Are We Running Out of Minerals?

Minerals are essential for ruminant diets, and the effects of not getting the balance right are well documented. This article is designed for ruminant keepers to consider what goes into the livestock rations.

I thought that minerals were a finite resource, and, by rights, they should run out.  I was amazed to read that we are unlikely to run out of minerals and just face shortages.

Minerals are in higher demand now in other industries and infrastructure projects such as clean energy, transport, water and the increasing sanitation needs of a growing middle-class population.  Most minerals are imported from remote regions in the world, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, which holds the most mineral wealth of any country within its borders.  China processes 95% of the minerals in the world, which leads to a greater reliance on the ability to trade.  The UK government is looking to subsidise the minerals coming into the country to boost UK companies.  This didn’t include agriculture (sorry!).

Having gathered the basic premise that minerals are becoming more difficult to extract and travel a long distance to get to the farm, this does not lead to a reduction in the material price!

With most of the winter feed ordered and rations formulated, it is worth looking at the mineral content of the feed, particularly the mineral content in the compounds that cattle are fed.  Testing the mineral content of forages has increasing benefits; this may highlight specific minerals that are already present in the diet.  It may be worth talking to distributors if there are savings in taking out minerals.  This is largely dependent on the quantity of minerals a farm orders.

Most diets include around 150 to 120 grams of standard dairy minerals per cow daily as a maintenance level, depending on the stage of lactation.  For example, if a herd of 150 autumn-calved cows was fed an average of 5kg head of compound containing 2% minerals over a typical 180-day winter (normal UK!), this would supply 100 grams per head.  If they were fed 150 grams of mineral/cow/day in the TMR, they would be overfed by 100 grams/cow/day.  This would translate into 15 kg of minerals a day wasted or 2.7 tonnes over the winter.  If the minerals are worth £750 a tonne, this equals £2,025, which is potentially wasted out of the system.

Excess minerals in a diet generally have no negative effects on the cow but will lead to more being excreted out of the system, adding to the mineral content in the soil.  In effect, going back to the start of the article, minerals will never run out; they will just become harder to extract and distribute.

For all your independent livestock technical and rationing advice, contact Allaster at allasterdallas@fcgagric.com or Tel: 07496 760242.