Minerals in balance: when less is more

Providing the correct level of trace minerals is crucial for maintaining dairy cow health, fertility, and performance. Following the NASEM 2021 guidelines helps prevent deficiencies, while also ensuring excess supply is avoided.

Oversupply is common. Studies show that up to 90% of farms exceed recommended levels, leading to unnecessary costs, potential toxicity, and environmental risks. Why does this happen? Many diets don’t account for minerals already present in forages and by-products. The guidelines are based on total diet—so it’s important to include all sources. 

What are the risks of oversupply? 

Over-supplying dairy cows with trace minerals on the other hand, can lead to: 

  • Increased feed costs 
  • Trace mineral toxicity in cattle 
  • Increased reactivity towards vitamins in premixes, supplements and in a TMR 
  • Antagonist effects with other minerals 
  • Decreased dairy performance 
  • Trace mineral ions being excreted into the environment, leading to trace mineral soil contamination 
  • Balancing Macro-minerals, such as Phosphorus, is also vital when aiming to reduce mineral excretion and ensuring efficiency of input use  

The goal of trace mineral management is to achieve optimal mineral supply, avoiding trace mineral deficiencies in cattle, but also avoiding trace mineral toxicity in cattle through excessive mineral supplementation and avoiding higher costs without a return on investment. 

Understanding the risks

It can be challenging to accurately monitor the total mineral supplementation in your herd’s ration. However, because oversupply carries several risks, it’s important to ensure that the mineral products you’re using are current and properly balanced.  

Click on the Hotspot icon.png icons below to find out more.

  • Feed

    • Sulphate trace minerals are highly reactive in feed, and can react with vitamins in feed, reducing vitamin supply and wasting resources. 

  • Rumen

    •   Feeding sulphate trace minerals can negatively impact NDF digestibility of feed, reducing overall feed efficiency.  

  • Liver

    • Feeding dairy cows too much copper—above NASEM guidelines—can lead to liver accumulation and chronic toxicity; a UK study showed 38% of cull cows had toxic liver copper levels.  

  • Reproductive health

    • Excess copper in dairy heifer diets—above NASEM 2021 guidelines—has been linked to reduced fertility.  

  • Manure

    • Oversupplying trace minerals like cobalt, manganese, and zinc increases mineral excretion in faeces and urine, raising the risk of environmental contamination.  

Three key steps to ensure optimal mineral supplementation:


Bullet 1   Understand the mineral requirements of your herd

  • Your Trouw Nutrition representative can interpret NASEM 2021 published requirements, alongside recent R&D which models the variation in milk yield, liveweight, dry matter intake, diet, forage mineral analysis etc to ensure the variation within a herd is taken into account when balancing a mineral. The NASEM guidelines for dairy cattle serve as benchmark for formulating diets that meet the specific needs of lactating and non-lactating dairy cows. The NASEM guidelines are based on total diet.
  • Consider any issues you may have on farm, such as high SCC, fertility, poor rumen environment etc, these can be taken into account when recommending the most suitable mineral supplement for your herd.

  Determine the level of mineral supply in the basal ration

  • Forage mineral analysis is a helpful tool in assessing your basal ration mineral supply and can highlight if there are likely to be any issues with mineral interactions or antagonism.
  • Consider the feeding groups on farm to get the most appropriate mineral supplements for the whole herd. Where there are different lactating groups on farm it is important to consider the different feeding regimes to ensure appropriate supplementation.

Bullet 3  Meeting the shortfall with Maxcare farm minerals

  • Maxcare farm minerals have been formulated to contain Selko IntelliBond trace minerals for optimal performance and reduced environmental impact. The complete mineral package is formulated to ensure a balanced overall supply. Find out more about Maxcare mineral ranges

Benefits of getting it right: 

Balancing your overall mineral supply and improving the quality of trace mineral sources used can have several benefits for the farm enterprise:

  • Lower feed costs
  • Better cow health and performance
  • Reduced mineral waste and environmental impact
  • Using high-quality sources like Selko IntelliBond can further boost efficiency, performance and sustainability. 

Find out more about Selko IntelliBond hydroxy trace minerals

Click on the Hotspot icon.png icons below to find out more.

  • Rumen

    • Reducing supplemental trace minerals can improve rumen function by lowering the amount of free metal ions that can interact with feed ingredients and other minerals. Swapping to IntelliBond trace minerals further improves this due to low rumen solubility – supporting performance and sustainability.  

  • Feed intake

    • Low solubility of IntelliBond hydroxy trace minerals at neutral pH means that the trace minerals have less interaction with other feed ingredients.

  • Manure

    • Feeding Selko IntelliBond hydroxy trace minerals reduces trace mineral excretion and environmental impact, while also lowering the carbon footprint of milk production by up to 2% per kg of ECM.

  • Udder

    • Feeding Selko IntelliBond improves milk yield and delivers strong ROI—up to 15:1 based on performance alone, with even greater returns when factoring in health, fertility, reduced culling, and lower carbon emissions.

  • Intestine

    • Mineral absorption in dairy cattle is a regulated process, IntelliBond trace minerals have higher bioavailability compared to inorganic trace minerals, releasing trace metals gradually in the intestines, ensuring supply to the animal.

Sustainability impact of trace mineral nutrition

Optimising your mineral supply involves reviewing the source and amounts of minerals provided to your herd. Managing mineral intake carefully helps avoid oversupply, which can lead to increased excretion of minerals into the environment.  

Selko IntelliBond was the first improved source of trace mineral nutrition with a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that demonstrates a reduction in carbon intensity of milk production, decreasing CO₂ equivalents per kilogram of ECM by 1.5–2.0%.  

When planning your on-farm mineral supply, it is important to consider all minerals and vitamins required by the animals, with IntelliBond trace minerals forming one component of the overall mineral strategy. 

Interested in learning more? 

Complete the form below, and a Trouw Nutrition Representative will get in touch with you.

 

Minerals in balance blog

Minerals in balance: when less is more

  • Sustainable precision farming
Over-supplementing trace minerals can harm cow health, reproduction, and the environment—precision feeding ensures balance, sustainability and profitability.