Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Terry Wereb <frosted-acres@sbcglobal.net>]

Okay, below is the soil-animal health connection

Terry

--- 
> Living with horses predisposes my stock to tetanus. 
> Having watched a 
> horse die of lockjaw, this is not a risk I will
> take.
> 
> This next bit got me heckled off another sheep list,
> but I'll take a 
> chance here.  I went through a very difficult period
> with the sheep 
> which extensive research revealed to be a trace
> element imbalance - read 
> "imbalance" - not necessarily deficiency.  In
> disastrous proportions. 
> While I fully agree that chemical props used willy
> nilly are extremely 
> detrimental to the gene pool, I would also like to
> propose that even 
> highly disease tolerant animals which are
> fed/pastured on many of our 
> trace-element-deficient/chemicaled forages, do not
> have all the immune 
> system building blocks necessary to live up to their
> genetic potential. 
> There's no doubt in my mind that a lot of the state
> of disrepair that 
> some breeds/species are in is not so much the lack
> of genetic immunity, 
> but the lack of immune-system building blocks.  They
> are challenged by 
> deficient/toxic feeds.
> 
> To my mind this is the state of things which fuels
> the pharmaceutical 
> engine.  We are not putting money into rebuilding
> our agricultural soils 
> and thus our health/the health of our animals, we
> are inventing another 
> injectable band-aid.
> 
> My land is not up to robust health yet, and none of
> the forages I have 
> tested from statewide sources give me the confidence
> that my sheep are 
> fully up to their genetic immune capabilities.  We
> are working on it, 
> but building that kind of health into the soil takes
> years.  And since 
> we must buy in hay for the winter, we are out of
> control of that phase 
> of our program.  Our time will come, but in the
> meantime, there are one 
> or two items that I will vaccinate for.
> 
> Regards,
l