Minerals should be ideally introduced into the dry cow’s diet around six to eight weeks prior to calving. If calving is under way, or due to start this month, it is not too late to start feeding minerals to in-calf animals.

Offering a flat rate of 100g-120g/head/day of powdered minerals by dusting on top of silage is a low-cost and effective way of feeding.

One benefit is that you will see animals coming forward to feed, which is not always the case when using lick buckets or providing minerals through water sources. However, these are still perfectly viable ways to offer minerals.

As dry cows are often on a silage-only diet, forages can be low in minerals, especially if grown on soils that are mineral deficient.

This increases the risk of cows succumbing to milk fever, retained cleanings, difficult calvings and lethargic calves post-calving. Balancing the cow’s diet with a purpose-made dry cow mineral will help to eliminate many of these health problems.

A pre-calving mineral should contain high levels of magnesium, phosphorus and low levels of calcium.

Do not assume a general-purpose mineral will do the same job as a purpose-made pre-calving mineral as it may provide excessive levels of calcium which will cause problems for dairy cows and suckler cows with good milk production shortly after calving.

Including iodine, vitamin E and selenium will also help to improve calf vigour once born and reduce the number of lethargic calves that require assistance to suckle their mother. In addition, iodine and selenium can reduce the number of lazy calving cows and retained after birth.

If you are in doubt about the mineral status of the herd, have your vet confirm with a blood sample.