Higher conception rates mean more calves on the ground and more profit for you. But have you considered how long it’s taking your cows and heifers to become pregnant and how much the calving pattern can influence your bottom line?

Why do you need to consider both oral trace minerals and injectable trace minerals in your animal health program?

• Oral trace mineral supplements in cattle and sheep help to prevent deficiencies and achieve maintenance levels of trace minerals. 
• Oral trace minerals alone are not enough to support performance at high demand periods such as calving, joining, dry-off in dairy cows, lambing and induction to feedlots. (Fig 1).
• Multimin provides faster and targeted delivery of a specific amount of trace minerals to individual animals to support high demand periods. 
• Multimin complements oral supplements as part of a complete nutrition program for optimised livestock performance.  

“Cattle do not have the nutritional wisdom to consume free-choice minerals. Consumption is driven only by a craving for salt. Ensuring proper intake is the most important effort a producer can make to ensure optimal mineral nutrition”.

Dr. John Arthington 
Professor and Chair, Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS)

Calving/Lambing under high demand periods

Many of the orally consumed trace minerals in water solutions, loose mixes and blocks have very low absorption, often as much as 70-99% of oral trace minerals are excreted from the body due to mineral antagonist interactions with other minerals that occur in the rumen, this often results in sub-optimal levels of trace minerals at critical stages in the livestock production and reproduction cycle ¹ (Fig 1). 

In addition, oral trace mineral intake is variable, with considerable variation among individual animals depending upon the season, physiological status and feeding behaviour resulting in low or variable feed intake and thus low or variable daily trace mineral intake of the same animal.

Multimin is an injectable trace mineral formulation that complements traditional oral mineral supplementation. Multimin provides faster and targeted delivery of a specific amount of trace minerals to individual animals to support high demand periods. Multimin bypasses mineral antagonists in the rumen and eliminates the variability associated with fluctuation in voluntary feed intake noted among animals given free-choice minerals.

Traditional inorganic oral supplements take about 45 days to replenish liver reserves, depending on the oral intake of supplements. Chelated trace mineral supplements take about 26 days to recover liver reserves, Multimin, due to its rapid absorption, is stored in the liver within 24 hours following injection (Fig 2)^2-6. 

Multimin is NOT intended to be used as a replacement for year-round oral trace mineral supplementation in the feed or water. Multimin supports an existing well designed oral feed program for optimised performance. Multimin should be used prior to high demand periods such as weaning, joining, calving/lambing, transport and induction to feedlot⁶. Therefore, to optimise livestock performance, consider using Multimin and oral supplements as part of a complete nutrition program.  

To learn more about Multimin Evolution, contact your local Virbac Area Sales Manager or Virbac Customer Support 1800 242 100. You can also visit https://au.virbac.com/evolution

References 

1. Suttle, N.F. (2010) Mineral Nutrition of Livestock. 4th Edition, CABI, Cambridge. 
2. Hansen (2010) Effects of Multimin®90 on trace mineral status of Angus and Simmental calves. Iowa State University, Department of Animal Science. 
3. Jackson, T. D. et al. (2020). Comparison of multiple single-use, pulse-dose trace mineral products provided as injectable, oral drench, oral paste, or bolus on circulating and liver trace mineral concentrations of beef steers. Appl. Anim. Sci., 36(1), 26-35.
4. Pogge, D. J. et al. (2012). Mineral concentrations of plasma and liver after injection with a trace mineral complex differ among Angus and Simmental cattle. J. Anim. Sc. 90(8), 2692-2698.
5. Hartman, S. J. et al (2018). Comparison of trace mineral repletion strategies in feedlot steers to overcome diets containing high concentrations of sulfur and molybdenum. Anim. Sc. 96(6), 2504-2515.
6. Refer to registered labels (APVMA n 87739,83674 and 61724).