Mineral licks

[strawberriesclint]

Hi everyone

I only have a small number of dexters, a couple are in calf , one has a 13 month calf and one I am having trouble getting in calf. Now my question is about mineral licks, I have read some of the advice offered on another topic but because my dexters are mixed how am I going to know what to put out for them?

Cyndy

[Jo Kemp]

Duncaaaaaaaan!

I had the kidneys of 2 steers condemned and the vet & I decided it was because they had access to a high magnesium/calcium lick, put out for their mothers. I now give the Crystalix high mag to the females prior to calving and post calving. There is a Cristalix Cattle booster which is fine for all cattle and another lick 'Standard' which is OK for sheep and this has a higher magnesium content than the Booster type.
It is a difficult one I think. My girls don't like the grainy mineral licks and probably overindulge in the molassed, Cristalix but so far so good.
If you are worried about magnesium for the calving ones you can have mag. boluses fired down their gullets. I did this the first year (the vet did actually)
Good luck, Jo

[Duncan MacIntyre]

I suppose the answer is that it is impossible to supply exactly the correct diet to a mixed herd as they will have different requirements. In the past I have not fed ANY minerals to my Dexters but they were getting a reasonable amount of cake through the winter. But since winter 2003-4 I have stopped feeding cake and they have been getting nothing but hay all winter. I decided last spring to give them a bucket of minerals in each field, and 14 or so cattle used two buckets from May to October. I know that tests cost money but if anyone is really worried about their feeding it would be worth getting bloods tested for Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and Copper, Cobalt and Selenium. There may not be as much need for suppliments as you would think. We use the Scottish Agricultural College laboratories at Auchincruive for cattle and sheep work and they do a variety of different "profiles" to suit different situations and I am sure similar things will be available from any of your vets. Large practices will have in-house facilities to do it.
Another feeding complication which I run into and may well bother quite a few dexter owners is that I also keep sheep. And just to make it worse ours are North Ronaldsays - life can get quite difficult satisfying all their requirements. Though I dont think we have ever lost either cattle from deficiencies or sheep from excesses!!

Duncan