The countdown is on to spring calving and this means that we need to think about a mineral supplement for our pregnant suckler cows.

Mineral supplementation will help ensure that our cows tick two of the main boxes a good suckler needs to.

We want a live calf – proper mineral and vitamin supplementation is crucial for foetal development, calving ease and ensuring vigour in a newborn calf.

Once we have our calf on the ground, our cow needs to go back in calf as soon as she can. Proper supplementation pre-calving ensures that her reproductive system recovers quickly.

Of course, body condition is an equally important variable that we must control correctly in order to get our live calf and drive subsequent fertility, but its management goes hand in hand with a proper mineral and vitamin supplementation regime.

Table 1 gives guidelines for what our dry cows require from a mineral supplement point of view, independent of feed.

Limits

In terms of the upper limits, these are guidelines.

Going over these will not be a problem in the vast majority of cases, provided that we don’t grossly over-supplement.

In terms of toxicity with gestating suckler cows, the ones to watch here are selenium and to a lesser extent cobalt and copper.

Take a look at your mineral mix label and see whether you are hitting your targets.

  • Next week we will look at further deciphering labels that show only compounds – for example, manganous oxide, cupric sulphate and sodium selenite.