PSII-A-8 - Examining the Effects of Providing Injectable Mineral, Oral Mineral or Both to High-risk Calves Relative to Weight Gain, Ribeye Area and Backfat Thickness

Abstract: In some regions of the US, cattle range large areas that do not provide adequate mineral levels and due to the area, mineral supplementation is not possible. Weaned calves from this production system exhibit decreased production performance due to their deficient mineral status. However, there is currently no best practices to supplement these calves with mineral when they are received into a confined feeding setting. As such, this research examined the effects of different mineral supplementation strategies on weight gain, 12th rib fat thickness (REFT) and ribeye area (REA) of sixty feedlot steers obtained from a sale barn in an area known to be mineral deficient. Initially animals were stratified by weight into four different treatment groups (n=15): control (CON), dietary mineral (DM), multimin+dietary mineral (MM+DM), or Multimin (MM) and fed in pens equipped with GrowSafe bunks. Steers received their treatment for the first 40 d of the trial; after this time all steers received the DM treatment. Days 0, 5, 11, 40, 59, 95, 120 and 148 weights were recorded and d 4, 56, and 148 REA and REFT were measured via ultrasound. All data were analyzed using the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS with day as a repeated measure to determine the main effect of treatment. Weight, REA and REFT each increased (P< 0.05) over time. Treatment impacted (P=0.02) weight such that steers receiving the DM treatment gained more (P< 0.05) than those receiving MM+DM and MM, but were no different (P=0.25) than CON steers. Additionally, treatment impacted (P=0.05) REFT such that CON steers had increased (P=0.02) REFT than MM steers, but no other treatment groups were different (P >0.10) from one another. This study suggests that mineral supplementation strategy during the first 40 d of confined feeding may impact production parameters of mineral deficient steers.