Minerals “Take” ninety-two
I have changed the use of Ancient Sequestered salt on my farm from how I started out half a dozen years ago. Because of a change in the information since I last wrote on this subject, I felt it only proper that I update and pass along the most current information available.
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The tetter-totter of our mineral/toxin problem is typically too few and out of balance minerals andtoo high of levels of more and more toxins.
The revised information is below…Thank You Steve Campbell
In an effort to get rid of all of the dirty minerals that were going into my mineral program led me “out of China” to naturally clean sequestered sources of minerals for my animals. Inorganic minerals in the salt form are about 20% bio-available to animals. Taken up in brine they are approx 50% bio-available (and perfectly balanced by nature). Attached to a carbon atom in a plant through the process of photosynthesis they are approximately 90% bio-available to animals. These numbers/percentages are reversed for plants. Inorganic minerals ARE available to plants. Gearld Fry and I have had an ongoing discussion around minerals since 2004. Before meeting Gearld, I had been experiencing many, if not all, of the problems that plague producers across the country. In 2007 Gearld said we need to find a mineral that will work in any environment and is affordable to the producers. Part of the problem here is that there are so many more toxic substances in our and our animal’s environment that we have had to do some pretty expensive things to minimize the negative effects of them. Industry has capitalized on this. They have an additive (or pill on the human side) to fix everything. How did animals thrive for thousands of years before industry came along? A bit of animal and soil husbandry (observation) can be of great benefit to all of us. What are the cattle saying? What are the weeds in your fields saying? These imbalances have made our animals have to work harder with access to less nutritious feedstuffs. Weston A Price said in 1930 that we have to ingest twice as many minerals as we need because we only absorb 50%. This is the minimum that is required for full health. In times of stress we need twice as many minerals available to our system. At 110 degrees, with all of the feed lignified and not very nutritious or digestible, the cow cannot even get the minimum requirement. No wonder pink-eye and rot-foot come back to our herds at those times. My contention is that these issues have arisen on our watch because we have tried to do what was easy instead of what is right. Advertizing has only helped to hasten this retreat from soil, animal and human health. Excess potassium and nitrates in forages and hay induce a mineral imbalance. This is seen in the grass tetany syndrome, which seemingly is associated with nitrate toxicity, excess potassium and a deficiency of sodium in the diet, all of which induce a deficiency of magnesium and calcium. Providing adequate amounts of sodium chloride and/or sodium bicarbonate, along with adequate calcium and magnesium in the diet, in the spring when grass tetany is more likely to occur, will neutralize excess nitrate, which is then excreted in the feces and urine, and then the magnesium and calcium blood levels are maintained. Here is the reason I decided to get “<b>out of China</b>.” Most of the feed grade minerals that originated from China that I could find had excess Cadmium in them. This was tying up the very minerals that I was adding to my mix. Kind of a catch-22. (A good book to read on this subject is Fateful Harvest by Duff Wilson.) In general, sequestered sea salts are pure, in near perfect combinations and are readily absorbed by plants, and to a lesser extent himans; as a result, the very s mall amounts of the balanced trace elements found in sea salts will promote optimum performance and heath. Similarly, researchers say there is not enough vitamin C in an apple to meet our body’s requirements, yet being in synergy with all of the other nutrients contained therein, as the old saying goes, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away!” (We should be eating the core and all...for balance.) On the human side, most of the salt that is consumed in the world is salt with the minerals processed out (one of the most acidifying food stuffs). Mineral rich salt (one of the most alkalinizing food stuffs) is most effective in stabilizing irregular heartbeats; in contrast to white salt which causes high blood pressure. (For more information read Dr. David Brownstein’s book Salt Your Way to Health.) Redmond Natural, Independent Salt Company and other sea salts which come from ancient sequestered seabeds, that are free of man’s pollution are very good for both humans and livestock. From the Vikings throwing their waste overboard to the “Oil Volcano” in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, to the Fukashima Nuclear problem in 2011, none of those waste streams will ever find their way into this sequestered sea mineral deposit. I use Redmond Natural Salt and a clay called “Conditioner” on my farm and in my house. Aaron Ellison, from Redmond Natural says that the conditioner is a volcanic ash that fell into the sea water and sits as a deposit right on top of the salt deposit. It is rich in deepearth and sea minerals. The other great thing about conditioner is its ability to absorb toxins. This allows animals to produce and perform as they should. The most common forms of mold in feeds are afla-toxins. Conditioner absorbs ninety plus percent of those toxins and carries them out the back end. It absorbs several other toxins too at various levels of efficiency. It has been compared to some pretty fancy and expensive toxin binders and performed equally well, if not better. It also counters acidosis in the rumen. Animals have chosen to ingest it free choice when overloaded with grain and acidosis related death loss is lower. This is absolutely imperative if you want the healthiest animals possible. (I would have a picture here if I knew how to)
The real reason to rewrite this article is contained in the next few paragraphs. Sea salt and the conditioner are put out free choice. I want my cows consuming 4 ounces of the conditioner per day. You may have to add one of the following: “Cane” sugar (not beet sugar. It has been GMO since2007), licorice or anise, dried cane molasses or flaxmeal pellets, to entice the animals to consume that amount. Currently I am combining approximately 1/5 sugar and 4/5 conditioner by volume to achieve this. Vary the mix on your farm and over the course of the year to attain 4 ouncesconsumption per day. The conditioner has been shown to prevent coccidiosisand 80% of foot rot, pinkeye. It promotes early shedding of hair and improved weight gain. I am using itas a “toxin binder” to help clean all of those man made toxins out of my animals. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) from Natural Soda in Rifle, Colorado, is also put out “free choice.” This sodium bicarbonate is taken from a 1900 foot deep sequestered deposit. Keeping sodium bicarbonate in front of the animals, free choice, while grazing or feeding alfalfa hay will greatly diminish bloat. It also has an anti--GMO aspect to it that I am not smart enough to explain. To find a distributor in your area for these products, go to the following web addresses...
www.redmondnatural.com
indsalt.com
naturalsoda.com
All three of these minerals from sequestered sources are free of man's impurities. Depending upon the calcium available in your soils, adding a high quality calcium carbonate, free choice, may be necessary. Cattle will consume more of this during frosty times as the grasses are loading up on chloride, potassium and pulling in nitrates. Salt is sodium chloride and baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate seems to be the sodium of choice at those times. Even before I knew the reason why, I was noticing that my cattle were staying away from the mineral mix at these times, and now I understand that they did not want any more chloride in their system. I keep sodium bicarbonate out, free choice, year round, as I cannot be there every day to monitor the changes in season, weather and feed quality, and my animals appear to have simply relaxed. One thing to remember about the baking soda; it buffers the first thing to get it wet. Either have it covered during the rainy season or only put out small amounts. On my farm, I have found that I still need to supplement Selenium Yeast (Seleno-methionine) and Iodine (EDDI organic Iodine or Lugol’s) year round to keep my animals performing up to the standard I have set for myself. Now with Fukashima still spewing radiation into the atmosphere, Iodine and Boron are even more important. Dr. Richard Olree has said Boron (Google "The Borax Conspiracy" )is the only mineral that can accept radiation of all forms and not change its electron/neutron balance. It is what put out the fire of Chernobyl. I actually add some Boron to the animal’s mineral and drinking water every day. Dr. Olree also stated that the more purebred your livestock, the higher the mineral requirement. Another use for the Redmond conditioner is on the human side. Download the booklet “We eat clay and wear it too” from the Redmond website. This clay is a truly amazing human health product. I put Clay in my socks every morning to negate the effects of man's polluted environment. Given the cow’s own preferences, there is not a set amount of any of these items the animals will consume daily. It varies from day to day and with the seasons. If you find that your cattle are consuming very little, pat yourself on the back for how healthy your soils and cattle are. Speaking of soils, Ancient Sea Salts can also be used for soil fertility. Foliar or dry, the addition of minerals to our depleted soils will put more minerals into the forage grown thereon. There are very few areas where 200 pounds of sea salt/conditioner (Redmond RS 65) spread dry on your pastures in the spring won’t show very good results. Another use of the Ancient Sea salt is to make a brine to use in your animal’s drinking water and put out free choice. The basic ratio is one quart of Ancient Sea Salt per 55 gallons of H2O
The next day the brine is ready to use. The brine can only take up 3.5% sodium chloride and the other ninety minerals in natures balance. This liquid is the equivalent of sea water before the Vikings started throwing their trash overboard. It can be used two ways (I do both). 1 gallon mixed into every 25 gallons of drinking water and also put out as straight brine for the cattle to “free choice</b>. In the fall of 2012 I started putting the Brine out full strength as a “free choice” mineral option along with the 1/25 water tank mix. At 50% bio-availability in the liquid form vs. 20-25% in the granular salt form, the cattle can metabolize the minerals faster.Kind of a poor man’s alternative to feeding Kelp!!!! Ancient Sea Salts,used in the soil, attached to a carbon atom through the grass (or your garden vegetables), becomes 90% bio-available. We, as a group of progressive farmers, are trying to sell a higher quality animal protein, which can only be produced with higher quality inputs: forage, minerals, genetics, and friendly human interaction. Choose wisely! For more information on this program, contact Steve Campbell 208-315-4726