Minerals

[Ben H]

Somebody posted a message a couple months ago about the cost of minerals going up due to phosphorus. I called my guy to have a seasons worth delivered at around $19.60, I still have plenty now, but he called the other day saying he was coming to the area. I told him I didn't need any, but asked what the current price is. He said they've gone up to $25.

He told me something that I haven't been able to verify, he said the price is due to di-Calcium Phosphate. Here's the thing, he said there are three grades out there, one that is excellent, one that is OK and one that is worthless. That some mills will substitute the worthless one.

After reading the following I checked my mineral label.

Grassfed Must Mean Absolutely No Grain
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Many grassfed meat and milk marketers are finding consumers with corn gluten allergies to be among their most loyal and enthusiastic customers. Currently, it is estimated that there are around 10 million Americans with this allergy and these people represent a multi-billion dollar market for grassfed products. However, these people must have absolutely grassfed products. Texas grassfed meat marketer, Jon Taggart, recently found out just how sensitive these people are to corn when one of his most loyal, long-term customers came to him and said that some lamb she had purchased from him had made her sick. She said she knew this was because the lamb had been fed grain. Jon called the rancher who supplied the lamb, who swore they never fed grain on their ranch. However, later that day he called back and said they were indeed at fault. He found that a commercial molasses energy block they were feeding had minute particles of corn in it. Be careful!

-Allan Nation's Blog

Sure enough my mineral contains distillers. I called my mineral guy and he told me it's such a trace amount and it acts as a vitamin carrier. He said that without it the vitamins wouldn't be available after a few months.

 

[Faster horses]

He's right.

And he is right about the Di-Cal going up as in price as a raw ingredient and their being different qualities. Our company uses the BEST and won't
change because then the quality of the product suffers.

Phos is the main reason the mineral has gone up. I think Cargill owns the only Phos plant in the US. There is more demand for Phos world wide...these 3rd world countries are using more all the time.

 

[RobertMac]

He's right.

And he is right about the Di-Cal going up as in price as a raw ingredient and their being different qualities. Our company uses the BEST and won't
change because then the quality of the product suffers.

Phos is the main reason the mineral has gone up. I think Cargill owns the only Phos plant in the US. There is more demand for Phos world wide...these 3rd world countries are using more all the time.

FH, aren't chelated minerals the most absorbable by the animal?

 

[Faster horses]

According to data, they are. And we are mainly talking copper being more available. However, I sell no chelated mineral to speak of except for the area veterinarian who does some embryo transplants and does not have his cattle on a year round mineral program. (He is working up to it, tho--several years ago he told me he didn't believe cattle needed mineral. ) Then he started feeding a chelated custom mix to his cows right before calving and before breeding. Now he feeds our 3V2 product to his cows for about 6 months out of the year with excellent results.

Anyway, some of the documentation on chelated mineral was done on cattle that were not previously on a mineral program. Our old 32SPLUS and all our PLUS products (now 3V Products) have done such a wonderful job, that our customers don't need the added cost of chelated mineral.
We sell close to 500 ton annually, and don't sell chelates except in this one instance. Vigortone ingredients and particle size are all tailored to availability to the cow. We want her to be able to break down the vitamins and minerals. We recently had an independent lab do an analysis of Brand X vs. Vigortone. What they found (and they didn't know which sample was which) was Vigortone mineral is more readily available to the cow. In fact, in one of the tests, they put the mineral in a beaker and poured water over the mineral. The Vigortone mineral dissolved quickly whereas Brand X, the water went straight to the bottom...the mineral didn't dissolve. We have long thought our particle size had something to do with our mineral outperforming the competition. The tests done by this independent lab supported what we were seeing.


Areas differ and you might or might not need the chelates. Cost-wise you should do without them if you can. I know that Vigortone customers in ND and SD feed more chelated mineral that are used than in our area.

One thing to note, most chelated minerals are 30% chelated, not 100%.