What are they lacking?

[countryfied2011]

Yesterday DH and I went back to our back pastures that we are working on to get some soil samples, I had the hand held post hole digger on my 4 wheeler. When I stopped in the pasture where my two Jerseys were(we have several pastures) to open one of the gates to let DH through(he was on the skid-loader) the Jerseys went nuts licking the post hole digger. They have loose salt and loose trace minerals. I am assuming that was an indication that they are lacking something in their diet. They eat grass, hay and I give them hay pellets as treats. I have also seen them occasionally lick the tin on the barn.

They have been wormed twice this year, once in April and then again last week, only on occasion do I give them grain.

So is this a normal cow thing...lol (I know they like to put their mouths on everything at least mine do), should I be worried?

[Gabriel]

They're almost surely lacking something, although there's no way to tell over the internet... Mine would lick the dirt (red clay) anywhere that I had dug, when I went to a 16 mineral compartment where they could pick and choose what they wanted, they stopped licking the soil. In my case, I believe it was Phosphorus.

[countryfied2011]

Thanks Gabriel, I am in TN too and there was some clay dirt on the digger so it makes sense. Could you tell me about the 16 mineral compartment...come to think about it seems like I remember a couple of times them licking the dirt now that you mention it.

[G. Seddon]

You could have a mineral panel done on a blood sample at Michigan State Univ. lab; here's a link:
http://www.animalhealth.msu.edu/Bin/Catalog.exe