Are you spending too much on mineral? How simple management steps can save you money. With special guest Dr. Richard Prather
- Joshua Bedell
- 6 days ago
- 11 min read
It's no secret feeding cattle is expensive. With several studies showing ~70% of ranching input costs being associated with feed/hay/forage/mineral costs (Reference 1) our cattle are eating away at our bottom line (pun intended). Unfortunately, as most of us know, you can't starve a profit out of a cow. Improper nutrition will result in poor conception rates, poor growth, compromised immunity and the subsequent increased veterinary costs. A vicious cycle that often leaves farmers & ranchers scratching their heads on how to reduce feeding expenses while still meeting their herd's nutritional requirements. In our last newsletter, we covered the topic of reducing protein supplementation cost. Over 4000 people clicked and read the article and it resulted in literal hundreds of comments. This is clearly a topic that struck a chord and rightfully so.
At VICCI, we breed seedstock specifically with this challenge in mind. We must do MORE with LESS. Some studies have shown that through genetics alone, you can reduce feeding input costs by up to a staggering 15-25% by selecting for feed & forage efficient animals (Reference 2, Reference 3, Reference 4). This is exciting and a potential game changer for most, but the lion's share of feed expenses, ~50%, still remains. We will do our best to not only provide a genetic solution to this problem, but arguably just as important, a management solution. In our last newsletter, we showed how to potentially reduce protein costs by as much as 30-75% (depending on resources available) without a sacrifice in performance. Today, we are going to tackle mineral costs and show how simple management steps can result in significant savings, but more importantly, improved herd health, nutrition, performance, and ultimately your bottom line.
Now, as with all cost cutting efforts, there are two elements to consider: 1) reducing expenditures and 2) ensuring effectiveness. Let us explain. Would you save more money by finding a cheaper mineral source OR spending more on a mineral that actually meets your animal's trace mineral requirements? The implications are significant, a copper deficient herd will have impaired resistance to disease, reduced milk, poor shedding coats, and reduced fertility (Rethorst, Dave DVM; Production Animal Consultants, Fall 2024 Protein Producers pp. 26-29 ). One additional open cow in your herd due to copper deficiency, that is otherwise fertile and healthy, would cost far more than buying a quality mineral. Therefore, we must keep in balance the dichotomy of reducing expenditures while simultaneously increasing effectiveness. We should always operate with a mentality of "doing more, with less."
Before we dive too deep, it's important to remember that any mineral or supplement is NOT a silver bullet to fix all your problems. Dr. Eric Bailey, a friendly industry acquittance of mine who holds a PhD in Beef Cattle Nutrition, often describes mineral programs as an "insurance policy" for your herd. There's still a lot we don't know about bovine nutrition and often there is contradictory literature on vitamin/mineral supplementation. As with all insurance policies, we should always consider the value of what we are insuring and whether the insurance premiums justify the added protection. We should look to optimize our approach based on profitability alone. With that said, let's begin.
First, establishing a goal for your mineral program would help align your plan with your vision. Here's an example goal we had for our mineral program: Provide a mineral program that meets our herd's trace mineral and vitamin deficiencies as cost effectively as possible. Good start. Now how do we go about figuring out if our cattle are deficient in any trace mineral or vitamin? Fortunately, we have a few tools at our disposal. The first step is to go straight to the source and pull blood samples on a representative part of your herd, say 10%. These samples can be sent off for trace mineral & vitamin analysis to identify what the herd is deficient in. The second method is to send off fresh liver samples on harvested animals for trace mineral & vitamin analysis, this is considered the gold standard, but obviously isn't applicable if you don't have an animal to butcher - so just do it when the opportunity presents itself. Next, collecting water samples at all watering locations your herd frequents. Your local extension office will have sample vials available. Remember to acquire samples directly from the faucet, and not stagnate tank water. These samples are then sent off for full trace mineral & water quality analysis. Although, water samples won't tell you directly what your herd is deficient in, it will likely give you a strong clue as to why they are deficient in some areas, or why they are exceeding requirements in others. Last, forage samples can also be helpful, but tend to be more seasonal in nature and the results will change multiple times a year depending on forage type. Our recommendation is to start with blood samples and water samples to begin your investigation.
After receiving the results of your trace mineral analysis through blood and water samples, the exciting part is that the results are almost always actionable. Often we can become discouraged about running tests and experiments because many times, the results are ambiguous and don't offer a clear solution. In the case of trace mineral analysis, the results are usually straight forward, as are the solutions. Now that we have the results, we must interpret them and act accordingly. Figure 1 below, shows one of our water samples.
What we found was telling. Our water was so hard, that through drinking alone, our cattle were exceeding their calcium requirements by 800% (see Figure 2). When was the last time you saw a bag of mineral without calcium? Fortunately, excess calcium isn't as dangerous but it's an opportunity to potentially save money through less calcium and Vitamin D supplementation. Vitamin D helps cattle absorb calcium, but if you're in excess of 800% calcium you need neither the extra calcium nor extra Vitamin D to help you absorb it. In short, both the calcium and Vitamin D can be removed entirely from our mineral both saving us a few bucks and getting us closer to a balanced nutrition plan.
Moreover, water samples can often identify other issues that should be addressed. After testing VICCI's water, we found we had concerningly high concentrations of sulfates/sulfur. Excessive sulfates can inhibit and bind up other crucial trace mineral and vitamin absorption including copper, iron, magnesium, selenium, and zinc. Oklahoma State University Extension Publication L-256 recommends less that 1000 ppm for cattle and less than 500 ppm sulfates for growing calves. This problem is exasperated during hot weather when water consumption increases, subsequently amplifying the existing heat stress. Once this was identified, we immediately stopped supplementing sulfur in our salt and mineral and changed our winter feed ration to remove all high sulfate feedstuffs such as DDG's. This allowed us to save a few bucks in supplements, but most importantly, reduced our risk of sickness, impaired growth, abortions, and improved fertility. We are also exploring adding sulfate filters to our wells and investigating other nearby water sources. The end result? We're spending less on medications and earning more dollars through increased production.
Additionally, we found that in late fall, winter, and early spring (nearly 6 months out of the year), we were excessive in phosphorus by 50% due to the high amounts in our harvested forages and green wheat pasture (see Figure 2). The answer was simple. Remove phosphorus from our winter mineral, which can save anywhere from $2-$7.50/bag of mineral as it is one of the most expensive individual ingredients. Interestingly, by the time we make all the changes, our custom winter mineral, is a simple trace mineral with salt.
In our case, we had several opportunities to both cut costs while simultaneously improving herd health and performance. The attached KSU toxicology lab report (Figure 3) is a recent example of blood trace mineral and vitamin test results on this ranch, highlighting the previously unrecognized deficiency in Vitamin A. According to multiple studies, Vitamin A deficiency in beef cattle results in decreased feed intake, reduced growth, rough hair coat, increase in disease prevalence, and other costly issues with reduced conception rates and increased late-term abortions. Numerous extension and animal science outreach publications are taking notice of the impact of Vitamin A deficiency in beef cow herds across the high plains due to frequency of dry conditions. We increased the Vitamin A in our mineral and began annual pre-breeding Vitamin A injectable supplement. Although, in this case we are increasing supplement expenditures, this is a prime example of improving our effectiveness. We now know exactly what our environment is lacking, and we can strategically augment Vitamin A into our herd's nutrition program. We also confirmed that many of our animals were low in Copper and Zinc, likely a result of our high sulfates binding up those trace minerals. We have also slightly increased our Copper and Zinc supplementation while reducing our sulfate exposure. As a reminder, our goal is to "Provide a mineral program that meets our herd's trace mineral and vitamin deficiency's as cost effectively as possible." Reducing expenditures is great, but again what costs more, a strategic designed mineral supplement or a group of open cows due to a severe vitamin A deficiency? If we are already spending the money on mineral, why not spend it on an effective mineral program? This is a classic case of cost-benefit analysis. If the return on investment justifies the expenditure, then you should consider making it.
These solutions were readily available and immediately actionable. Most of these action steps saved us a few dollars in expenditures, but all of them, even the added expenses, improved our herd's health, nutrition, performance, and ultimately our bottom line.
If you haven't done it before, don't be intimidated by pulling a few blood and water samples. Both practices are simple, fast, and affordable. If you have concerns about pulling blood samples yourself, just have your local vet nab a handful for you and send them off for analysis on your behalf. I'd suggest taking water samples one time to establish a baseline. Where as I'd encourage you to pull blood samples on an annual or preferably bi-annual basis (ie., winter and summer) to account for environmental/seasonal changes, or base it around the cow-calf cycle and test prior to breeding season and then again at preg check. Either should work fine. If you'd rather do it once annually, the most important time would be 45-60 days prior to breeding season.
Here are a few additional tips to improve your mineral program:
Consider adding up to 30% in organic or chelated minerals to your formula, replacing lower quality mineral sources. This will improve absorption and utilization of the minerals you provide. Some studies have shown, the cheapest mineral sources are sometimes almost entirely ineffective. Again, this is a cost/benefit analysis. Most literature suggests 30% organic/chelated minerals is the point of diminishing return where the added benefit is not worth the added cost.
Consider replacing sulfate mineral sources with hydroxychlorides. These are more expensive than sulfate mineral sources, but far cheaper than organic/chelated minerals with competitive effectiveness. These are your "bang for buck" mineral sources. Our mineral formula consists of ~30% organic/chelated minerals and the remaining ~70% is hydroxychlorides.
If you don't currently supplement any mineral or do it inconsistently, this is actually a perfect opportunity to test your herd as they are and see exactly what your environment alone provides in excess or is deficient in.
Over consuming of mineral, especially high quality mineral, can chip away at your bottom line. Consider limit feeding your mineral to ensure that your herd still has sufficient supplementation, without the wasteful over consumption. This is achieved by simply only supplying enough mineral in your mineral feeders to meet your herds requirements over a set time period. A 2 day supply works well and often coincides with when folks are feeding or checking on their cattle anyways. It may feel like one more thing, but that extra 5 minutes in the pasture could save hundreds, if not thousands in wasted mineral costs.
Under consuming mineral is also costly especially if your cattle have known deficiencies. To incentivize greater intake, ensure your mineral feeders are in locations frequented by your cattle such as by watering sources, or shaded areas. In some cases, your mineral's salt content could be too high which acts as a self limiter. In other cases, your mineral may just not taste very good to your cattle. Mineral providers can often lace it with small amounts of molasses or other consumption incentives. This is often a trial and error process, but usually worth the effort.
If your mineral is exposed to the elements and not in a covered feeder, your mineral will degrade faster and be less desirable. Consider the 1 time investment of quality, weather proof mineral feeders as shown in Figure 4 that we purchase from our partners at Livestock Nutrition Center (LNC).
Mineral tubs......they are generally the most expensive form of mineral supplementation. We'd challenge you to do a cost/benefit analysis on whether the added expense is worth it to you.
A word on epigenetics. Any supplements we provide both cost money and run the risk of artificially propping up our cow herd. Consider constantly applying downward culling pressure on inputs - including vitamins and minerals. Keep in mind though you are trying to run a profitable enterprise, and culling 90% of your herd out the gate, may not be a realistic solution. Every year look to reduce inputs and cull a moderate number of animals that require more.
A word of caution when making any change to mineral or ration supplementation, always, always make adjustments gradually. Do not empty a 50 lb sack of mineral in front of animals that are not adapted, make the change over days to weeks in small amounts per each offering.
We are hopeful that this information can provide real actionable value to your operation. If you have any herd health or nutritional needs, feel free to give us a call at VICCI or better yet, give Dr. Prather a call and start working with him to enhance your herd management abilities.
In closing, below (Figure 5) is a picture of one of one of VICCI's stud fall-bull calves at 6 months of age. He's never had creep feed and this is the first green he's seen in his short life. It gives us encouragement knowing he, and other bulls like him, will provide More-Quality-Pounds-Efficiently to our commercial clients. In other words, they will give more and take less. Increasing revenue, while reducing input costs. Helping all of us defy the odds and preserve this way of life.
Dr. Richard Prather is an 1986 graduate of Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK, and co-owns the Ellis County Animal Hospital in Shattuck, OK with his wife Dr. Angie Prather. In addition to offering small and large animal veterinary services, Dr. Prather provides complete livestock nutrition and management consultation to seedstock and commercial breeders. Richard is a peer reviewed author and frequent presenter at ag conferences and technical meetings. Dr. Prather has been dedicated to providing superior treatment to his patients which is why in 2004 he was named Food Animal Practitioner of the Year. Please reach out to him if you have any further questions.
Richard C. Prather DVM
Ellis County Animal Hospital
Shatttuck, OK 73858
580-938-2962
Happy breeding
Josh Bedell,
President & Owner
VICCI Cattle Co.
VICCI Cattle Co - Elite registered angus genetics. Bred without sacrifice, developed with your profitability as our obsession. There is no question, you CAN have MORE-QUALITY-POUNDS-EFFICIENTLY wrapped in an attractive and truly maternal package. NEVER SACRIFICE. #VICCI
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