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Himalayan Pure Natural Salt Licks. (Box of 12)
Why a Salt Lick?
For thousands of years animals have used natural salt licks and it has been known that domestic and wild animals need salt just as man does, and not just for flavour. Salt is one of the key basics of life. Himalayan rock salt licks are a free choice salt and one of the most natural ways of providing your animals with a pure form of natural salt. All trace elements and minerals are retained in the rock
salt. Animals lick the salt as required and never over indulge in salt intake. We have found that animals using processed licks are likely to eat dirt, fence posts and even their blankets due to a lack of minerals and trace elements but when using a Himalayan Rock Salt lick most animals stop. A simple fact is that horses need plenty of salt especially when worked as 70 percent of their sweat is lost sodium chloride (salt). This product is a pure organic salt lick perfect for a wide range of animals and more weather resistant than normal salt licks. These are salt licks animals prefer.
Natural salt licks have been around for as long as we know and provide a valuable source of minerals and trace elements to wildlife, especially herbivores. Since the majority of plants do not provide sufficient amounts of sodium and may lack adequate chloride, salt licks are a necessary part of most free-range herbivore diets. In
addition to sodium and potassium salts, vital minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, copper, cobalt, zinc, iodine, iron, manganese and selenium are found in salt licks. Some people think that their horse is licking their hands out of affection, like a big puppy, but the more likely explanation is that they're craving the salt from your perspiration.
Large Herbivores (Horses, Cows, Deer, Goats, etc...)
Salt licks are an especially important part of horse and cow diets during the summer months, when they are subsisting mainly on grass and lose large amounts of body salt through perspiration.
The animals will usually take only the amount of salt that they need. Horses and Cows that are low on salt will gnaw at wood fences and sometimes strip bark from trees to try and get their necessary minerals.
Salt Licks and Trace Minerals in Animals
Nutrition
Salt
Salt is unique in that animals have a much greater appetite for the sodium and chloride in salt than
for other minerals. Because most plants provide insufficient sodium for animal feeding and may lack adequate chloride content, salt
supplementation is a critical part of a nutritionally balanced diet for animals. In addition, because animals have a definite appetite for salt, it can be used
as a delivery mechanism to ensure adequate intake of less palatable nutrients and as a feed limiter.
Even though the body only contains about 0.2%
sodium, it is essential for life and is highly regulated. About half of the sodium in the body is in the soft tissues of the body; the other half in bones.
Sodium makes up about 93% of the basic mineral elements in the blood serum and is the chief cation regulating blood pH. The ability of muscles to contract is
dependent on proper sodium concentrations. Sodium plays major roles in nerve impulse transmission and the rhythmic maintenance of heart action. Efficient absorption of
amino acids and monosaccharides from the small intestine requires adequate sodium.
The other nutrient in salt, chloride, is also essential for life. Chloride is
the primary anion in blood, and represents about two thirds of its acidic ions. The chloride shift, movement of chloride in and out of the red blood cells, is
essential in maintaining the acid-base balance of the blood. Chloride is also a necessary part of the hydrochloric acid produced by the stomach which is
required to digest most foods.
Unfortunately, it is often assumed that if the sodium requirement is met, the chloride requirement will automatically be met
also. However, recent evidence indicates this may not always be the case. For example, Belgian studies showed a close
correlation between potassium and chloride in the urine of cows. They concluded that the necessity for the ruminant to eliminate high
amounts of dietary potassium (as potassium chloride) can dramatically increase the chloride requirement. Therefore, since many ruminant feedstuffs are quite high in
potassium, the potassium-to-chloride ratio in the diet is important.
Animals have a more well defined appetite for sodium chloride than any other
compound in nature except water. Ruminants have such a strong appetite for sodium that the exact location of salt source is permanently imprinted into their memory
which they can then return to when they become deficient. Research has shown that when steers were trained to receive their sodium in response to pressing a panel,
maximum effort to receive the sodium occurred at eight days and after, on a sodium deficient diet. Cattle also have a keen sense of smell for sodium. Sodium deficient
steers were offered a cafeteria of 12 buckets of water with only one containing moderate levels of sodium salts. Steers would quickly choose the water containing
sodium salts without having to taste the water sources.
Horses have been shown to have a specific appetite for salt if the diet is deficient in sodium. This
is not true for the other nutrients. For example, horses do not develop a preference for calcium supplements when fed a calcium deficient diet. This natural
appetite for salt is what makes salt such an excellent delivery mechanism for other nutrients that need to be consumed regularly, but where a natural appetite is
lacking. The 1984 NRC Beef Cattle committee recognized this fact in stating that minerals lacking in the diet can be provided by "self-feeding" common salt-
mineral mixtures when the mixture is consumed in amounts to satisfy the animals' appetite for salt.
Trace Minerals
There
are seven trace minerals that have been
shown to be needed in supplementing animal diets. They are iron, copper, zinc, manganese, cobalt, iodine and selenium. They are needed
in very small amounts, or traces, in the diet, and hence their name "trace minerals."
Subclinical trace mineral deficiencies occur more frequently
than recognized by most owners/breeders. Currently this is a bigger problem than acute mineral deficiencies, because the owner does not see specific symptoms that
are characteristic of a trace mineral deficiency. Instead, the animal grows or reproduces at a reduced rate, uses feed less efficiently and operates with a
depressed immune system. The end result is inefficient production and lower profitability. Therefore, a profitable and efficient operation must provide the
trace mineral elements. In highly competitive animal enterprises, it can be the difference between profit and loss.
There are several examples where an area
of the country was not recognized to be trace mineral deficient in the past but now has been shown to require supplementation. For example, a selenium deficiency was
not considered a problem in the United States until relatively recently. Now at least 44 states have been shown to contain low-selenium areas. In only a few states
have the classical selenium deficiency symptoms been observed, but performance responses have demonstrated the need for selenium supplementation. When a cobalt
deficiency was first found in Western Australia, the problem was believed to be confined to about 5,000 acres. Further studies showed that at least 25 million acres
are cobalt-deficient in Western Australia.
Another factor is shipment of feeds from one region to others. This alone makes it almost impossible to isolate areas
of specific trace mineral deficiencies. There is nothing to prevent feed grown in a trace mineral deficient area from being shipped to another area where the feed
grown is supposedly adequate in
that mineral. Grain and soybeans grown in midwestern states with areas deficient in selenium, iodine and other trace minerals are shipped
to and fed in many other areas of the United States and the world. Selenium deficiencies have been observed in pigs fed U.S.-produced corn and soybean meal in Taiwan
in 1978. Locally grown feeds in Taiwan are usually adequate in selenium.
Salt as a Carrier of Trace Minerals
Salt is a natural
carrier for trace minerals, since all farm animals have a natural appetite for salt. Moreover, when cattle, horses, sheep and other animals are on pasture with little,
no or varying amounts of concentrate feeding, producers can supply trace mineralized salt free choice in the form of a mineral block or as loose trace mineral salt in
a box. Then, regardless of the amount of concentrates fed, and especially if none is fed, the animal can still consume salt and the trace minerals it
contains.
New Trace Elements
As soils decline in fertility and crop or animal yields increase, higher levels of trace elements
may be required in animal diets. Molybdenum, nickel, fluorine, vanadium, tin and silicon are some of the trace mineral elements that may become deficient in animal
diets in the future. One by one, they may be added to the list of seven trace mineral elements currently being supplemented in animal diets (iodine, copper, iron,
cobalt, zinc, manganese and selenium).
When using highly purified or specialized diets, several elements have been shown to be essential. For example,
molybdenum is an important part of the enzyme, xanthine oxidase. Fluoride prevents dental caries, may be helpful in osteoporosis, and is needed for growth, and anemia
prevention. Nickel is needed for normal reproduction. Silicon is required for growth and proper bone development. Growth rate is decreased with a deficiency of tin or
vanadium. Eventually,
deficiencies of these trace elements may occur under specialized conditions with practical diets. Already it is known that supplementation
of molybdenum, in a few areas where forages contain very low levels of molybdenum, would be helpful in counteracting copper toxicity in sheep.
Nutrition and Disease
An increasing amount of information is accumulating to show that many nutrients are needed at higher levels to improve the
ability of animals' immune system to cope with infection. Sodium, chloride, zinc, copper, iron, selenium, phosphorus and magnesium already have been shown to be
helpful in this regard. Nutrient requirements for growth, feed efficiency, gestation and lactation do not necessarily mean that those levels will be adequate for
normal immunity and high resistance to diseases. Nutrient levels higher than those recommended by NRC may be needed for maximum productivity and health of the
animals.
Salt with Additives
Salt can be obtained with or without additives. Most producers add six of the trace minerals
(iron, copper, zinc, manganese, cobalt and iodine) and some also add selenium to trace mineralized salt. Salt producers formulate products with additives
other than trace minerals. These include other nutrients as well as non-nutritive feed additives. Salt is an ideal carrier of many feed additives because salt is
needed by all animals on a daily basis.
Anthelmintics (de-worming agents) may be added to salt. Salt is a convenient means of supplying an anthelmintic for
parasite control. Ionophores such as monensin and lasalocid can be added to salt, primarily for cattle and sheep under pasture conditions. Similarly, antibiotics such
as oxytetracycline have been mixed with salt and self-fed. This use is most common in a grazing situation. Salt-drug combinations should be fed only if the product is
purchased through a feed
company or prescribed by a veterinarian.
Vitamins A and D are frequently added to salt. In some cases other vitamins are added,
particularly with salt or salt-mineral mixtures for horses, swine or poultry. When vitamins and trace mineralized salts are fed together the mixture should be kept dry
to prevent some of the trace minerals from catalyzing the breakdown of the vitamins. Magnesium in salt or salt-mineral mixtures for grass tetany is being used with
increasing frequency.
Sulfur is added to certain salt products. Calcium and phosphorus are added when a complete mineral mixture is desired. Specific amounts of
calcium and/or phosphorus can be used, depending on the animal or the feeding program. Salt can be used plain, with added trace minerals or with added macro minerals
calcium and/or phosphorus.
Form of Salt to Use
Salt can be provided to animals in many ways. It can be used in the form of
loose salt or salt blocks. Loose salt is used in diets mixed for animal feeding. In relatively small pastures, both loose salt and block salt are self-fed to
livestock. With very large pastures or extensive range conditions salt blocks are a good solution.
If you require more information on this product contact
00353 (0)87-6214224.
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