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Salting Birds and Cattle By Darol Dickinson[return to Past Articles] At the age of five years old, my grandmother told me that if you sprinkle salt on a bird's tail, you could catch the bird. She also told me that if you grab a skunk and hold his tail down in a horizontal position, he can't squirt you. Now, bless my dear old grandmother's heart, I am not here to shame her memory. But those were just two of several stories she told me when I was a small child that I quickly recall. As a result of her advice, I never really got to test the skunk thing, but I spent a lot of time on ladders trying to sneak up to a bird nest to try the salt method. After thinking about it for fifty years. I am of the opinion that salt does not have any paralyzing effect on a bird. At least to the best of my abilities. it never seemed to work. No birds were captured. Last week I went into a large farm supply store, and there were tons of salt blocks ready to be carried away and fed. Some were white, some were bright yellow and some were kind of a rusty brown. The white ones were called salt. The yellow ones were called sulfur and the brown ones were called trace mineral. I asked the salesman how much trace mineral was in this block and he said he didn't know. Once I read the label it was obvious. When I first started raising BueLingo cattle, I would go to the feed store and buy a white block of salt, a brown block and a yellow one. I thought I was allowing my cattle to have all the minerals and nutrition necessary for their system. Somehow I didn't realize that when you buy a block of this material for around $3, it really couldn't have that much nutrition in it. Once you place the salt blocks out for cattle to lick, they immediately start licking and acting like they thoroughly enjoy it. As my education ever so slowly increased about salt and minerals, somewhere along the line I decided that I would never buy a white salt block. I would go ahead and buy the yellow and brown mineral blocks for my cows, and while they were eating the salt, they would get mineral. That major decision increased the intake of mineral for my cows about ½ of 1 %. As I write this article for The BueLingo World, I am looking at the label from a major salt block producing company concerning the guaranteed analysis of what they call a "trace mineral salt block". This is a brown looking square block that is marketed as "trace mineral". The ingredients in this block include Cobalt, Iodine, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Zinc, and Sodium Chloride, which is salt. Iodine is a very important mineral, and this particular product contains 175/1000 of 1% iodine. Copper is one of the most essential minerals to cattle production. This product contains 35/1000 of 1% copper. Iron is a real cheap mineral so this product is 175/1000 of 1% iron. When I add up all the minerals that are in what is sold as a "trace mineral salt block," it comes to a total of 854 thousandths of 1 % mineral and the rest is some type of salt. In other words, a brown block of trace mineral salt has less than 1% mineral in it. Many people buy it to feed to their cows believing that their cows are getting adequate mineral supple-ments. Salt is a natural earth product that encourages cattle to eat other minerals. It can be mixed w ith some minerals that are not so tasty, yet completely essential. Salt has no mineral health value. It is the cheapest ingredient in a mix of minerals with the possible exception of dirt. The easy way to decide if the mineral you are feeding your cows has substance is to determine how much salt is in the mix of trace minerals. If you have more than 20% salt mixed in with your minerals, your cows are getting cheated. and perhaps their owner it, too. There should be at least 11% calcium and at least 10% phosphorus. Phosphorus is very important when it comes to reproduction. In most areas of the United States there should be at least 1800 parts per million copper and around 5000 parts per million, minimum, of zinc. When we first moved to Ohio, it was obvious that we were hauling a lot of cattle into the area, so every mineral dealer wanted to get our business. We had to sit and chat about the weather with mineral dealers about twice a week. Everyone would explain exactly what kind of mineral was needed to fit our particular area. Many of these guys would bring some nutritional expert with some kind of impressive degree in nutrition. It always seemed like these fellow knew what they were talking about, and they would use a bunch of big words that shot way over my head. Every mineral dealer has some kind of education, can pronounce some big words and normally has a briefcase full of computer printouts. Some minerals are dirt cheap and others are really expensive. As you determine the cost of each mineral and find that certain companies are putting high amounts of the cheap minerals in the ration and low amounts of expensive minerals, you have a clue. As I said before, salt is the cheapest thing to add, after dirt. There are a lot of studies about copper and how important it is on herd health. If you see a herd of Black Angus cows that have a rusty brown color in their flanks, or under their neck, I can almost guarantee you that they are low in copper. Copper effects the color of cattle. When cattle have an adequate amount of copper, black/white belted cattle appear as bold black/white. Red/white cattle will be bold red/white. All the colors will be brighter. If there is a copper deficiency in the soil, your cattle will have pale, drab colors. The outward color of the hair gives some indication of the inward condition of the cow. Once again, I am no nutritionist. I am just stating a few simple observations. Now let's cut to the chase. How can you tell a good nutritionist from a garden variety mineral salesperson? Here is how you tell: If the fellow that walks onto your place doesn't pretend to have all the answers, that is a good sign. If he says he will have to do some testing of the soil, the fiber, the hay and the water on your ranch, then you know he's on the right track. If he knows the basic requirements for the kind of cattle you raise, hug him around the neck-he is your man. If he offers to do all sorts of testing and wants you to pay for the test, that is a little bit spooky. If he offers to do a lot of testing and pick up the tab on the test, hug him around the neck again. If he offers to take hair clippings for testing to determine the absorption minerals, that would also be a sign that he really knows what he is doing. Hair follicle testing tells a lot about the health of an animal. But there is quite a bit of expense to it, so it might be all right to pay for those tests. Today, when I drive down the road and see a block of salt in a cow pasture, it immediately tells me that the owner of those cows is either tying to save money of does not understand nutrition or minerals. Stillborn calves, weak calves, small birth weight calves and cows that fail to breed promptly, are all dead sure signs of a mineral program that is not balanced. Something is not good enough. A high percentage of the cows that have just given birth to a stillborn calf and did not clean out properly, are most likely licking a white calf block |
