Murray’s Musings
Greetings and
welcome to our spring newsletter. Just when
we thought that things couldn’t get worse in our farming community, things
got worse one more time. The advent of the BSE
cow in Washington seems to be just one more nail in our coffin. So many believed that the border was just about
ready to open up when this occurred. However,
life does go on and with this newsletter, I would like to address what I
feel are very important issues.
Electrifying Personalities
On January 20th
and 21st we held our annual seminar with some very interesting
speakers. It was held at the Wellesley Community
Center, which housed over 240 people attending between both days. We received a lot of positive feedback from different
customers who attended the seminar and would like to take this opportunity
to thank you for your encouraging comments. For
those of you who missed out, we had a VHS cassette made that includes clips
of the two different days put together. The
tape is available to purchase for $30.00 from Bio-Ag Head Office if ordered
before April 30th. If you would like the contact
info for the speakers from that day, please contact Head Office.
For those of
you who were able to attend our seminar in January, you heard some very
dynamic messages from the speakers who presented. In
the morning we witnessed a presentation from Dave Stetzer of Wisconsin who
spoke about the current problems in the electrical industry and how they
can have a negative effect on human health. Dave
has done a tremendous amount of research on what he calls transient harmonic
voltage or so-called stray voltage.
Bio-Ag 2004 Seminar
Just days after
the seminar, The Ontario Farmer (Jan. 27 2004 issue) ran a very interesting
article that tied into what Mr. Stetzer had been speaking on. The article spoke about two brothers in New York
who are suing their milk equipment company because of the death of 110 cows. The whole problem of voltage wandering all over
the place started after installing a $5000.00 milking system as part of an
overall expansion. They claimed that installing
a variable frequency drive motor was responsible for killing these cows. They believed that it allowed over 40 volts of stray
electricity to surge through the stainless steel milking system and into
the farms metal water lines causing the death of 110 cows due to electrocution
and dehydration. It is quite sad that according
to Dave’s presentation, installing some very simple capacitors worth about
$400 could have helped to prevent the situation.
Dis-ease Between the
Nations
According to
an e-mail newsletter that I subscribe to, the United States Department of
Agriculture has now pegged the number of dairy cows in the US at fewer than
9 million head compared to approx.1 year ago (which was just before the
mad cow outbreak). Which means that those numbers
have dropped approx. 150,000 head this year. One
has to wonder how much longer the Americans can play the border closing
game when many of these large dairy operations cannot even raise their own
replacements.
With the discussion
of Mad Cow Disease aside, there was an interesting letter to the editor
about West Nile Virus in The Country Today (Feb. 9th 2004
issue) a newspaper published out of Wisconsin.
In the letter the writer urges other people to visit the web site
www.lost-foals-group.4t.com. This
site is made up by breeders who share their stories of similar incidences
of reactions to the Fort Dodge West Nile Virus Vaccine.
I thought the site was very interesting since I was told that there
was no such thing as adverse reactions and that nothing like this ever happens
because of vaccination. So maybe, just maybe
all of you out there that have horses might like to go to this web site
and check it out, if you don’t have access to the internet you can visit
your local library and use their computer.
Nutrition: The Bone Marrow Bank Account
Good sound
nutrition is so important because the whole skeletal structure has a capacity
for large amounts of marrow. If we look after
and build up this bank account we will have a much better functioning immune
system as well as less deterioration of joints and bones.
Unfortunately, many people in North America are not eating properly,
getting the proper vitamins, minerals or enzymes that they need to have
nourishment, growth or repair. One of the best things we can do for our animals
and ourselves is recognize that there is a process that goes on in the cell
which are like transactions and it is similar to a bank account. These nutritional transactions are
most apparent during pregnancy. It doesn’t
matter whether it is in relation to animals or humans, proper diet and nutrition
of the mother is of paramount importance to ensure that the proper genetic
coding is passed down to the fetus. Ensuring
this determines what will happen to that fetus, as it has to make its own
way on this earth. Improper genetic coding can be caused by over vaccinating,
and improper diets. What typically happens is
that there is tremendous damage done to the GI tract and the payers patches. When they are damaged nutrients are prevented from
getting into the system and leakage of improper proteins in to the blood
stream happens.
From many
of the trials we have done with livestock over the years at Bio-Ag, we know
that Broiler Breeder birds showed more colour in the yolk when generally
fed a free range diet. The chicks that were raised
from their eggs were 6-8 grams heavier, and had higher hatching percentages. In the end, the farmer was not rewarded for his
healthier birds and so the farmer stopped the feeding program because there
was no money advantage to him. The grower’s feedback
said that the chicks gained better but there was no value paid for the improved
nutrition of these birds.
You and
I both know that broilers are so malnourished that the wing and hip joints
disconnect when hung up on the kill lines. We
know that the bones have virtually no marrow and the skeletal calcium is
so weak that they break with the least pressure. You
can test this for your self by looking at the chicken bones at Swiss Chalet,
KFC, or any place that sells chicken. When you
look you will see that the marrow is virtually missing and the walls are
very thin.
Something that
is very disturbing these days is that many people are using minerals that
contain oxides and carbonates to meet their nutritional requirements in
order to cut costs. This can deplete the bone
marrow bank account since many of these oxides and carbonates have 20 to
30 times more heavy metals like cadmium, arsenic, and lead, compared to
what sulphates and chelates do.
Zinc Oxide
Zinc Sulphate
Cadmium
200ppm
Cadmium
10 ppm
Arsenic 300
ppm
Arsenic 10 ppm
Lead
500 ppm
Lead
20 ppm
Copper Oxide
Copper Sulphate
Cadmium
100 ppm
Cadmium
10 ppm
Arsenic 100
ppm
Arsenic 2 ppm
Lead
500 ppm
Lead
10 ppm
Today we can
no longer use bone meal as a viable source of calcium because of the serious
accumulation of heavy metals within the bone’s structure.
Bio-Ag has been
a huge advocate over the many years of trace minerals and has been determined
to continue talking about them. Bio-Ag sources
most of the trace elements that we put in our mixes from the Western United
States and Western Canada. The reason we do
this is because by observing nature and geography, you will notice that
the largest animals such as buffalo roamed in the western parts. This was because the soils were much more nutritious
from an elemental standpoint and was able to sustain the skeletal growth
of larger animals. This can be confirmed by observing
what kind of animals roamed in the Eastern parts of Canada and the US, nothing
but deer and jackrabbits!!
An excellent
product that we recommend to enhance the bone marrow and to make it viable
is Kelp Meal. Kelp Meal is a fascinating plant
product that has somewhere between 70 and 80 different plant and water chelated
minerals of which are 100% absorbable. We are beginning to understand more of how this
all relates to the health and well being of the bone marrow, as well as
the structure and production of the white and red blood cells in the marrow. Kelp Meal also makes an
excellent soil amendment as you can read about later on in this newsletter.
Kelp Meal is
very high in amino acids; we know that there are such things as Arginine,
Aspartic Acid, Cystine, Glycine, Glutaminc Acid, Tryptophan, Tryosine, Proline,
Lysine, and Methionine among others. We know
that Kelp Meal also contains a fair amount of vitamins such as Biotin, Carotene,
Folic Acid, Niacin, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Tocopherols, Vitamin C, Vitamin
B12, and Vitamin K. We know that
in total Kelp Meal is one of the most fascinating feedstuffs and that it
can work wonders in many of the animals that have deficiency problems with
some of the less common elements. Bio-Ag also
vouches for our choline citrate chelates because they work wonders by binding
metal ions with citric acid complex bi-choline and actually absorbing at
the front of the digestive system and being 100% absorbed through the stomach
wall and into the blood stream whereas many other chelates only have a 60%
absorption rate.
We know
that chelates in conjunction with the kelp and many of the other products
that we use are very important for fighting bacterial, viral, and fungal
type infections as well as parasites. They
also aid in building a good strong immune system. We
also know that probiotics can be a tremendous help to the system. Bio-Ag has developed a probiotic called Bio-Lac
that has lactobacillus strains and plant enzymes that act like warriors and
can survive severe stomach acid. The plant enzymes
also aid in the digestion and assimilation of nutrients so that your animals
can eat less and gain more.
The process
known as the Kreb Cycle explains what happens inside our cells at a metabolic
rate. Different ratios are required to ensure
that cells can function properly. One of the
most important ratios is oxygen to glucose, which should be 32 parts of
oxygen to 1 part of glucose, in order for the cell to respirate or burn the
nutrients and utilize the vitamins, minerals and enzymes that we provide. If you would like to learn more about how the Kreb
Cycle works and what functions enzymes have please visit this link www.bio-ag.com/products/probiotics/krebcycle.html for an explanation. Understanding this cycle helps us to understand
how to build bone mass and how to get oxygen into the cell.
Natural
Vitamin E also has a tremendous bearing on the health of our livestock and
us. Alpha Tocopherols are the most active form
of Vitamin E in its natural form and is much more available. In one experiment to prove this, Japanese researchers
alternately gave natural and synthetic Vitamin E to seven equally healthy
women. It took almost 400 mg of synthetic Vitamin
E to equal the blood levels achieved by a 100 mg dose of the Natural Vitamin
E. The Vitamin E levels increased twice as much
being in natural from in the blood as do the synthetic forms. We also know that at a cellular level Natural Vitamin
E is a much better anti oxidant than Synthetic Vitamin E.
When all is
said and done I am totally convinced that Bio-Ag’s program is one of the
best, and most reasonably priced programs around. We
are certainly a company that cares about building future generations of
healthy livestock and healthy people. Always
keep in mind that we are what we eat. There
are several other articles in this newsletter, I ask you to look at them
and consider the benefits of many of these products and how they can help
you on your farm. We know that sound nutrition
does not cost, it pays. With today’s terrible
economic situation it is more imperative than ever to pay attention to nutrition. If one cow is only worth seventy or eighty dollars,
the value of that cow will certainly not cover even one vet visit to your
farm. In summing up remember that the old adage
that one-ounce of prevention is worth one pound of cure.
It is more applicable today then it has ever been in the past!!
Announcements
Bio-Ag welcomes our newest dealer
Brian Middleton of Hickson Ontario. Brian will
be servicing the area between Hickson and Embro. Check
out Brian’s profile further on in this newsletter to see his qualifications,
experience and contact information.
As of March
2004 Bio-Lac Liquid is now registered by CFIA as a feed ingredient. Its new registration number is #982349. Liquid Bio-Lac can be mixed into feed or included
in the water, milk, or milk replacer to promote good bacteria and better
feed conversion rates. Contact your Bio-Ag Dealer
for more information on using this versatile product.
The world welcomes McKayla, the newest
member of the Quinn family. Congratulations go
to Jeff and Joanne Quinn of Embro Ontario. Jeff
has been a Sales Rep with Bio-Ag for several years.
Pasturing Poultry
The term “pasturing poultry” refers
to birds that are raised on top of living grasses.
The birds are kept in low, wide, bottomless cages called “chicken
tractors” that are moved to a new spot of fresh pasture at least once or
even more often each day.
There are many benefits of raising
pastured poultry, almost anyone can provide the labour required to run the
operation and a relatively low investment is required by the farmer to begin. Perhaps one of the most obvious benefits is that
the birds are exposed to a natural environment and in turn are healthier. The birds have access to grubs and bugs as well as
roughage, grains, and fresh water.
The other thing to consider is that
not only are the birds healthier, but the people eating them are too. Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids are called essential
because they cannot be produced by the body and must come from the diet. It is interesting to note that omega-3’s are derived
from animals that consume green, living plants in quantity and omega-6’s
are derived from animals, which consume grains in quantity.
In the Western world it
is estimated that people eat up to 30 times more Omega-6 than they should, which can result in a relative
deficiency of omega-3 fats. When the balance
is disturbed this much, metabolic products from the excessive omega-6 are
formed in the body. This can cause allergic and
inflammatory disorders and make the body more prone to heart attacks, strokes,
and cancer. It is believed that eating diets
rich in omega-3 acids can restore the balance between the two fatty acids
and possibly reverse the disease process. If
that weren’t reason enough, another benefit reported by the consumers are
that the birds are reported to taste better which can be used as a marketing
tool to sell the birds.
When deciding to raise your poultry
on pasture, it is important to ensure that birds are protected from the
sun and constantly provided with clean drinking water.
It is also important to make sure that the ration is balanced for
protein, especially if the birds are grazing on roughage high in protein
such as legumes. The total protein shouldn’t
exceed 22% in the starter period, 19% in the grower phase, and 17% in the
finishing period. You can lower the protein
in a ration by adjusting your grain mix such as feeding less soybean meal. The protein must be adjusted by a 1% decrease if
the growing period is to exceed 9 to 10 weeks long.
Close attention to the length of
growing time should be monitored based on the different breeds as well,
for example, Cornish birds tend to grow faster, therefore protein should
be lowered to prevent heart and leg problems.
To make sure that your birds are
receiving the proper balance of vitamins and minerals you may want to feed
them Bio-Ag Poultry Premix which can be mixed into the grain mix. It is available in 25 kg bags for starter, grower,
and laying birds. If you are looking for GMO
free feeds, Bio-Ag Dealer Bob Comfort out of Niagara is now supplying feeds
for poultry, horses, sheep, and beef cattle. We
also carry an organic mash made by Homestead Organic Feeds (certified by
OCPP), which includes Bio-Ag Poultry Mineral.
To learn more about the benefits of pasturing
your poultry, try visiting the following web sites: http://www.lionsgate.com/pastured.html and www.apppa.org
Exploring Growth The
Natural Way
Last growing season we conducted
a trial on high moisture open pollinated corn to show the effects of using
Kelp Meal, Soft Rock Phosphate, Humates, and Sugar as soil amendments. We planted the OP corn and
used one part of the field for a control group.
As a preliminary we applied Bio-Boost
Seed Soak at the recommended rate of 8.3 oz (250 ml) per bushel to the corn
to the test lot. Next we applied a mixture of
Cal Phos & Kelp Meal (3:1) at the rate of 200 lbs. (91 kg) per acre
beside the seed in the row using a fertilizer applicator.
We applied Kelp Meal because seaweed is regarded as a predictable
and important source of plant growth regulators. Plant
growth regulators alter cell division, root and shoot elongation, initiation
of flowering and other metabolic functions unlike fertilizers, which only
supply minerals needed for the nutrition and normal growth of the plant.
Besides the many other benefits of
Kelp Meal, seaweed also contains ingredients called Cytokines, which are
regarded as the most important growth regulators. In
general, plants under stress have shown a reduction in cytokine levels (apparently
in response to increased internal ethylene production), which reduces cytokines
and auxins, leading to alterations in tissue differentiation.
Besides using Kelp Meal we also used
Granular Calphos Soft Rock Phosphate 0-3-0. Soft
Rock Phosphate is the safest and easiest way to provide phosphorus to the
soil, which is important because the amount of sugars and minerals in a
plant are directly proportional to the phosphorus levels.
It is 100% available to plants and does not leach out of the soil. It is non-toxic and will not harm the bacteria in
the soil.
Soft Rock does for the soil what
baking powder does for dough. When the sun strikes
the soil, it makes it rise and aerates it. When
it aerates the soil, it takes the bacteria down deeper and allows the oxygen
to filter down in, thus increasing the topsoil depth.
Whenever the soil is very hard, compact or hardpan, the sodium content
of the soil is too high, Soft Rock can counteract that.
Along with those two things we applied
15 lbs (6.8 kg) per acre of Organic Kelp Fertilizer Mix in the insecticide
applicator. Kelp Fertilizer Mix is a combination
of Kelp, Humates, and Organic Sugar. This combination
of ingredients creates a healthier plant in several ways.
Humates is important for increasing soil microbial populations, soil
quality, and crop quality and yields. Supplying
sugar to the soil is a great way to improve the sugar content in a plant
or Brix Reading. The higher the Brix reading
is the less likely frost damage or insect infestation will be. Sugar readings also have an effect on the mineral
balance within the plant.
The results came back from Agri-Food
Laboratories out of Guelph and we were pleased to find a 3.2 % increase
in protein on a dry basis in the Bio-Ag treated corn over the control group. We were also pleased to find that the treated corn
showed a healthier level of moisture that fell well within the average range
on an as is basis than did the control group which was 4% below the average
low limit.
As we move into the next growing
season consider the soil amendments and what they offer, not only for the
nutritional value of the plant itself but also for the soil so that your
yields aren’t cut short by weather or pests.
Picture of
Brian Middleton Bio-Ag’s Newest Dealer
Dealer Profile
Bio-Ag’s newest dealer Brian Middelton
of Hickson Ontario has joined our team after 31½ years in the dairy
business as a Jersey Breeder (Bri-Ley Jerseys). During
his time as a dairy farmer Brian was involved in a unique business relationship
with Ross Campbell of Corwin Jerseys. At their
barn on the 11th Line East Zorra in Tavistock they proved that
it is possible to run a successful business as two non-family members housing
their herds in the same barn.
Corwin & Bri-Ley Jerseys have
been customers of Bio-Ag for over 20 years. Ross
initially started dealing with Bio-Ag because of his concerns that he was
feeding too rich a ration and was worried about the effects of that on his
herd’s health and on feed costs. At the time
they treated their dry cows by putting medicine in the quarter but despite
their best efforts, the animals were still freshening with mastitis. They also experienced scours in their calves despite
the vaccination program that they were on. Ross
says, “We seemed to be just climbing the ladder of virus problems.”
It was when Ross and Brian began
collaborating with Bio-Ag owner Murray Bast that they decided to begin using
Bio-Ag Mineral Premix, Kelp Meal, Black Earth, & Peroxide. In more recent years they have also began using
Redmond Conditioner, NTM Salt, Calf Starter, Bio-Lac, and Homeopathic Remedies. Brain is excited about Bio-Ag’s natural products
and says, “Our cows have made us believers in the natural care of livestock. We have found longer production lives and a great
reduction in veterinary calls.”
Corwin & Bri-Ley Jerseys obtained
organic dairy certification in 2002 and has been maintaining it since. Some of the past farm achievements that Brian and
Ross are very proud of are:
-
In 2004 for LPI
index in Jerseys they were found to be the #4 herd in Canada
-
They switched
their crops to completely non-chemical/non-pesticide in 1990.
-
3rd Highest production herd for BCA’s in Jersey breed in the early 80’s.
-
During the early
80’s had a number of Ontario and Canadian class leaders for production.
-
Have experimented
with innovative retrofits to their barn over the years by switching to natural
ventilation, free stall and liquid manure systems.
Brian and his wife Shirley have been
married for 28 years. They have three children,
Darryl, Amanda, and Melissa, who they are extremely proud of. Brian mentions, “From a young age we have instilled
a good work ethic in our children beginning with the highly technical skill
of pushing a broom.”
On becoming a Bio-Ag Dealer Brian
says, “It is allowing me to continue sharing with others my passion for
raising livestock in an environment of harmony and with dignity. I hope to continue my quest for more knowledge and
opportunities with Bio-Ag.”
Brian services the area between Hickson
and Embro area and is available by telephone and fax.
Please contact Head Office to find out his contact information.
Forage Additives
There are many reasons to add an
additive to your forage. One of the best reasons
is that by doing so you can lower the pH, which halts the decaying process. A swift decline in pH prevents plant cell respiration
and the heat given off by this activity. This
in turn lowers the nutrient loss due to heat activity.
Other benefits include:
-
Promotes superior
lactic acid fermentation
-
Improved feed
palatability
-
Reduces clostridial
activity and curbs the production of butyric acid, which can produce an
offensive odour and health problems.
-
Improves the nutritional
content of feed and has a higher digestible protein count than untreated
silage
-
Reduces the need
for expensive feed supplements
-
Decreases the
incidence of animal sickness
Currently Bio-Ag is considering going
through the process of getting Bio-Lac registered as a forage additive as
several customers and farm operators have experienced excellent results
when experimenting on forage with this product. Some
people have reported success with applying the Bio-Lac / Kelp Mixture to
their forages and others have tried Bio-Lac dry or liquid on their silages
with success.
