Sodium nutrition and sources

Larry L. Berger, Ph.D.
Salt Institute
Salt and Trace Minerals newsletter
Fall 2005 (Vol. 37, No. 3)

Dietary sodium is essential to life and health, in humans as in livestock and poultry. Tables of the sodium content of common forages have overestimated sodium. Producers should insist on proper sodium nutrition and use the new tables, included in this article. But average values for sodium concentration are of limited value due to the high standard deviation around the mean for most feedstuffs. Many samples of individual feedstuffs may contain so little sodium that they make a negligible contribution to the sodium nutrition of the animal. Providing adequate salt in the diet or feeding it free-choice to grazing animals is the best way to ensure their sodium requirement is being met.