BUYER BEWARE: Part II

By WHITETAIL INSTITUTE STAFF

It Pays to Know What’s in Your Supplements

            The dawning of the computer age has brought us many new terms and euphemisms.  One of these is “junk in junk out” or in other words, if you enter bad information you can expect to get faulty output and bad results.  This thinking holds true not only for computers, but for many other things including whitetail deer supplements.

            In the last issue, we discussed how a product tag does not disclose everything about a deer supplement.  For example, ingredient quality could not be determined by merely looking at a tag.  In this issue we will take an in-depth look at ingredient quality and the good or bad results that occur when quality varies.

            First of all, quality and digestibility are often times synonymous.  Typically, the higher the quality of the ingredient used, the more digestible that ingredient will be.  What do we mean by digestibility?  The digestibility of an ingredient is the extent to which the nutrients found in that ingredient can be broken down in the digestive system, absorbed and used by the animal.  Digestibility is a property of every ingredient and is normally designated by percentages.  For example protein, a nutrient found in many ingredients, can vary greatly in digestibility depending on the ingredient source used. 

To illustrate this, let’s look at two hypothetical ingredients; ingredient A and ingredient B.  Both ingredient A & B are by-products from the processing of grain. Both ingredients have a protein content of 50% or approximately 227 grams of protein per pound of ingredient.  Ingredient A is derived from high-quality grains and the processing is closely monitored to ensure consistency of product and manufacturing.  Ingredient A has a protein digestibility of 90%.  Therefore the animal will be able to digest 204 grams of protein per every pound consumed. 

Ingredient B on the other hand uses less strict criteria for selecting the grain used.  Furthermore, the manufacturing process of ingredient B varies and sometimes uses heat levels that are too high and cause damage to the protein and subsequently reduces digestibility.  The result is that the average digestibility of the ingredient is 50% or 113.5 grams per pound of ingredient. 

As you might assume, Ingredient A is more expensive than ingredient B due to the stricter quality standards.  Ingredient A costs $1.00 per pound where ingredient B costs $0.85 per pound.  If  the diet is to supply 454 grams of protein to the animal you would need 2.22 pounds of ingredient A and 4 pounds of ingredient B to supply the protein need.  The true cost based on protein and digestibility would by $2.22 for ingredient A and $3.40 for ingredient B.  Therefore, the inferior ingredient B actually costs you 65% MORE to use.

            Protein is not the only nutrient that can vary in digestibility. The digestibility of minerals also vary greatly depending on ingredient source.  A classic example is copper.  Copper can come in different forms such as copper oxide and copper sulfate.  Copper oxide is low in terms of digestibility where copper sulfate has a high digestibility.  Once again, copper oxide is less expensive than copper sulfate, which is why many low-cost deer minerals use copper oxide as a copper source. 

To further complicate things, copper sulfate can come from different suppliers some of which supply a more pure product than others.  The list of variables in minerals sources is virtually endless.  This not only holds true for copper but for all macro and trace minerals.

            The importance of high-quality sources is vital with vitamins as well.  Unlike minerals where the loss of potency is not a problem, the potency of vitamins can decrease dramatically over time.  Typically, vitamins A, D, and E are used in whitetail deer supplements.  These are classified as fat-soluble vitamins and are also anti-oxidants.  Being anti-oxidants, these vitamins are susceptible to oxidation, which decreases the potency of the vitamins.  This is especially true for low-quality “cheap” vitamins.  Low-quality vitamins lack many of the protective measures found in high-quality vitamin sources such as coating and anti-oxidation agents. 

Furthermore, vitamin purity varies greatly among sources.  Vitamins are very expensive.  Some vitamins in their pure form can cost literally thousands of dollars per pound.  The problem, however, is that when using “cheap” vitamins, degradation occurs rapidly.  Therefore, in a short amount of time the amount of vitamins available to deer is dramatically decreased and the benefit is dramatically decreased as well.

            Yet another consideration in ingredient selection is the source from which the ingredient is derived as well.  For instance, many deer products use ingredients that are sourced from animal by-products.  Some of these include fat, meat and bone meal and even blood meal.  Deer are herbivores and do not naturally consume food derived from animals.  Deer’s ability to digest these ingredients is obviously questionable.  Other complications have occurred when feeding animal by-products in ruminant diets.  For instance, due to the fear of spreading mad cow disease, in the late 1990s meat and bone meal was prohibited in any ruminant diets.

              A final consideration of ingredient usage is “least-cost formulation.”  Least-cost formulation is a popular way many companies put together supplements.  Least-cost formulation is the process where nutrient levels are put into a computer and the computer pulls from a group of ingredients to meet those nutrient needs.  Ingredient selection is then based solely on ingredient price.

Knowing that all ingredients are NOT created equal, ingredient quality and digestibility is the number one consideration when researchers at the Whitetail Institute put together deer supplements.  Instead of allowing the computer to pick the ingredients based on price, all the ingredients in Whitetail Institute products are specifically chosen and locked in regardless of price.  The goal of the Institute is to develop and manufacture the highest-quality products available that have been tested and proven to improve the entire deer herd.  The Whitetail Institute knows “you get what you pay for.”  Therefore, quality is never compromised by price.