Working Ranch Magazine - Index

Working Ranch Magazine - magazine - Index

PHOTO BY DR. BRYAN MCMURRY, CARGILL ANIMAL NUTRITION
The free choice method is a common way to get the cattle the minerals they need. “Those supplementation
systems are really fairly simple,” says Keith Hansen, of Nutrition Service Associates,
out of Hereford, Texas. “They can be done with pelleted products such as range cubes and a free
choice mineral or it can be done with liquid products. A total program is designed so that they
can take care of those times of the year when supplementation is so important.”
In a range operation where the cow
herd is out on grass for several
months of the year, the nutritionist
looks at all the factors in the local
grasses and imported feed used and
calculates what may be lacking and
what the cattle producer might need
to do to correct it.
Hansen says the reproductive
cycle for the
mother cows can be the
most important time for
proper supplementation.
“If she needs ‘X’ number
of pounds of protein
a day, during a particular
time in her reproductive cycle,”
Hansen explains, “we tailor the supplementation
program to the stage of
reproduction.”
Hansen says that for the most part,
supplementation of cows is critical just
prior to breeding, the last three
months of gestation and the first three
months of lactation. “Those are the
areas that we really want to concentrate
on, essentially those six or seven
months a year that supplementation
can be critical for cows. The rest of the
time their nutrient requirement for
maintenance can be taken care of by a
32 |WORKING RANCH | JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2008
little free choice mineral as long as
there’s adequate forage for them.”
OLD WEST WAYS
In the early days of the American cattle
industry, before science came into
the equation, there were as many differ-
A good mineral supplementation
program can lead to healthier cattle,
stronger calves with better gain and
quicker re-breeding for your cows.
ent philosophies on raising cows as
there were ranches. Some ranchers, particularly
in the West, absolutely refused
to use any form of supplements for any
reason, believing that a cow had to be
able to survive on whatever range was
available. The key to this early thinking
was to keep their stocking rates low
enough to assure that plenty of natural
forage was available at all times.
“As long as there was forage available
they didn’t supplement anything,”
says Hansen. “They felt like the
natural selection would take care of
itself. The cows that could exist under
their particular range, under their conditions
would do well and those that
couldn’t wouldn’t, and natural selection
would occur. Under that kind of a
management system, it’s a relatively
low cost system from a supplementation
standpoint, but it also did not
maximize production.”
Another group of cattle producers, as
early as the 1800’s began to see some
benefit to certain minerals, such as salt,
as not only needed but essential for
many cattle. “Very early on they realized
that there just wasn’t enough sodium
to support maximum productivity,”
Hansen continues, “and in some cases
salt became an issue for health as well.
As we got into recognizing that other
nutrients were important we saw ranchers
go ahead and supplement oil meal -
in this part of the world cottonseed cake
for example. In some other areas of the
country it might be soybean meal.”
For the last sixty or seventy years
nutritionists have understood that
trace minerals and macro minerals
such as calcium, phosphorous, zinc,
copper and manganese were beneficial
to disease systems, bone growth and
formation of the calves. Today’s supplement
systems are designed to maximize
efficiency and production and
get the most out of the grass or the
available forage system.
As far as mineral supplementation to
the larger ranches, Hansen says a free
choice mineral program can
be very beneficial to any
size operation. “Those supplementation
systems are
really fairly simple, and
they can be done with pelleted
products such as range
cubes and a free choice
mineral or it can be done
with liquid products. A total program is
designed so that they can take care of
those times of the year when supplementation
is so important.”
TALLY UP THE
COST AND SAVINGS
The next thing to factor in your
search for a few extra dollars per head
per year is the cost of your supplementation
program. The cost, of course, is
based on the complexity of your program
and the size of your operation. “I
would say that, generally speaking, a
good quality free choice mineral pro-