There are many product options when it comes to supplementing dairy cows, which can make it difficult to choose what to use. This is where “off the shelf” products such as HiTrace5® or AquaTrace5® Hoof n Udder have been useful and have been successfully used on many dairy farms over the years.
However, there can be significant advantages in customising mineral formulations. The perception is that custom minerals are more expensive – in-fact the opposite is often true. By putting in more of what you need and less of what you don’t need, it can be a very efficient way to supplement minerals to your cows.
It also gives you the opportunity to put those extra few cents per dose that you have saved into areas that you really want to address, for example additives that support lameness, or feed conversion efficiency.
Another reason why many people customise is there are often times of the year where some minerals are more important than others. Most farm businesses work on 90-day ‘blocks’, where custom formulations are made to target specific concerns for that period.
So how do you know what you need? Customisation is not a scary process. To figure out what your herd really needs, getting the following information is useful.
- Pasture mineral levels – An ‘Extended Pasture Feed Test’ is a good measure of what is actually being eaten by the herd. Often we are presented with soil tests, but the true reflection of what the cows are consuming is what is in the pasture. Your local Nutritech Area Manager is able to take pasture samples for you.
- Blood and / or liver tests – These are a good gauge of the status of the cow’s current mineral supply versus demand. Getting bloods or liver tests done in autumn is a good time to see how they have got through the lactation, to help make decisions on a custom formulation for the start of next season. It is also good to take a test or two throughout the lactation to check that the mineral requirements are continuing to be met.
- DietCheck® modelling – This sophisticated biological programme for cows allows us to look at your herd’s actual diet, their milk production, walking distances and stage of pregnancy to calculate areas of significant for over or undersupply of all nutrients. Many Nutritech customers use DietCheck® not just for mineral supplement checking, but also to see how their dietary protein, fibre and energy is tracking.
- Physical cow observations – for example coat condition, manure consistency and hoof health. This really is “the proof in the pudding”, the cows will tell us what they need and if we have things right.
- Cow wearable technology data, if available – If your herd has wearables these can highlight particular areas of concern, e.g. springer cow nutrition, rumen health challenges and heat stress.
- Farm business goals and objectives – Ultimately, where do you want to go? What production levels do you want your cows to achieve? What areas do you really want to improve on? These can all help in deciding where the focus is for any supplementation.
What about all the ‘extras’?
There are a number of additives that can be really beneficial to add to your trace element blend.
To answer this, ask yourself, what problem am I trying to address?
For example, if cows are irritable in the shed, then that would be a good time to add Fusion DYAD™ mycotoxin binder. If your herd is having somatic cell count challenges, then switching to Alkosel® organic selenium and adding Levucell®SC rumen specific live yeast would be good options.
If there are several diet changes coming up, or milk fat is depressed, or you are seeing undigested feed in the manure, then you would consider the rumen health options such as RumenBuf™, Yela Prosecure®, Levucell®SC live yeast or Rumensin™ ,
Looking ahead to spring, if you are wanting to address historic ketosis challenges and cows losing too much weight post-calving, then this is where Rumensin™, LipoEN+, Golden Flake® bypass fat and Levucell®SC live yeast would have a good fit.
For those wanting to get on top of lameness issues, you would get value from B-TRAXIM® Copper, B-TRAXIM® Zinc, Biotin and Levucell®SC live yeast.
In making decisions on these ‘extras’ we highly recommend talking to your Nutritech Area Manager. They can help explain their best fit and the return on investment. This is what they do every day and the team are more than happy to support you in that process.
In summary, off the shelf products are useful for convenience, and to cover ‘typical’ trace mineral deficits. However, if you are really wanting to dial in on your herd’s performance this coming season, now might be a good time to reach out to your Nutritech Area Manager to start planning for a custom option.