Update on "Trial by Fire"

I have been a big believer in high quality loose minerals for a long time. We have always kept them available for our family Jersey herd and my herd of goats. Always looking for a high copper and selenium mineral with low salt content. Not only does the salt inhibit the animals from getting enough of the other minerals as said by travlnusa, it is also *cheap* so if your mineral is too high in salt, your probably paying too much and getting less performance out of your stock.
In this area the high iron in the water also inhibits copper absorbtion. Copper and selenium work hand in hand for optimal breeding/calving(or kidding)/milking/good feet, etc. So if your low in one the other can't do its full job either.
This herd of dairy cows have never had free-choice loose minerals available to them, to my knowledge. I can see copper/selenium issues in their breeding/feet/hair/calving as a herd. Not terrible, but certainly issues. They do have mineral included in their feed, but its just not enough. The way they have been sucking down the loose minerals and the change in the calving problems upon supplying them with sufficient selenium, proves that point.

Goats have an even higher need of copper and selenium than cows do. Especially here with high iron binding up the copper, that can be a real issue. I have given selenium shots twice a year and a copper bolus once a year for quite some time now to my goat herd. The improvement was drastic when I first started. Herd health improved dramatically.

Now I am discovering that I can apply a lot of mineral-knowledge I have aquired on my goats for years, to the new dairy cow herd.

Thanks for all the responses, keep em coming!

Mid Tn Mama said:

This is very interesting, I hope you will continue to post your experiences. When can we order cheese?

I especially found interesting your shed that you put two semi trailers for storage under:

http://www.freewebs.com/ozarkjewels/theherd.htm

Great idea!

Click to expand...

Thanks, it has worked well so far for me. One of the semi trailers is full of hay for the goats, the other one is family storage(read: "all my brothers and Dads junk").
We are making and selling cheese every week. We took over the operation so it was an already running business. Right now we are lower in the cheese department than we like and cannot keep up with all the orders. Its dry-time for about 20 cows which really cuts our production down. But we are calving a few every week so our production should slowly start going back up within a month. Right now I am drying cows off as others freshen so we are only going up in production *very* slowly.
We sell raw cow milk cheese under the label of "Morningland Dairy" and raw goat milk cheese under the label "Ozark Hills Farm".
I'll keep posting our experiences as we try to manage this herd/business ever better.
Yesterday we had a slight problem calving, but it was just a breach calf all frogged up in the birth canal. With very minimal manuevering, he slipped right out.

Pics of the dairy herd out on clover/alfalfa/grass pasture.







Here are the mineral feeders I made for the cows. Dry cow pastures each have one and the dairy herd has three. I think I need to get at least two more out for the dairy herd. They work great and the mineral doesn't blow out or get spilled. They are a variation of the type I have seen sold at the feed stores in the spring. Cheaper though.....:angel: