What Ranchers Need to Know About Vitamin A

Cattle aren’t cheap, which makes it more important than ever to make sure ranchers are managing in ways that tap into the full genetic potential of their cattle. Proper nutrition and ensuring nutrient deficiencies aren’t present is one way to do this – especially keeping Vitamin A in mind.  

"Vitamin A is a very critical nutrient as are all vitamins and first of all vitamins are what we call mainly trace elements," says Blane Lowe, DVM. "It's involved with the gene expressions, so vitamin A can help make sure cattle reach optimal performance." 

Signs of vitamin A deficiency can vary but all impact cattle well-being and performance.  

"Blindness and specifically night blindness is a large component of that we see things with dull and rougher hair coats,” says Lowe. "With younger animals, you can certainly see stunted growth or slower growth rate, lower weight gains and reproductive efficiency." 

Part of the lower and slower growth rates are caused by reduced Vitamin A in colostrum.  

“If there's not some winter supplementation, it's not uncommon to see the cows have low vitamin A levels,” says Lowe. “The consequences to those cows are really kind of minimal compared to those of the calves they are carrying…Those get their first 90 days of vitamin A through colostrum.” 

Lowe also notes that retained placentas, pink eye and footrot are connected too. "We see pink eyes, foot rots, they're all associated with them." 

Mother nature does a good job providing adequate vitamin A during specific times throughout the year.  

Lowe says, "Mother Nature's provided us with Vitamin A in green, lush forages. Cattle also store anywhere from a 2-4 month’s supply of vitamin A in the liver." 

However, it’s the winter months or even drought years that create need for Vitamin A supplementation.   

Lowe says, "Drought is probably one of the biggest factors there. Certainly higher nitrates in the feedstuffs can contribute to a poorer absorption and conversion of vitamin A in the body." 

Ranchers can take steps to ensure adequate vitamin A levels in their herds through proper nutrition, mineral programs and even supplementation if levels are already undesirable. 

One solution for herds who need supplementation is Optade which is a water-soluble vitamin A.   

He says, "It’s called Optade because in addition to the vitamin A, it also has 300,000 international units of vitamin D and 1,260 of vitamin E." 

This solution is administered through the primary water supply of cattle.  

"We will recommend that people if they're able to put it in their water supply put that in at roughly a pound per hundred gallons of water,” says Lowe.  

Something to note about vitamin A is its low stability.  

"Vitamin A is not really stable, so it degrades fairly rapidly,” says Lowe. “If you bought your mineral several months ago with a specific amount of vitamin A in it, it’s likely that level is no longer the same.”  

However you choose to ensure proper nutrient levels in your cattle, keep in mind big picture of profit and cattle health and performance.  

“We've done an excellent job as an industry of looking at genomically enhanced EPDs. We've selected a very good set of genetics in our herds for the most part,” says Lowe. “Ensuring proper vitamin A levels allows ranchers to take advantage of what they've purchased through our breeding selections and give genes the opportunity to be expressed.” 

Listen to the full conversation on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast.