Charlie W. Stone

Senior Research Scientist

Diamond V Mills

Cattlemen have long recognized the need to feed free-choice minerals to their beef cattle herds. Key minerals are often deficient in forages and pasture, yet are so important to nutrition and reproductive performance. Because of this, free-choice minerals are one of the best investments the cattleman can make.

But it is not enough just to put out a mineral. The mineral must be consumed by the animal to be effective. If the animal doesn’t consume and utilize the mineral, optimum performance cannot be achieved.

In addition to being important to the animal’s nutritional status, minerals are also essential to rumen fermentation and bacterial growth. All metabolic processes require certain minerals as coenzymes to catalyze the metabolic reactions, whether in the tissues of the animal or in the digestive bacteria of the rumen. Phosphorus, for example, is essential to energy metabolism.

If the rumen bacteria do not have an adequate supply of minerals, including phosphorus, they cannot grow and reproduce or efficiently digest the forage. The end result will be poor digestion and performance.

Phosphorus is, in fact, one of the most important major minerals, with an 1,100-pound cow requiring 20 to 28 grams of phosphorus per day. It is also a major supplemental mineral because it is generally deficient in pasture forages (Figure 1). Magnesium, an important mineral, is deficient during rapid plant growth. If magnesium isn’t supplied and often consumed during lush pasture conditions, grass tetany or grass staggers may occur. Getting adequate magnesium consumption (about 20 grams per day) can be a problem because of palatability problems with high-magnesium minerals.

Diamond V XP™ Yeast Culture is a feed ingredient most noted for its ability to enhance rumen fermentation and forage digestion, but it has also been used for decades in free-choice minerals to improve palatability and mineral consumption (Figure 2). It has a way of enticing cattle to go to the mineral feeder, either through improved palatability or by stimulating rumen digestion. Whatever the mode of action, yeast culture can help get minerals into the animal, especially in situations where adequate mineral consumption is a problem (for example, high-magnesium minerals, high-alkali water, etc.).

A wheat pasture study by Oklahoma State University researchers (Streeter et al., 1981), feeding a high-magnesium mineral containing 7.7 % magnesium, demonstrated that adding yeast culture to the mineral-mix was effective in increasing mineral consumption. The graph in figure 2 shows the linear relationship between yeast culture level in the mineral mix and intake of the mineral. Actual mineral intake was increased 75 % by adding one-third yeast culture to the mineral, and mineral intake tripled at a 50 % yeast culture inclusion rate. According to analysis with linear regression equations, adding as little as 10 % yeast culture to the mineral mix would be expected to increase actual mineral consumption by 25 percent.

Yeast culture can also help the animal with overall utilization of the minerals. Research at the USDA station in Bushland, Texas (Cole et al., 1992) and Montana State University (Petersen et al., 1987) has shown that yeast culture may help improve mineral balance in ruminants. In these studies, they measured mineral digestion and retention using lambs as a ruminant model. They found that yeast culture significantly improved zinc and copper utilization during both positive and negative mineral balance (Figures 3 and 4). In other words, yeast culture helped the animal retain and metabolize more of the trace minerals from the diet.

The Land O’ Lakes/Farmland Pro-Phos Mineral Line contains Diamond V XP Yeast Culture to help ensure that your cattle eat the mineral you put out and help you get the most out of your pasture mineral investment. To obtain Pro-Phos Minerals with Diamond V XP Yeast Culture, see your cooperative dealer who carries the Pro-Phos Line.

Cole, N. A., C. W. Purdy, and D. P. Hutcheson. 1992. Influence of yeast culture on feeder calves and lambs. J. Animal. Science. 70:1682-1690.

Petersen, M. K., C. M. Streeter, and C. K. Clark. 1987. Mineral availability with lambs fed yeast culture. Nutr. Rep. Int. 36:521-525.

Streeter, C. L., G. W. Horn, and J. E. McClung. 1981. Yeast culture in a free-choice mineral supplement for stocker cattle grazing wheat pasture. Okla. Agr. Exp. Sta. Res. Rep. MP-108:101-105.

 

 

Figure 3: Effect of yeast culture on digestibility and retention of zinc, copper and iron in lambs in positive mineral balance.