Why do salt/mineral blocks exist?

[regolith]

From what I recall, each soil sample costs $NZ110. We sample four different areas of the farm - the pastures that get fertilised with effluent from the dairy shed are done separately, and three different terrains.
Bloods are anything from $35 to over $100 depending on what is tested for, and if I'm doing the numbers the vets expect to give a true picture of what's happening in the herd (6 - 8 samples) I can expect to see an additional $500 on the bill that month. I was doing blood tests twice a year but I think I can't justify it at the current low milk prices. That $500 doesn't include the vet visit and drawing blood either, that's a separate charge.
I don't know why such high prices, unless your prices are very highly subsidised. Us NZers/Aussies can only read you and dream of cheap testing.

 

[Karin]

Unless I'm wrong I've never heard of blood samples being subsidized. I guess they're just cheaper here for some reason or other.

 

[Nesikep]

Karin, thanks for the link to your old thread

I paid $60 for the blood test I did (it went up just after I got it done).. I chose a cow that had problems to do it on.. that was about 5 years ago and haven't done one since.. Perhaps I'll get another one done sometime on a good producing cow and see if things have changed on paper as much as I think (or hope) they have. I maintain that a blood test is one of the best investments I've ever done... that said, doing many of them on a routine basis will not yield much more returns, just more costs.

Regolith, I don't think you should entirely give up on blood tests, but the '6 to 8 samples', while being good from an information standpoint, probably doesn't tell you a whole lot more than doing it from 2 to 4 samples.. twice a year, on a dairy herd probably is a good idea.. I'd suggest end of summer and end of winter, as that would give you the best window to see what's been depleted over the course of that kind of feed and weather for the following similar season.

I have yet to test my forage.. some day I'll get to that! I know the cows eat hay that smells better than any hay my neighbors put up

 

[Karin]

What would be really neat to see is the test results from one extreme to another: the easy-keeper/high producer to the highest-maintenance/lowest producer just for schitzen and giggles...