The “nifty fifties” was a period of innovation- color television, the polio vaccine, the microchip, the first credit card, Mr. Potato Head, super glue and the incorporation of trace mineral supplementation in beef cattle nutrition. Since the 1950s, cattle producers have been adding trace minerals to their rations to combat environmental conditions, their effect on nutrition and other normally occurring nutritional gaps.
Fifty years later, just as modern technology has expanded on these inventions to new creations such as the DVD player, cell phone, gene chip and complete online banking, our mineral supplementation programs have been reevaluated. The livestock of the 1950s are not the same cattle we raise today. Cattle are selected for improved performance and there has been an influx of a variety of breeds into commercial cattle operations, thus resulting in larger cattle with different nutritional demands. Previously revolutionary statements regarding nutritional needs may not suit today's genetically advanced cow. Our understanding of mineral needs has also gone far beyond the macroelements. In recent years, a greater emphasis has been placed on the livestock trace mineral requirements. Changes in livestock and their nutritional requirements have shown us that although trace minerals may be only a tiny part of a bag of cattle mineral, that tiny part can have a significant impact on cattle profitability and performance.
Until the 1990s, most trace mineral supplementation in beef cattle diets came in the form of inorganic minerals (salts) and were aimed in the prevention of deficiency in our herds. Today producers are looking to new forms of trace minerals to optimize health and meet the genetic potential of our livestock, while providing a positive impact on our food animal product quality and ultimately on payback.
In seeking the most efficient, effective and economical nutritional technologies, leading feed and mineral manufacturers have turned to organic minerals or mineral sources bound in some way to an organic ligand. Mineral proteinates are trace minerals chelated to a range of amino acids and small peptides that improve absorption and retention in the body. These chelated minerals are designed to more closely resemble the mineral bonds found in plants and feed grains and are not excreted at the rate of cheap trace mineral salts. This added benefit of chelation secures the delivery of the added benefits of feeding trace minerals in the first place.
While organic minerals cost more than inorganic, the financial return often warrants the investment. Studies repeatedly show organic minerals to be more effective than mineral salts in increasing the reproductive efficiency of breeding females under nutritional stress. Producers can ensure optimum mineral status in their herd and decrease their herd’s susceptibility to reproductive problems such as early embryonic death; weak, ill-thrift calves; disease incidence; long calving intervals; silent heats and poor conception rates.
Trace elements are also involved in maintaining herd health and disease susceptibility through pre-conditioning and receiving programs. Stressed or sick animals do not eat. When the immune function is challenged to fight infection, the needed copper, manganese and zinc must come from tissue reserves. If the reserves are low, disease defense is poor. When herd disease defense is poor, a cattle producer’s profits suffer.
The old way of thinking about mineral supplementation is to feed the minimum requirement which is based off of research that is over 50 years old with old cattle genetics. To keep up with modern cattle production, we cannot sustain the same mineral supplementation we implemented in the 20th Century. We must look to new forms of organic trace minerals to optimize cattle health and reproduction.
Dr. Tyler Bramble, Ph.D., P.A.S., is the regional sales director for the western U.S. territory with Alltech Biotechnology.
