Change salt block?

[I luv herfrds]

Was feeding the calves we kept back and noticed that they were starting to chew on the wooden planks on our corral. Checked their mineral and found that they were out, but had salt. Gave them a new bag of mineral.
Now a couple of weeks later I have caught the calves licking the wooden planks. They have mineral and a trace mineral salt block.
Feed guy suggested a colbalt salt block.

What are your thoughts? What is in this salt block? Feed guy wasn't too sure.
I did pick up a nutri-lix tub today.

 

[dun]

Boredom with too much time on their hands

 

[msscamp]

I'm not a big believer in salt or mineral blocks. Reason being is that the animals generally cannot get enough to satisfy their needs. I cannot help you with the cobalt salt block, as I know nothing about them, but I do know I would be changing to loose salt mixed with a mineral formulated for my area. I would mix them at a rate of a half of a 50# bag of salt to one 50# bag of mineral.

 

[rockridgecattle]

We had the same problem several years ago. We could not keep a fence post in the ground and several cows thought the tractor wires were desssert. can't remember how many times hubby rewired the Massie 35 of the ford 600, or figure out what "tin gut" did with 25 feet of copper wire. But alas I am digressing. As per the wood though, we for some reason i do not remember why, decided to change brands of mineral. After a few months it did the trick. Not all mineral is made the same. I think it was the lack of phosphorus.


Sometimes when it's a bad growing year the feed might be lacking. It might be a good idea to get a feed analysis to see where it is at, and then maybe adjust your mineral accordingly.