"Jim Webster" wrote in message ...

Lotus wrote in message
...
[..]
Someone was thoughtful enough to find a supplier of
mineralised supplementary feed licks for cattle
http://www.ccfarmers.co.uk/feed.asp , but that's still
a lick. I see Dry Cow Feed Blocks on the same page,
but are they blocks of mineralised feed like Michael
showed us ;
http://www.martindalefeed.com/Products/BLOCKS/3307.htm
and are these given to suckler herds in the UK?

some suckler cows in the UK will have access to some thing similar. (to
save people wasting time going on line, it is a US firm producing for
their market. The ingredients are
INGREDIENTS
Defluorinated phosphate, salt, grain products, cane molasses, magnesium
oxide, vegetable oil, ferrous oxide, manganese sulfate, calcium
carbonate, zinc sulfate, sodium selenite, ferrous sulfate, potassium
chloride, ethylenediamine dihydriodide, cobalt carbonate)

Here's info' from a UK supplier;

FEED BLOCKS

With molasses and cereal-based formulations including Soya,
barley and maize, we have struck a balance between making
blocks which are hard enough to stand up to the worst weather
and providing blocks which give your stock ready access to the
supplementary minerals, vitamins and trace elements essential
for health and production.

More 'goodness' in every lick - a high level of dry ingredients
with a higher nutrient density.

Consistent degree of hardness - for more uniform consumption.

Subject to formula selected and animal weight, intake of these
products should range between 0.5 - 1 kg/head/day for cattle
and 30 - 90 gms/head/day for sheep.

Manganese - 400 mg/kg.

I got a thing though the post this morning from Pye farm feeds selling
something similar, but they call theirs buckets. This is because they
pour the mix into plastic bucket rather than a mould. It means you can
use a higher proportion of molasses.

Molassed Mineral Buckets

Mineral Buckets contain high mineral levels of both the major
and trace elements in equivalent amounts to many free access
mineral powders. They are available in a molasses block so that
stock find it very attractive and palatable and they are waste free.
Being unaffected by wet conditions makes them ideal for use with
both grazing and housed stock.

Daily Intakes to be expected:
Cattle - 100-300g per head per day
Sheep - 15-50g per head per day

Manganese1600mg/kg.

These products are basically grain and molasses based, although some
will contain a protein source as well. Depending on what the block is
wanted for it will contain more or less of various minerals.

Like at http://www.dallaskeith.fsnet.co.uk/ where I got the above info'.

Those for out wintering beef cows might well contain more calcium, those
fed at calving could well contain more magnesium. Calcium:Phosphorus
ration will vary as well.

As I said some beef cows in the UK will have access to that sort of
thing, others might get a compound feed instead, others a straight such
as maizs gluten, others might get nothing but silage or hay. It will
depend entirely on how the animal is wintered, the sort of condition it
was in prior to housing (or prior to commencing feeding).

That is -exactly- what we needed to know.

'2.8 Dairy herds were far more affected by BSE than beef herds.
The recorded incidence among dairy herds between 1 April 1985
and 31 March 1988 was 311 out of 44,767 herds (0.69 per cent),
considerably higher than the incidence in beef suckler herds
(11 out of 54,166 herds, or 0.02 per cent). 9 This was probably due
to the lower levels of concentrate feeding in beef suckler herds, 10 '
http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/report/...6/chapter2.htm

Blocks is just one more possibility in the ration. I know people who
have used them for rearing dairy heifers, and there are blocks available
formulated for dry cows, or even for use in the milking parlour when
animals are on complete diet regimes.

(8) Section 4.8.3.2 ( page 36)
"FURTHERMORE, BEEF COWS WHICH OBTAIN MOST OF
THEIR FOOD FROM PASTURE , ARE MORE LIKELY THAN
DAIRY COWS TO EXPERIENCE AN ABNORMAL IMBALANCE
IN DIETARY INTAKE OF THE TRACE ELEMENTS COPPER,
MOLYBDENUM, SELENIUM AND MANGANESE, SINCE
COMPOUND FEEDS FOR DAIRY COWS ARE SUPPLEMENTED
WITH THESE TRACE ELEMENTS AS NECESSARY TO MEET
NUTRIENT REQUIREMENTS. ACCORDINGLY, A HIGHER
INCIDENCE OF BSE WOULD BE EXPECTED IN BEEF COWS
RATHER THAN IN DAIRY COWS. THE REVERSE IS TRUE."
http://www.purdeyenvironment.com/Horne.htm
Capitalised for EMPHASIS only.

You say;

and MBM has a better match

What in MBM exactly?

Phosmet - Prions - Manganese - Fat - ?


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