Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Sir Albert Howard found 70 years ago that where soil had high organic matter 
content and mixed grasses, animals grazing on it were disease free, though 
diseased animals were all around the area.

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our 
most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its 
renewal is our only hope.
   - Wendell Berry
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 5/15/2006 at 9:53 PM Terry Wereb wrote:

>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