60 Days to a Better Herd: The Mineral Change I Should Have Made Sooner

Had a set of cows that were they weren't looking real good. Dried all kinds of mineral from expensive mineral to cheap mineral, salt blocks, sulfur blocks. There's a red block, salt block. Dried that kind of a mineral block, and they still wasn't looking very good. Started using the Riomax. In about sixty days, they turned around, started looking a lot better. And then later on, conception rates went up, got some extra calves out of the the deal, and the price the cattle are nowadays, it's it's the tub that pays for itself. I I really believe that. Wiley Horn from Minko, Oklahoma. Raised and born with cattle, you know, all my life. It's something I enjoy. I like doing this more than anything. And I guess it's just in my blood. We we were short about six calves on this particular set of cattle. Come about December, they started calving. And we had, like, five calves in, like, about two weeks. And and those cattle right now are weighing, oh, close to 500 pounds or over. That's when it kind of convinced me. I think it really pays for itself. To me, if it doesn't, it's probably the cheapest source because it's always out here for them. And like the, loose mineral, the sac mineral, you know, I just couldn't keep it out. Maybe I wasn't putting enough out, you know, for them, and maybe they were really well, they were lacking in minerals, and this is what turned them around. So right now, we're probably over about a quarter of a pound a day, which we're in a drought here, you know, so you can tell they they consume it a little more. But during, say, normal times when we're we're wet, you know, probably around eighth pound a day. And maybe through the winter, it may pick up a little bit. And I I did have a lot of carryover hay this year, you know, which we had a mild winter last year, but I had quite a bit of carryover hay. And so that tells me, you know, it's stretching the forage out farther. I've sold some hay at $65 a bale, so, you know, that that's a savings right there. And that's another thing I noticed when I go together cattle, I'll always carry some cubes with me and and give them a bite of cubes. Not feed a lot, I just kinda keep them coming to me and I would notice that the cattle were laying out more, chewing their cud, they were happy, content. I was having trouble actually kind of getting them gathered a little bit. It makes me feel good that it's, you know, that you're doing something right, you know, that it's a good product. Everything's really healthy right now. I'm I'm really conservative guy. I'm a tight wad, you know, and enterprise will make you think about it. But time you put the pencil to it, I think it pays for itself. There's a younger guy here that runs quite a few cattle. Talked to him about it too, and he's been to some of a meeting or two, but he just can't can't do it. He said, man, it's so expensive. I said, just try it on a set of cows. You know? Give it sixty, ninety days and see what they do. You know, put the pencil to it and and then see what you got. I think if you got a set of cows that's, you know, you kinda been on a mineral program and a lot of people don't wanna change and I understand that. If you would just try it, you know, it would probably cost you less money. I think it really pays for itself.