Why does consistent cattle mineral intake matter?

Savvy producers nationwide are trimming operation expenses as input costs skyrocket, but your cattle mineral program is not the place to cut. A consistent, high-quality mineral program is crucial to your bottom line.

If a cow is doing her job, she never gets a day off. She always has a calf with her at any time, whether in utero, on the ground, or both. Because of this, her needs are constantly changing. Since forage quality is also always changing, she needs support with a mineral program. With consistent mineral intake, you’re ensuring she’s never deficient, and her performance doesn’t suffer.

Optimize your herd’s reproduction

While reducing mineral expenses seems like an easy fix to rising input costs, it could have long-lasting consequences. Efficiency is the name of the game right now. Consistent mineral intake helps a female breed back in fewer days and gives her calf more time to put on weight. ^1,2,3

By successfully breeding just one cycle – 21 days – earlier, her calf can gain at least 42 more pounds before your weaning date.⁴ That profit potential could cover the cow’s mineral expenses for the entire year.

Consistent cattle mineral intake also provides additional benefits on top of reproduction, including supporting overall health, proper body condition score and colostrum/milk quality.

Support intake in any weather

With minerals, we’re essentially asking cattle to eat rocks. So, palatability is important for consistent intake — with most cattle mineral programs, a cow should ideally consume 4 ounces of mineral per day.

Weather conditions exacerbate an already difficult task. Purina Wind and Rain mineral options help preserve intake consistency during temperature swings and precipitation.

Purina Proof Pays trial results from 1,800 operations nationwide (285,000 head) showed cattle consumed an average of 4.08 ounces of Wind and Rain mineral per head per day. The Purina Proof Pays program allows producers to test how the mineral works in their operation for 90 days.⁵

As a company, we provide producers with programs like Proof Pays to help ensure products will work in real-world conditions. As a producer, you get the peace of mind that our minerals are going to work for your program. You also receive the added health and growth benefits to your cows’ and calves’ performance at a time when every input needs to pull its weight. Does your cattle nutrition program stack up? Find out with a Proof Pays trial.

¹ Zinpro Corporation, TB-B-5019, 2004.

²Zinpro Corporation, TB-B-5012, 2004.

³Zinpro Corporation, TB-B-5017, 2002.

⁴Spitzer JC, Morrison DG, Wettermann RP, Faulkner LC. Reproductive responses and calf birth and weaning weights as affected by body condition at parturition and postpartum weight gain in primiparous beef cows. 1995. J Anim Sci.

⁵Results may vary. Because of factors outside of Purina Animal Nutrition LLC’s control, results obtained, including but not limited to animal performance, financial performance, profits, losses or otherwise, cannot be predicted or guaranteed by Purina Animal Nutrition LLC. Based on Purina® Proof Pays trial results from 2012-2022.