Responsible Mineral Nutrition

It's a matter of Precision Feeding 

Minerals are a small but vital component of a ration. Getting the correct overall balance of supplementary minerals is critical to the health, performance and efficiency of a milking herd. Historically, mineral requirement models provide a minimum level required for normal production, and so practical mineral feeding strategies adopt this with an overage above as a safety margin. This approach works well to avoid deficiencies but can pose significant risk of oversupply. 

Our approach: Redefining mineral requirements 

The Trouw Nutrition R&D team have developed a model for defining the minimum and maximum recommended levels of supplemental trace minerals in a diet. Taking into account the diet, forages fed, performance and critically the ability of the animal to up and downregulate absorption based on supply. If a cow is supplemented more, she will absorb proportionately less, and if supplemented less, she will increase absorption to ensure that her needs are met. This model enables increased accuracy of mineral supplementation and optimises supply for health and performance whilst reducing the risk of inefficient and potentially harmful oversupply. 


Source: Trouw Nutrition R&D
Read the paper here: Review: Homeostatic boundaries to dietary Zn, Cu and Mn supply in cattle - ScienceDirect 

Balancing minerals for health, performance, and sustainability 

When assessing the mineral supply to your herd, you must consider all aspects of the mineral formulation. Macro-minerals (such as Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Sodium) typically make up the bulk of a farm mineral.  

Undersupplying macro minerals can lead to major health events, such as milk fever, or grass staggers. Conversely, over-supplying macro minerals generally has a lower risk of toxicity, however this doesn’t mean that we should aim to oversupply. Phosphorus, for example, is not stored in the animal, and so excess dietary phosphorus is excreted into the environment. This can cause environmental contamination, and is also costly, with no benefit to the animal. 

 Trace minerals are also included in mineral supplements, and although required in very small amounts, are vital for health and optimal performance. Read more here about the importance of balancing trace minerals in the ration and the risks associated with oversupply

Click here to learn more about balancing your trace minerals.

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

  • Using a farm mineral endorsed by Responsible Minerals ensures that the product has been formulated to the latest requirements and with the highest quality raw materials. Including 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

Impact of optimizing your mineral management: 

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

    • Balancing supplemental trace minerals, and utilising Selko IntelliBond trace minerals can improve rumen function by lowering the amount of free metal ions that can interact with feed ingredients and other minerals. The low rumen solubility of Selko IntelliBond trace minerals support 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

    • Balancing macro mineral levels and feeding Selko IntelliBond hydroxy trace minerals reduces 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

    • Absorption of many of the minerals we feed to dairy cattle is a regulated process, optimising the balance of minerals in the ration takes advantage of the animals ability to regulate supply, improving overall efficiency of mineral use.

Improving sustainability through smarter 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. 

Phosphorus is vital for energy metabolism, bone health and many other functions, therefore it is critical that requirements are met. However, excess dietary phosphorus is excreted, and can cause environmental contamination, leading to eutrophication of waterways. Managing the macro-mineral supply to a herd as part of the responsible mineral approach can help to reduce the risk of over-supply. 

When looking at the scope 3 emissions of a farm mineral, reformulating to Responsible Mineral guidelines has been shown to reduce the CO2 equivalent emissions, in a worked example the reduction was 89kg CO2 equivalents per tonne - reformulating a basic mineral to improve overall mineral balance and quality of trace mineral sources. Although a small difference, when you multiply this by the mineral use on a farm over a year, and across all herds in a milk supply pool, this can start to add up to a sizable improvement for a mineral formulation update, that requires no change of protocol or system on farm. 

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. 

Sustainability impact of mineral nutrition

Optimising your mineral supply starts with reviewing both the sources and levels of minerals provided to your herd. Careful management of mineral intake helps prevent oversupply, which can increase mineral excretion and environmental impact.

Although minerals make up only a small portion of the ration, adjusting the sources and inclusion levels of supplemental minerals can meaningfully reduce farm emissions. Updating your mineral program is a simple, practical step to improve the overall efficiency of your farming system.

Interested in learning more? 

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