Heifers, being the future breeding stock on the farm, should be given the best opportunity to show us what they can do from the get-go. If a heifer can become pregnant and produce a calf at her first breeding, this will have a great impact on her lifetime contribution, and hence profit, to the farming enterprise.
It is known that stress reduces embryonic survivability, especially during early gestation, which adversely affects calf production. By supplementing heifers with performance trace minerals, one can ensure greater pregnancy retention rates in the breeding herd. This will ultimately lead to an increased number of calves produced during the lifetime of each animal. Without embryonic survival and pregnancy retention, calves will not be produced; an unnecessary loss to the farm.
This article by Dr Jason Russell, entitled, “Performance Trace Minerals® improve embryonic survival and beef cattle reproduction” will prove that performance trace mineral supplementation, e.g. with Availa®4 , can help you give your beef heifers the best start! Dr Jason Russell is a beef nutritionist at Zinpro, and this article was first published in their newsletter, Essential Feed.
Ruminant researcher
Nice article, Ashley, well done.