Phosphate is thé essential element involved in energy and nutrient metabolism in the body. A deficiency of this mineral has a negative effect on the production (eg. milk production) and fertility of a herd.
Introduction
Once a cow calves, her nutritional needs and specifically her phosphate needs are more than double her maintenance needs, as she now has to provide for her own as well as the needs of her growing calf.
It is well known that South African soils are poor in phosphate – green summer pasture has an average P content of 0.12%, while it can drop to as low as 0.06 % in winter. The quality of the grazing during the late winter and spring is therefore at its lowest, while the cow’s needs are at its highest. Milk contains about 1 g of phosphorous per liter of milk produced. It is therefore important that cows receive sufficient phosphorous of a high quality during lactation and especially early lactation as the field simply cannot meet her requirements.
It is clear that phosphate supplementation should be an important part of every farm, but the price of phosphates has increased so much in the last few months that many producers are considering reducing the supplementation thereof or stopping it all together.
Yara Animal Nutrition offers to the farmer Kimtrafos 12 Grandé, a phosphate, trace mineral concentrate for supplementing phosphorous as well as trace minerals. When buying Kimtrafos 12 Grandé, it is very important not to only look at the cost of a bag as it must be taken into account that Kimtrafos 12 Grandé is a concentrate. This means that Kimtrafos 12 Grandé must be mixed 50/50 with salt before feeding it. Thus, although the bag price of the product is very high, it is almost halved when mixed with salt. Similarly, the cost of other phosphate sources such as Kynofos 21 is also greatly reduced when it is mixed according to recommendation. The following table shows the mixing instructions for different phosphate sources:
Table 1 Mixing instructions for different phosphate sources
| Product | P6 | P7 | P8 | P9 |
| Kg/mixture | ||||
| Kynofos 21 | – | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Kimtrafos 12 Grandé | 50 | – | – | |
| Salt | 50 | 150 | 100 | 100 |
| Kalori 3000 | – | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Feed Lime | – | 25 | 25 | – |
| Premix | – | Add | Add | Add |
| Total (kg) | 100 | 300 | 250 | 225 |
| Intake Sheep (g/animal/day) | 18 – 36 | 15 – 30 | 13 – 26 | 12 – 24 |
| Intake Cattle (g/animal/day) | 100 – 240 | 86 – 172 | 75 – 150 | 67 – 134 |
Summary
Do not only look at the bag price of phosphate supplements. Once mixed, the cost of the supplement decreases significantly. So, give your animals the phosphate they need this summer, give them Kimtrafos 12 Grandé!
Contact a Yara Animal Nutrition nutritionist on 082-322-0333 for further inquiries and recommendations.
