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Trace minerals such as copper, selenium, manganese and zinc are essential for life. Achieving optimal dairy herd performance relies on these being supplied correctly at all stages in the lifecycle, from a newborn calf to the oldest cow in the herd.

For a milking cow, the transition period is the biggest stress point, a time when she has a very high demand for trace minerals to meet not only her own requirements but those of her unborn calf. However that need comes when her intakes of trace minerals are reducing because she mostly sources these from her feed yet, when heavily pregnant, a cow consumes less dry matter. 

High demand continues as she starts making colostrum, calves and starts lactating, says Vet Kate.

"There are a lot of different processes that require trace minerals and, for a dairy cow, many of these are happening around that transition period,'' she says.

This is why trace mineral supplementation is so important, playing a vital role in immune function, cow fertility, colostrum and general production.

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