What is a common sense approach to meeting the trace mineral requirements of cattle?
Probably the most important part of a common sense approach to meeting the trace mineral requirements is to not “shot gun” by adding trace elements randomly to a mineral mix–only add trace elements when there is justification based on some diagnostic procedures. What are some diagnostic steps that could be followed to determine if a trace mineral deficiency exists. The following steps should be considered. • Take forage or pasture samples. Collecting a forage sample can be a very helpful diagnostic aid. Remember, your analysis is only as good as your sample. An example of how to use a forage trace mineral analysis is the interpretation of the results in Table 7. Interpretation of these 3 roughage samples: • Cane hay–good quality cane hay except extremely high iron and molybdenum level could make copper unavailable to the animal. • Grass hay–typical grass hay except copper and zinc levels are very low and molybdenum levels very high. • Sandhills hay–manganese, iron and molybdenum le
