Nadine Olsen
When you have been around for over 115 years, you realise you have been part of a significant evolution of mineral supplementation in New Zealand.
To start with it was all around resolving issues, with magnesium staggers being the main mineral deficiency of concern to kiwi farmers. Nutritech (known back then as the Danish Mineral Company) began with relatively simple mixes, sold to farmers off the back of a ute.
As knowledge and understanding of trace mineral deficiencies such as bush sickness (cobalt), and white muscle disease (selenium) grew, so too did the Nutritech offering in trace mineral supplementation.
After that it was all about driving production, as we saw the modern dairy cow increase in both size and milk production volumes. This placed additional demands on both macro and trace minerals, which the Nutritech product range did what it does best – evolve and adapt to the animal’s requirements.
In recent years, the goal of supplementation has gone beyond meeting production requirements and expanded into supporting immune function, fertility and lameness. As we learnt about the role of small nutrients in highly critical functions within the animal, the range of ingredients and daily supplementation levels also increased.
Today, the world continues to change, with a focus on gut health, rumen microbiome, feed efficiency, epigenetics (flow-on effects to the next generation), carbon emissions and customisation. Together with Lallemand and other key partnerships such as Pancosma, Nutritech are well positioned for the future in this space.
The customisation aspect has significantly expanded the Nutritech offering. The growth and demand for custom mineral mixes really highlights the value NZ farm businesses are seeing in targeting nutrients specific to their herd’s requirements. This means they are getting more of the nutrients they do need, while creating economic savings by not over-supplementing nutrients they don’t need.
Also, by targeting specific areas of concern, for example hoof health, somatic cell count, and reproduction, the small ingredients can play a significant role in helping achieve critical health and performance goals.
Custom formulations are often influenced by:
- Pasture mineral levels
- Interactions between nutrients
- Blood, liver and milk testing results for trace elements
- Diet Check modelling, highlighting areas of significant over or undersupply of nutrients
- Physical cow observations – for example coat condition, manure consistency, hoof health
- Cow wearable technologies – highlighting particular areas of concern, e.g. springer cow nutrition, rumen health and heat stress.
- Farm business goals and objectives
Now with the Nutritech Mineral App, our Area Managers are able to quickly formulate and quote a custom mineral mix. This makes the process of quick and easy for our customers.
Not only can Nutritech tailor the mineral specification, there are several delivery mechanisms available too, including options for water, feed, and of course the original DanMix® loose lick which still remains popular today (don’t worry, the specifications have been updated from the original!)
Example recommendation from the Nutritech Mineral App
The future of mineral supplementation will likely continue down the customisation basis – perhaps we will even get to individual cow dosing based on genomic profiling, who knows!
Regardless of what the future holds, Nutritech has the experience of 115 years in mineral supplementation, and it is that experience which makes us ready to respond to the future needs of NZ farm businesses.
For more information on customising your mineral supplementation, get in touch with your local Nutritech Area Manager.
