All nutrition programs are not created equally, and all nutrients included in a program are not created alike either. To that you all cheer a resounding amen! Various production stages require different minerals and vitamins for your beef cow herd to excel, depending on if you’re breeding, in gestation, lactation or growing out calves.
With an emphasis on growing out calves, heath, performance and weight gain becomes top priorities. To maximize performance in the herd you will need a balanced diet of both organic (chelated) minerals and inorganic minerals as well as trace minerals.
Organic minerals are those that have once been living or are still living. They are also called chelated minerals. Likewise, inorganic minerals are those that are not living, nor have ever been living. They work as antagonists in the body. Both organic and inorganic minerals play important roles in cattle diets and often function best when combined to work together.
Organic trace minerals often have higher bioavailability and can help increase performance in your calves. OTMs like copper help provide benefits of keeping your calves healthy, while zinc supports your calves’ hoof qualit. Regardless of if you are running stockers on grass or calves in a feedlot, both their overall health and their structural integrity should be top of mind.
And while OTMs are important, it is not cost effective or practical to rely solely on them. That is where the balance of offering inorganic trace minerals in a diet comes into play. Minerals like potassium and magnesium are often included in the diet. Inorganic minerals work to assist with fiber digestion in the rumen, which functions at its optimum when both inorganic and organic minerals are present.
Since BioZyme® Inc., understands the importance of both OTMs and their inorganic counterparts, the nutrition company based in Saint Joseph, Missouri, has formulated a mineral with both for stocker calves to help put on healthy, efficient pounds. The Gain Smart® mineral comes in four formulas and is ideal for any stocker or backgrounder operation from a feedlot to wheat grazing to pasture grazing.
With the combination of vitamins, minerals and Amaferm®, a precision prebiotic designed to increase intake, digestion and absorption of nutrients, producers who feed Gain Smart have experienced at least .25 to .30 more pound of gain per calf per day. Amaferm is research-proven to promote calf health and vigor, stimulate digestion and increase nutrient absorption for optimum gain.
“After I completed a feed trial with CFC, the results of adding Amaferm to the diet were proved to me, so I started feeding the Gain Smart mineral in addition to the Amaferm pellets to the 1,000 head of stockers I run each year. The health of the cattle is noticeably better; they just feel better, and we’ve had considerably fewer to treat. The cattle are gaining more efficiently, and with the cost of feed that is definitely to our advantage. We’re seeing on average and extra half-pound of gain per day per head, thanks to the Amaferm and the Gain Smart mineral,” said Joe Johnson, Virginia.
Gain Smart formulas include Gain Smart Balancer RU 1600 with Rumensin for feeding grain; Gain Smart Stocker, for backgrounding on grass; Gain Smart Wheat, for running calves on wheat pasture or other small grains; and Gain Smart Stocker HEAT® with the HEAT formula when grazing anytime it is hotter than 70 degrees or in fescue situations.
