Sheep minerals and vitamins go hand in hand. Vitamins without minerals and minerals without vitamins are both no win situations.
Your sheep, or any livestock on your ranch, take in minerals and vitamins from three sources. The forage and feed they consume, the water they drink and the mineral supplement you provide.
The more minerals and vitamins the animals consume via natural sources the better. Just as we are better off to consume our mineral and vitamins through the quality, natural foods we eat, so to are our animals. The more natural the source and nutrient rich the food is, the healthier the consumer. Minerals and vitamins in a bottle or a bag can be a supplementation to a diet but are not meant as substitutes for quality food.
Yet it's not often the case that we start out with nutrient rich land that provides everything our livestock need. So how do we know where to start?
There is no definitive answer as to which sheep mineral program you should follow or which brand of mineral you should buy for optimum sheep nutrition. Every piece of land will differ in what it naturally provides. Having an idea of what your land and your water are making available to your sheep is a good starting point. Soil tests will give you an idea of what is abundant and what is lacking in your soil. Water quality tests will alert you to potential dangers in the water supply (high sulfates, excess iron etc).
Mineral Programs
The majority of ranchers are too busy or don't have the passion to research all the connections between minerals and what they do in the body. So they often rely on the livestock feed store to provide them with what they need.
Trade name mineral pre-mixes are formulated as a result of scientific data to meet the basic requirements of all sheep. To ensure the feed companies are not responsible for causing mineral toxicities these minerals will contain the minimum amount of nutrients required.
So while mineral pre-mixes are often a good way to start a mineral program the program does need to become tailored to the functionality and health of the ranch operation. It is possible that you can be using the most expensive mineral pre-mix and still not be meeting the sheep health needs of your flock.
Hands down, our bible on mineral and nutrient health for sheep is Natural Sheep Care by Pat Coleby. The reason we love this book so much is that it was written with the grass based sheep producer in mind. The author recognizes that health of the land equates to health of the livestock.
The sheep mineral program presented covers all the basics and can easily be tailored to suit individual scenarios. The mineral components are sourced seperately and offered in loose form, seperately or as a mix, on a free choice basis year round.
We have had good success with this sheep mineral program and feel there is a benefit in allowing the ewes to decide what they need at any given time. We believe the animals know what they need and putting out separate free choice mineral allows them to access it as they need it.
Points to Consider
It is often difficult to obtain sound advice and direct answers to sheep mineral and sheep care questions. Simply doing what the other guy does doesn't always cut it and the guy at the feed store or on the phone doesn't know what your land and your existing program are providing.
If you are coming onto land that has been regularly dosed with artificial phosphatic fertilizers (most crop land) it will be sorely depleted of mineral elements that were once readily available and that you might expect should be there.
As land recovers and becomes more and more diverse in the selection and abundance of forages it provides, your mineral program will shift. Eventually you will be spending less dollars on minerals which is a good direction to be heading toward.
Requirements for the various minerals will vary at different times of the animals production cycle. You can tailor your mineral supplementation to reflect this and save some dollars. Although it is recommended to always keep your main mineral mix and salt available 365 days a year.
If you notice your animals chewing on fence posts or licking gates or suddenly taking a liking to a particular plant species these are signs that they are in need of specific minerals.
Minerals always work in conjunction with other minerals and there are several pair associations. So one mineral may be necessary for the uptake of another or an excess of one may hinder another. Sometimes solving a mineral shortfall can be a bit of a puzzle because while the animals seem to be craving one mineral they could in fact be trying to alleviate an excess or a short fall of it's pair.
The sheep mineral program presented covers all the basics and can easily be tailored to suit individual scenarios. The mineral components are sourced seperately and offered in loose form, seperately or as a mix, on a free choice basis year round.