Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Product with added vitamin or derivative thereof for... – Vitamin is a or d
Reexamination Certificate
1994-05-24
2001-07-17
Johnstone, Adrienne C. (Department: 1733)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Product with added vitamin or derivative thereof for...
Vitamin is a or d
C426S072000, C426S074000, C426S807000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06261609
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Ruminants have four stomachs. Ruminants eat quickly and store masses of vegetation in the first chamber of the stomach, the rumen, where the vegetation softens.
The softening of the vegetation is extremely important in range fed cattle. The softening is due to saliva and the content of the saliva, as well as materials which are ingested with the vegetation.
The softened vegetation, called cud, is regurgitated. The cud is chewed with side-to-side grinding movement of the molars.
The chewed cud is swallowed and proceeds to the other chambers of the stomach, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum. The chewed material is further digested in those chambers by microorganisms that live in the stomach. It is said that, instead of feeding cattle one feeds the microorganisms, which then insure that the cattle are well fed.
Cattle feed supplements are intended to improve the conditions of microorganisms in the stomach chambers, and to maintain desired levels of minerals and nutrients in the circulatory system to feed cells to provide growth and reproductive support for breeding cattle. Minerals are also necessary to maintain desired contents of saliva to insure desired chemical content of an animal's stomach chambers, and particularly the rumen, to soften vegetation eaten by range animals by providing good conditions for digestive microorganisms in the rumen and in other stomach chambers.
Through years of experience with range feeding a lot of beef cattle and breeding herds, dietary requirements have become known. The National Research Council (NRC) has established mineral ingestion recommendations for cattle.
Minerals have been provided in block form in which minerals are mixed with salt, water and molasses, and are molded under high pressure. Blocks are placed in the field for use by cattle. Granular feeding of minerals has become popular. Granulated minerals are dumped into feeder bins or troughs. The animals are allowed to feed from the troughs by free choice. Sometimes a predetermined amount per head is calculated, and that amount times the number of head in a herd and the number of days between replenishment is placed in the feeders periodically, often two or three times a week.
Cafeteria-style selection has been provided in which individual minerals are placed in separate feeders, with the concept that cattle will choose the mineral supplements which are required. Cafeteria-style feeding requires increased labor.
Manufacturers of mineral supplements have tended to feed materials of similar mixtures, high in calcium. Purina Mills, for example, provides a mineral supplement having about 13% calcium.
Moorman Manufacturing Company of Comanche, Tex. provides mineral supplement of about 13% calcium and about 14.5% calcium.
Friona Industries of Friona, Tex. provides a mineral supplement of about 14% calcium.
S&S Animal Nutrition, Inc. of Morgan Mill, Tex. provides a mineral supplement having about 9.5% calcium.
Vit-A-Way, Inc. of Forth Worth, Tex., provides a mineral supplement having about 22% calcium.
Blue Bonnet Milling of Ardmore, Okla. has a mineral supplement with 11% calcium.
Those percentages are taken as an approximate mean between the stated contents of not less than and not more than. For example, Purina indicates not less than 12% and not more than 14% calcium.
A search for better and improved supplements continues.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a new range mineral-vitamin supplement for improving the conversion of range grasses into bone and muscle, improving breeding characteristics and increasing weaned calf weight.
The inventor has a degree in agriculture, plus eighteen years of practical experience in range nutrition and ranch management. The inventor managed the mineral program of a large West Texas ranch, feeding cafeteria-style minerals for four years. Afterwards for five years the inventor sold and serviced cafeteria mineral programs.
Over the course of that time, the inventor kept careful records and learned that the minerals cattle selected were markedly different from mineral mixes of conventional mineral supplement supplying companies. Extensive pasture records were documented by the inventor, and extensive grass analyses were taken. It became clear to the inventor that the cattle were selecting what was deficient in the grass, while leaving the minerals that were adequate or in excess in the grass. That research led to the formulation of the mineral supplements described in the present invention.
The present mineral supplements are a result of periodic sampling of grass and water. In addition, the seven major minerals and all of the trace minerals were fed separately and with free choice. Detailed consumption records were kept of the amounts of the minerals consumed. Based on the consumption records, the present formulas were created.
The present invention stems from long experience in feeding minerals cafeteria style with feeders that have separate bins for phosphorus, calcium and sodium, sulfur, potassium, magnesium, salt and keeping good pasture records. While those separate feeder bins were effective, the feeders are costly and labor intensive. The invention also stems from charting all grass records and comparing the grass records with the records of choices in the cafeteria-style feeder bins.
The result is a range mineral formulation that does not have some of the materials that the large scale supplement providers include and has things that the large scale purveyors do not include. The present invention is a new and revolutionary concept of mineral formulation for range cattle. The invention is a blended mineral supplement with all the minerals in balance for optimum conditions in cattle rumens for converting grass to beef. The invention provides better overall herd health with reduction in lumpy jaw, foot rot, woody tongue, pink eye and other disorders and diseases. The invention provides heavier weaned calves, better development of replacements and increase in reproductive efficiencies.
The invention is based on the concept that there can only be 100% of any formula. If a mineral supplement has too much of one mineral, it does not have enough room for other needed minerals.
The invention is based on the zero sum concept. Minerals are often shipped in 50 pound bags for ease of handling in the field. If there is too much supplement that is not needed in each bag, there is a reduced room for the supplement that is needed.
The new concept is straightforward. A good range mineral supplement should supplement what is missing and not supplement what is not missing. That way, the range cattle get all of the needed minerals in proper balance for better herd health and production.
In the past, research of mineral requirements of beef cattle has been done on a basis of maintenance and production, disregarding the requirements for the proper functioning of the animal's immune system, which to a large extent was designed to fight off the attacks of diseases and external and internal parasites. Today, millions of dollars are spent annually on antibiotics and insecticides which are fed as supplements or pumped into one of the main protein sources, beef, for human consumption. One supplement, for example, has methoprene as an insect growth regulator whose formula is isopropyl (E,E)-11-methoxy -3,7,11-trimethyl-2,4-dodecadienoate, which is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,904,662 and 3,912,815. Another mineral supplement of formulation contains chlortetracycline, a powerful antibiotic. Another feed supplement contains lasalocid in the form of lasalocid sodium. A note on that product indicates that the safety of lasalocid in unapproved species has not been established, and cautions not to allow horses access to lasalocid, as ingestion may be fatal, and feeding undiluted or adequately mixed concentrations could be fatal to cattle.
The present invention avoids additives, instead concentrating on precise balancing of naturally available minerals with the minerals in the supplement, making an animal healthy and ab
Creighton Wray James
Johnstone Adrienne C.
Narasimhan Meera P.
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