Topping off the mineral feeder for the cattle. I have subscribed to the Free Choice Enterprises concept, meaning cattle can determine what mineral they are deficient. Individual minerals are provided free choice along with loose salt. The idea being...different areas of the same pasture can have different grasses and mineral content and cows can detect this deficiency. I have noticed last summer and fall that the cattle would consume different minerals more heavily depending upon what part of the pasture I had them grazing. Once I switched over to hay in the dry lot, they started working more heavily on a different group of minerals. A few information sources suggest the animal only uptakes about 20% of the mineral they consume with the rest being returned to the soil in urine and manure, thereby helping to correct the mineral deficiency in that specific area of pasture. These pastures have only been grass for 5 years. They had been farmed bean and corns for many decades prior. Initial soil tests showed a mostly lifeless soil, almost zero organic matter and devoid of trace minerals, no earthworms/spiders/fungi, etc. The pastures that have had cattle, now have several types of fungi growing, tons of spiderwebs ( this means lots of other insects for food), and lots of worms dug up when I did my waterline trenching. I will repeat soil tests this spring for some more objective data, but so far I am inclined to believe that rotational grazing with free choice minerals is not only good for my cattle, but it is also good for my soil! Anyone else on this boat, or am I paddling upstream solo?
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:58:16 +0000
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