Question on Salt and meal

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chadreed88

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I've started putting out some premixed salt and meal to add some protein to our cows. They are still eating it like candy so do I need to just add some more salt or is there something else they make that works better? What would you do?
 
What is your mix parts? I mix mine at 100# meal to 50# salt. Takes a couple of weeks for them to adjust then intake should level off
 
Maybe this is a dumb newcomer question but I wonder why many folks recommend mixing salt with mineral or maybe meal?

I have been told many times to mix salt and mineral 50/50. Seems to me that there are times when they need more salt and there are times they need more mineral.

If you mix it they always need to consume one which they may not need to get the other which they may need more.

Would it not be better to offer salt and mineral or salt and meal separately rather than mixed so they could eat what they need of each? I have been feeding each separately and there are times of the year when they go thru one or the other faster. Looking to learn something here.
 
This is the first year I have fed it because it was recommended over other things by the guy at the feed store. The reason I'm wanting to put more salt is to knock them back some. I think if you just put the meal out then in my opinion I don't know if they would ever stop eating it all. And I maybe wrong like I said its the first time for me so any help is great. I was going to put out the mineral tubs and he said this is better and cheaper so I went with it.
 
I Put out plain salt till they get their fill of it
Then I mix 50:50(mineral mix:SBM) and see how that works- If they ate too much I would add salt till it leveled off at the right amount of minerals/day.

If you want more consumption of meal- then make a 50:100 mix and then add the salt till it was the right amount of minerals/day.

I also feed it in a feed trough at first instead of a mineral bucket-- if they aren't fighting to get at it they don't over consume as much.
Latter you can go back to a weather proof mineral feeder.
 
I'll have to look again and see exactly what the mixture is on it. We have been putting it in feed troughs right now thinking they would level off before long and then we were going to put it in the mineral feeders but we don't have enough feeders to go around right now the way they are all eating it. I'll look again and let you know and we can go from there. Thanks for the help
 
I don't personally feed much in terms of production licks unless its a severe drought, but the normal starting ratio would be 70% meal (or grain) and 30% salt. That works in most cases, from there you could add more salt to limit intake further or take some salt out if consumption isn't at the desired level. The % salt needs to be changed with grazing conditions, etc.

There is no one ratio fits all, cattle will tolerate more salt when they don't get enough from the grazing when they wouldn't touch the same mix in better times.
 
Angus Cowman":1j5ubtud said:
SR to answer your ? I put out 100lb min and 50lb salt I don't mix but put them in the same feeder so they can get what they want or need at anytime

Chad how much salt/meal mix are they cosuming and what are the ratios of salt /meal

Same here Angus. No need to encourage them to overconsume mineral in an attempt to satisfy salt needs. No need to add soybean meal or anything else to a mineral either as it should be formulated in away to be palatable enough to consume what they need but not overconsume. If they aren't eating as much as you think they should eat it might be because they simply don't need it.
 
TexasBred":2smcros4 said:
Angus Cowman":2smcros4 said:
SR to answer your ? I put out 100lb min and 50lb salt I don't mix but put them in the same feeder so they can get what they want or need at anytime

Chad how much salt/meal mix are they cosuming and what are the ratios of salt /meal

Same here Angus. No need to encourage them to overconsume mineral in an attempt to satisfy salt needs. No need to add soybean meal or anything else to a mineral either as it should be formulated in away to be palatable enough to consume what they need but not overconsume. If they aren't eating as much as you think they should eat it might be because they simply don't need it.
if you keep good records you will notice a trend in consumption with forage and weather
I use a hi phos and hi ctc mineral yr round
for protein I am trying protein tubs this yr on stockpiled fescue and later will be using fescue/clover hay
 
chadreed88":17knm7ae said:
I've started putting out some premixed salt and meal to add some protein to our cows. They are still eating it like candy so do I need to just add some more salt or is there something else they make that works better? What would you do?
To give us a better picture of your situation:

How many cows are we tallking about?

Is their a possibility of feeding range cubes every few days?

What is the condition of your pastures? Anything at all for them out their?

Your hay, is it good hay? Do you know the protien content of it?

Might be good for us to know what condition the cows are in. Are they in good shape but loosing condition? Are you trying to get them to gain condition? What is causing your need to add protein to your cows diet?
 
Angus Cowman":bq3i2uxl said:
SR to answer your ? I put out 100lb min and 50lb salt I don't mix but put them in the same feeder so they can get what they want or need at anytime

That is my approach too. IF you want them to consume less mineral for some reason just put out less or less frequently.

I put salt blocks out near the waterer in rubber trays. Minerals are in a plastic/rubber covered feeder when using dry mineral or a Mineralyx tub.

Thanks for your reply. I just don't like the idea of using salt to control mineral consumption.
 
SRBeef":39vzzd0c said:
Angus Cowman":39vzzd0c said:
SR to answer your ? I put out 100lb min and 50lb salt I don't mix but put them in the same feeder so they can get what they want or need at anytime

That is my approach too. IF you want them to consume less mineral for some reason just put out less or less frequently.

I put salt blocks out near the waterer in rubber trays. Minerals are in a plastic/rubber covered feeder when using dry mineral or a Mineralyx tub.

Thanks for your reply. I just don't like the idea of using salt to control mineral consumption.
well I never put out less min I always keep it out and let them consume what they want
I use the purina wind and rain min in a covered wooden 8ft min feeder
 
why are some of you discussing minerals? not paying attention to the question is one of the things that really irks me. the original poster was clearly asking about using salt to limit consumption in a self-fed protein supplement of either cottonseed or soybean meal.

the option that one poster mentioned of only putting out what you want them to have is not an option with self-fed supplements. your cows will never satisfy their desire to 'gorge' themselves if you don't keep it in front of them at all times.

to solve your dilemma, first you need to figure out how much protein you need to deliver. in other words, are your cows wet or dry, what is the quality of your roughage, etc. there is no point in trying to cut consumption if you are delivering what the cow actually needs.

if you see that you are delivering more crude protein than the cow actually needs, then you can add salt until you reach a ratio that will deliver what she needs.

you also need to know what ratio of meal to salt you are feeding. some common mixes are 1-1, 2-1, and 3-1 meal-salt.

also you should keep in mind that while the crude protein shown on the analysis/tag might vary only slightly, the actual crude protein delivered to the cow will vary tremendously.

for example, a 1-1 mixture of 41% cottonseed meal to salt has a crude protein analysis of 20.5. a 2-1 mixture has an analysis of 27.3 and the 3-1 mixture has a crude protein analysis of 30.75.

as you can see, there isn't much difference in crude protein of the 2-1 mixture and the 3-1 mixture so it might seem a better value to you to use the cheaper product. but the consumption will vary quite a bit so the actual protein delivered to the cow will also vary quite a bit.

as a general rule of thumb, you can figure that a cow will consume approximately .1% of her body weight in salt if forced to do so to get what she wants/needs from a supplement. hence, a 1300 pound cow will eat 1.3 pounds of salt in a day.

using the .1% as a general rule of thumb, if you are using a 1-1 mixture of 41% cottonseed meal to salt, that 1300 pound cow will consume 1.3 pounds of salt and 1.3 pounds of meal. a 2-1 mixture will deliver to her 1.3 pounds of salt and 2.6 pounds of meal. a 3-1 mixture will deliver to her 1.3 pounds of salt and 3.9 pounds of meal.

so if we assume a 41% protein cottonseed meal, a 1-1 mixture will deliver to your 1300 pound cow approximately .53 pounds of crude protein. the 2-1 mixture will deliver approximately 1.06 pounds of crude protein and the 3-1 mixture will deliver approximately 1.6 pounds of crude protein.

figure out how much supplemental crude protein your cow needs before you start shorting her because you think she is eating too much. the first step in doing that is to have your hay tested.
 
irked":16oe8540 said:
why are some of you discussing minerals? not paying attention to the question is one of the things that really irks me. the original poster was clearly asking about using salt to limit consumption in a self-fed protein supplement of either cottonseed or soybean meal.

the option that one poster mentioned of only putting out what you want them to have is not an option with self-fed supplements. your cows will never satisfy their desire to 'gorge' themselves if you don't keep it in front of them at all times.

to solve your dilemma, first you need to figure out how much protein you need to deliver. in other words, are your cows wet or dry, what is the quality of your roughage, etc. there is no point in trying to cut consumption if you are delivering what the cow actually needs.

if you see that you are delivering more crude protein than the cow actually needs, then you can add salt until you reach a ratio that will deliver what she needs.

you also need to know what ratio of meal to salt you are feeding. some common mixes are 1-1, 2-1, and 3-1 meal-salt.

also you should keep in mind that while the crude protein shown on the analysis/tag might vary only slightly, the actual crude protein delivered to the cow will vary tremendously.

for example, a 1-1 mixture of 41% cottonseed meal to salt has a crude protein analysis of 20.5. a 2-1 mixture has an analysis of 27.3 and the 3-1 mixture has a crude protein analysis of 30.75.

as you can see, there isn't much difference in crude protein of the 2-1 mixture and the 3-1 mixture so it might seem a better value to you to use the cheaper product. but the consumption will vary quite a bit so the actual protein delivered to the cow will also vary quite a bit.

as a general rule of thumb, you can figure that a cow will consume approximately .1% of her body weight in salt if forced to do so to get what she wants/needs from a supplement. hence, a 1300 pound cow will eat 1.3 pounds of salt in a day.

using the .1% as a general rule of thumb, if you are using a 1-1 mixture of 41% cottonseed meal to salt, that 1300 pound cow will consume 1.3 pounds of salt and 1.3 pounds of meal. a 2-1 mixture will deliver to her 1.3 pounds of salt and 2.6 pounds of meal. a 3-1 mixture will deliver to her 1.3 pounds of salt and 3.9 pounds of meal.

so if we assume a 41% protein cottonseed meal, a 1-1 mixture will deliver to your 1300 pound cow approximately .53 pounds of crude protein. the 2-1 mixture will deliver approximately 1.06 pounds of crude protein and the 3-1 mixture will deliver approximately 1.6 pounds of crude protein.

figure out how much supplemental crude protein your cow needs before you start shorting her because you think she is eating too much. the first step in doing that is to have your hay tested.
ok we got off topic but the original poster never answered my ? as to what ratio of salt to meal and how much were they consuming so yes we got off topic but I answered his ? as well as I could with the info he gave
 
Angus in a nutshell I guess it all just depends on how much you want to feed....a highly concentrated 1 lb. or a diluted 3 lbs. Hope that satisfies "Irked" as being "On Topic". :nod:
 

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