The best way to get the soil back in good conditions are sunflowers. We tried many different kind of legumes and greenmanure, but non is opening the nutrients so good as sunflowers, second buckwheat and sweetclover.
If you have grass and you don't like to invest in fertilizer, seed NZ white clover. This kind of clover is well producing nitrogen, sheep hard and production of grass went 4 to 6 times up ! For an example.We cut a meadow in half and on one side we seeded grass with NZ Clover , the other part only grass. On the non clover side no growth, just like a desert. The part with clover well developed, but as the soil has been very poor, feed power was down.When ever we moved the flock from high mountain down to the pasture, after 5 weeks they lost weight and we have had to switch them to an other land. This year I fed kelp on the meadow and sheep are fat and doing very well.The little amount of kelp changed everything Immunity and parasite resistance is high up if land managed natural, zinc and copper level ok, as kelp fed. I do not trench or any medicamentation, lost many animals in the beginning of selection and today low workload management. Genetic selection and good soil management is the way to go, but it is expensive to learn( Universities do a different way of testing, they have the money but do not do a real down to earth developpement, so it is up to us poor rancher to find out). ....foot scald" which is more like athlete's foot in humans. The > skin around the hairline of the hooves and dewclaws was crusty and > slightly raw, but there was no involvement of the hoof itself, .............if you have problems with a few animals, just take fat( for example cheap porkfat) and mix it with zinc powder. Put the zincfat between and around the hoofs. With best regards Helmut ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barb Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 1:56 PM Subject: [blackbelly] Zinc/Kelp/Hoof Health/Weather > First of all, thanks to Helmut for the timely information about zinc for > hoof health. > > I have recently completed a round of medication on a young wether for a > condition which is NOT hoof rot, though it had my vet a bit flummoxed. > He was going to look it up but never did (he's more of a horse vet than > a sheep vet) but in looking in my books, I believe it's a condition > called "foot scald" which is more like athlete's foot in humans. The > skin around the hairline of the hooves and dewclaws was crusty and > slightly raw, but there was no involvement of the hoof itself, and no > foul smell. I kept him in the barn and treated him twice daily with a > skin preparation for horses. When I turned him out, there was not a > trace of the problem. I hope it is gone. But... > > The vet DID recommend a zinc supplement for hoof health. > > I am in the process of trying to bring my neglected land back to health, > and my soil analysis is dismal in all nutrient categories except organic > matter. The fact that it is acid further locks up nutrients and makes > them unavailable to the plants. It is my belief that the application > (by someone else) of urea, etc. over the years has burned out the > microflora in the soil, and thus the organic matter is not being > converted into humus. If it were, all the values would be buffered and > the nutrient levels would not be so dismal. Last year I applied a light > application of zinc, with no improvement in the values on the soil > analysis. This may not be terribly interesting to anyone but me, but it > demonstrates that soil health is probably the first step toward > maintaining health in the animals. I feel I need to get the zinc into > the soil and let the animals come by it naturally through the forage. > > Adding soil amendments is expensive though, and the best way is probably > to find out which forages are best to mine the subsoil and bring the > trace minerals back to the surface. I am not sure which forages would > uptake zinc the best, but if I can find out, I'll report it. Probably > legumes, with their deeper roots. > > I am offering the sheep commercial minerals, and a 50-50 salt kelp > mixture free choice. The ewes seem to like both, but the half-yearlings > don't seem interested in either. I will eliminate the salt from the > kelp and see if that is more appealing. > > Speaking of weather, what does one pack for the upcoming meeting? :o) > > Thanks, > Barb Lee > > > =============================================== > This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list (http://www.awrittenword.com/listserv/index.html). > To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly > To search the archives, go to http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list (http://www.awrittenword.com/listserv/index.html). To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly To search the archives, go to http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
