Cows have a natural ability to find the right forage they need to stay healthy. The only problem is that they need certain minerals that just aren’t present in my soil. For example, no species of plant will give them the iodine they need if iodine is not present in the soil. So I have just built a free-choice mineral feeding trough. I filled it with 16 different minerals and let the cows at it. They gobbled up the iodine by the way, and did not touch the sulphur or phosphate (our well water has sulphur in it and our soil is high in phosphate).
Eventually, the minerals they eat will be returned to the soil in their manure, returning balance to the soil and reducing (or eliminating) the need to supplement with the trough.
