Although, the upcoming grazing season may be hard to picture at this point, it’s not too early to begin making preparations. Among those preparations is selecting a mineral supplement, especially for those operations that are looking to take advantage of “early booking” discounts for mineral orders. It can be challenging to select a mineral program, as there are many different products and mineral formulations currently available. When evaluating mineral supplements the phosphorous concentration may be used as a basic guide to determine if the mineral fits the production stage of the herd and forage base. Phosphorous is one of the most common mineral deficiencies in grazing systems around the world and is one of the primary reasons we provide mineral supplements to grazing beef cattle. The table below illustrates the amount of phosphorous required in a mineral supplement required for cattle at various production stages consuming forages with different phosphorous concentrations. Forage phosphorous concentrations vary and are typically greatest during the spring and lowest in the winter. In Kansas, phosphorous content of native range during the grazing season is typically between 0.15 and 0.20%. Thus, the maintenance requirements of lactating cow (20 lbs milk/d) could be met by a mineral with at least 8% phosphorous (average of 6 and 10 in the table).
For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu
