A Complete Breeding Season Checklist

After two long months of midnight checks, pulling calves, helping heifers become mothers, and treating a few sick calves, calving season has finally come to a close. But with breeding season right around the corner, there is no time to stand around admiring the mammas and young babies. It’s time to get ready for breeding season.

Bull catalogs? Check!

Nitrogen tank filled? Check!

Semen purchased? Breeding soundness exams completed? Check and check!

Injectable trace minerals? What?!?!

That’s right, injectable trace minerals should be included on the checklist for breeding season.

Trace minerals are critical components of reproductive success for both cows and bulls. From hormone function and sperm viability to protection of the developing embryo after conception, trace minerals play an important role in getting cows back in calf quickly.

After a cow calves, her trace mineral reserves in the liver may be reduced by over 30%. University studies have indicated that supplementing with an oral mineral program alone may take up to four weeks to replenish the trace mineral status of the cow. Injectable trace minerals allow cattlemen to restore lost minerals in the liver in less than 24 hours, providing a valuable addition to an oral program when timing is everything.