We began feeding Integra-mos from Ralco Nutrition last year. Our problem in years past hasn't been as much typical scours--we use a variation of the sandhills calving system and have plenty of room to keep the pairs spread out and constantly moving. Our problem has been baby calves wanting to lick sand, which can lead to some scours, stomach ulcers, and often death. We have tried lots of different minerals, lick blocks, salt blocks, etc, but just can't ever keep the calves from wanting to eat this fine Nebraska sand.
We bought the Integra-mos from our local co-op in 50 lb bags and mixed it ourselves in a custom mineral. Adding the Integra-mos was the only difference in our management, and the problems with sand eating was drastically reduced. We still saw plenty of calves licking on gopher mounds and whatever exposed sand they could find, but it seemed to take care of itself in most cases. Normally what happens is the sand kind of "scuffs up" the gut of the calf and causes alot of problems. We did treat a handful of calves with mineral oil or metamucil, but really got along great.
Feeding Integra-mos is designed to begin a month prior to calving. We used a lot of mineral boxes and made it as accessible as possible for the cattle to consume. We are using it again this year on our first calf heifers, and trying a different Gro-Moss which was premixed in the mineral on the rest of the cowherd as a test. Its still too early to tell alot because we only have 100 calves on the ground, but it will be interesting to see if things go good this spring.
I really believe there is alot of merit to the Mos products and I would highly recommend them.
