Should I Use a Wet-Season or Dry-Season Lick?

Should I use a wet-season or dry-season lick?

Tap the picture to watch the source discussion for this guide.

Sound familiar?

The first good rain falls, the pasture greens up almost overnight, and you swap the dry-season protein lick for a mineral lick that same week — because that's what the season is "supposed" to look like. Two weeks later the green growth is still short and scattered, animals are still walking further to find a full mouthful, and condition starts slipping instead of improving.

The mistake isn't the switch. It's switching on the calendar instead of on what's actually growing where your animals graze.

Quick answer

If your animals can fill up on actively growing green leaf, shift the focus to the mineral deficiencies common in your area — often phosphorus and trace minerals. If most of what's available is still mature, yellowed or dry, they likely still need a registered protein lick to help the rumen break that roughage down properly.

Don't drop the dry-season protein lick at the first rain. Wait until there's enough green forage for animals to take full, steady mouthfuls — not just a scattering of new shoots mixed in with the old dry material.

Who this is for

Anyone grazing cattle, sheep or goats through a seasonal year with a clear wet and dry period. Pregnant, lactating, growing and thin animals need the closest watching, because they have the least room for error.

Read the grazing land before you decide

What you see when you walk the land	What it usually means	What to do about it
Plenty of leafy green growth	Minerals may still be short, even though feed looks abundant	Stick with the mineral/phosphorus lick recommended for your area and species
Tall grass, mostly stem or gone to seed	Quality is dropping even though there's bulk	Condition-score the herd and get advice on adding protein
Mostly yellow, dry, standing material	Protein is very likely limiting digestion	Use a registered dry-season protein lick as directed
Rain has fallen but growth is short and patchy	Not enough usable green yet	Stay on the dry-season program and check again in a week
Bare patches or very little forage anywhere	This is a feed shortage, not just a nutrient gap	Reduce numbers, move animals, or bring in roughage — don't wait

Your five-minute weekly check

1. Walk out to where animals actually graze and look at the mix of leaf, stem, dead material and bare ground.
2. Condition-score the same handful of animals each time, so you're comparing like with like.
3. Work out real lick intake: quantity used ÷ number of animals ÷ number of days.
4. Check that number against what the label says animals should be eating.
5. Check the water source, whether troughs are staying dry, and whether animals are grazing evenly or hammering the same patches.

Mistakes that cost farmers money and condition

• Changing the lick because the season changed on the calendar, not on the ground.
• Treating the first good rain as if it's already good grazing.
• Using lick to paper over a genuine shortage of grass — no lick replaces missing roughage.
• Mixing in your own extra salt, minerals or urea into a product that's already complete.
• Giving cattle mineral to sheep without checking the copper level first — it can be harmful, even fatal, to sheep.

When to call for help

If animals are losing condition fast, going off feed, bloating, staggering, scouring badly, or can't get up — that's a call to a vet, not a wait-and-see.

🎥 Watch and learn more

You already have the practical steps above. If you would like to hear the explanation and examples behind them:

• ▶️ Watch the relevant part of the discussion
• 🎧 Open the full livestock-nutrition conversation

Reference: Growth Well Podcast discussion with animal nutritionist Lubbe Jacobs.