JustIf - 5/8/2016 18:58 Mine ate/ripped all the bark off of the trees, like you I immediately thought something was wrong, put in a feed bunk in with a bag of maintenance blend mineral and a bag of loose salt in opposite ends, 3-4 days later it rained - pretty much ruined my mineral - they had no use for it and had not touched it, I figured they were just bored. I had pretty much the same experience when I tried dry bagged mineral in a plastic feeder with a rubber flap. The mineral still got damp, turned into a rock and was never consumed at all. A very experienced neighbor got me started with the Mineral-lyx barrel and I've had them and white salt blocks out continuously for maybe 8 years now. There is zero waste of mineral even when the barrel sits out in a heavy rain. The cows come over for a mineral/rain water "smoothy"! There is a lot of molasses in the tubs to make stuff taste good but if it gets cows consuming minerals that's good. Note vitamins and minerals for children now come packaged as "gummy bears", a similar idea. About cattle not being able to lick enough to meet their needs....let's just say I disagree with that. Maybe at first when severely lacking in salt or mineral... However I never see any one animal spend a lot of time licking either salt blocks nor mineralyx tubs. Most of the time there is no animal at either one. I believe that after their internal needs for salt and mineral are "caught up" to where they need to be, just a few licks a day provides maintenance levels of each. This is just what I see with my cows and calves. A good mineral balance in the cow is also passed on to the calf and is a large part of successful calving.
Edited by Jim 5/8/2016 20:10
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Mineral tubs for feedlot catle
