a major impact on the forage mineral status. Management of the soil has a major impact on the mineral and trace element profile. Maintaining a pH of 5.8 to 6.2 for grassland provides optimum mineral availability whilst keeping P and K levels in a Moderate status will avoid any reduction in grass growth.
The table below shows the range of values from sampled grass. The variability is dramatic.
