Beef Cattle Mineral Nutrition

Minerals make up a small portion of an animal’s diet; however, they play an important role in health, growth and reproduction.

The link below will lead you to a article published by NDSU in June of 2005. This publication gives a brief overview of minerals that have the greatest impact on livestock productivity. 

Authors: 

Marcy Ward, Ph.D. candidate, research associate, NDSU Department of Animal & Range Sciences Greg Lardy, NDSU Extension beef specialist, Department of Animal and Range Sciences 

Article from Successful Farming and wrote by Gene Johnston on March 28, 2022

A few old rules of thumb were mentioned.

1. One is that a bull should be worth two-and-a-half times a finished steer.
2. A bull is worth five times the price of a steer calf
3. What a bull brings at auction is exactly what someone thinks he's worth.

This is a great article coming from University of Nebraska. This is not for the faint of heart or late at night. Packed with lots of information about how to estimate forage quality, stocking units, and long term effects of crop ground. 

We have moved to Free Choice Enterprises (FCE) cafeteria style loose mineral. Based on our soil samples we are short in some of our micronutrients. We are working to correct it, but that will take some time to get to our desired goals. This is also another way to ensure that our cattle get what they need and also help us correct the soil in the most natural way. The process has just begun and already we are finding it fascinating. If you would like to know more about this, hop on google or head over FCE to read about them. 

*We are not sponsored or anything by them, just looking to help out others who are curious*