Animal Health Advice

Nutrition is a key factor that drives production and health in our dairy herds. Not delivering required nutrients leads to subclinical and even acute deficiencies that affect production and health of the animals in our care. Improving nutritional status not only improves health but profitability too.

The amount of supplementary feed to use will be determined by the feed deficits generated within the farm system1. Mineral Max® offers an ingenious way to deliver and fill those mineral deficits.

The mineral status of a dairy cow is key to her production and health. Mineral Max is designed to fill the mineral deficit in a typical New Zealand context. Oversupply of minerals can be just as detrimental to production and health as undersupply. Excess of a mineral can affect absorption and utilisation of other minerals and may contribute to the formation of free radicals that promote oxidative stress2.

Mineral Max is uniquely formulated to balance out mineral deficiencies in your pasture, to support milk production and health. The different variants provide the opportunity to feed trace elements, Rumensin™ and Zinc Oxide when required. The zinc oxide variant is a great way to prevent facial eczema and should start to be fed at approximately2 weeks prior to when facial eczema conditions usually occur.

Mineral Max is a granulated mineral, where the ingredients are thoroughly mixed and provided in a consistent manner throughout the granule. Granules reduce dust and distribute evenly through a feed blend compared to other mineral product types such as loose mixes. This reduces waste and targets the correct amount of mineral to be eaten more accurately. Mineral powders are notorious for falling to the bottom of a feed mix and not evenly distributing through a blend, resulting in uneven dosing and wastage. Granulating these minerals prevents this.
Mineral Max granules are coloured differently depending on the variant used, so that you can see the product throughout the blend, offering peace of mind that the minerals are present. The different colours make identification of the Mineral Max product simple, just by looking at the granule.

Texture and palatability are important when feeding minerals to encourage uptake of the correct quantities per cow per day. Molasses is included in the Mineral Max product which aids palatability and makes it ideal to feed in various situations to target the 200g per cow per day intake.

By feeding minerals uniformly and promoting granule intake there is a better chance that each cow will receive her share, with less waste of mineral supplement. Good quality ingredients are used in the production of Mineral Max including a highly soluble source of magnesium oxide that is regularly tested to ensure that it is optimally available for the animal to use.

Mineral Max is the ultimately designed granule to aid your herds mineral requirements, reducing the risk of mineral deficiencies which impacts production and health.

References
1. Kolver. E, 2000. Nutrition guidelines for the high producing dairy cow. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283359167_Nutrition_guidelines_for_the_high
_producing_dairy_cow
2. Goff. J, 2018. Mineral absorption mechanisms, mineral interactions that affect acid-base and antioxidant status, and diet considerations to improve mineral status. J. Dairy Sci. Vol. 101, Issue 4, P2763-2813.