Are mineral deficiencies holding back your herd?

With breeding only around the corner, farmers should consider blood testing the herd in case there are any underlying mineral deficiencies.

Minerals play an important role on farm, with farmers very aware of the importance of feeding minerals pre-calving to reduce issues around calving.

However, it is easy take your eye off the ball in terms of mineral feeding while the season progresses, as you juggle tricky grazing conditions and calf care.

In reality, a mineral deficiency at this stage of the season can have a big impact on the upcoming breeding season, as it has the ability to affect the cows fertility.

Therefore, carrying out a routine blood test can help you understand the mineral status of the herd, and put a plan in action based on what supplements are needed.

Another common problem that a routine blood test can avert is an over supply of minerals, which can also lead to increased empty rates this season.

Mineral status

Blood testing can be an expensive process, especially if you are not having mineral-related issues.

However, if fertility is an issue on the farm and a good portion of the herd are turning up empty, it may be worth discussing the process with your vet to see whether or not it would be a viable option.

Considering the money and the time that is put into breeding programmes to boost fertility, blood testing may seem like a small price to pay to improve those results even further.

Blood testing should be carried out at least three weeks before the breeding season commences.

This should allow enough time for the samples to be processed, and more importantly give you time to resolve any issues that may be brought to attention.

Ideally, cows need to be tested around four times a year for a number of years to get the most accurate results, as the combination of data would help determine patterns within the herd.

The age and lactation of the cows selected for blood sampling should also be varied at each test to help improve accuracy.

The other areas such as nutrition and body condition score (BCS) are also vital to ensure that cows are in a best possible condition for breeding.

Spring grazing

With the way spring grazing is this year, heavy soil farms will still be looking to get cows to grass, but as it stands mineral supplementation needs to continue in the shed.

As high quality silage starts to deplete, a large emphasis needs to be put on concentrates feeding and supplementing key minerals like magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, as well as trace elements.

These minerals should still be dusted on silage twice a day at a rate of 60g/cow, or fed through water sources in the shed.

For late calvers, consider administering a high calcium bolus with vitamin D when they are near calving in a bid to prevent milk fever.

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