Soil Health, Nutrient Density, and Fly Control -- Our Secret Ingredient

This stuff right here is one of the most valuable products we use on the farm, and now we have the opportunity to use it for another purpose. 

This is Redmond Agriculture's Volcanic Conditioner.

It's literal volcanic bentonite clay mined from ancient deposits in Utah. We first learned about this stuff at a regenerative ranching workshop 2 years ago that our butcher hosted. This stuff, when fed to your animals does several things:

• Buffers the rumen, helps balance pH, which in turn, makes the animal unappealing to parasites, and the most obvious result is flies leave the animal alone. (This has been our primary use for it and we mix it with our mineral and I make a homemade protein/molasses lick for our cows using this stuff. When they don't feel like eating it, and yes, it is bitter tasting, I put it in their water).
• It provides trace minerals that are otherwise difficult to find in mineral products.
• Makes nutrient absorption in the gut of all animals more efficient, aiding in growth, nutrition, and nutrient density in the end product.
• It binds to toxins such as heavy metals and molds in feed so that it gets eliminated by the animal.  Even better, it's good for all species!

In the photo, you'll see Elvis, our bull who's been a very good boy and has been eating the homemade protein lick with the conditioner in it and has no flies on him. Feel free to zoom in and try to find them!

A copy of the recipe that I use is below. Combine this with not using dewormers (and yes, their fecals two weeks ago were squeaky clean!), which in turn contributes to more dung beetles to break down manure pats, and fly predators in the common areas, and we've had no flies all year!

Our Homemade Protein Tub Recipe:

1. 1 pound of mineral salt (our animals really like the Sea 90 with garlic right now, so that's what we've been using).
2. 1 pound of Redmond Conditioner
3. 1/2 pound of homemade biochar (a source of pure carbon crystal that has a tendency to pull toxins into it and out of the animal as well as some microbes such as coccidia.  It even makes baby chickens feather out about 2 weeks faster!  Check out Organic Gut Solution if you don't want to make it yourself!  If you're local, reach out to Dave at Big Little Farm... he makes his own for purchase, too!  When it eventually exits the animal, it gets carried underground by earthworms and dung beetles to add more carbon to your soil, pre-inoculated with microbes!)
4. 3 pounds of dried candied molasses
5. Play with it!  Maybe your animals like a different brand of mineral.  Everyone's nutrition needs will be different depending upon your location.  We've also used Purina Wind & Rain Beef Mineral with Zenpro Availa 4 (with chelated zinc), sodium bicarbonate, and Kansas Gray salt, all in combination with the listed ingredients above.  Just make sure that for each new ingredient you add, you add another pound of molasses.  The point is to get them to eat it and that means sweetening it just right, especially because of the conditioner and the sodium bicarbonate... those are bitter tasting.

Now, the other use for this stuff is as a soil amendment. 

I've been trying to find Redmond's SR50 (which is half conditioner and half sea salt) in bulk locally and have been striking out... until I found a pallet load of the conditioner on Facebook Marketplace. Even better, it was less than 1/2 of the price that I get it for in the local feed store! Another regenerative rancher had it and had to switch their mineral program for their sheep, and the conditioner no longer fit in that program. So we drove 3 hours to pick this up. 

So what does it do for the soil? 

Well, it primarily adds those trace minerals, helps with water infiltration and retention, and increases cation exchange in plant roots so that they work more efficiently. The result in several published studies is that the forage for your animals increases in nutrition, not just in trace minerals, but also in sugar content (Brix test) by up to 20% each year that you use this.  So if the baseline Brix on your grass is 10% year one, then you can expect 12% on year two, 14.4% on year three, 17.28% on year 4, and so on. Other ranchers have been able to replicate those same results with the SR50 blend. So now we just have to find the sea salt to go with it, but we have enough here to last us for 2 years, plus some extra bags to feed to our animals. 

Here's to happy soil, happy grass, and happy animals! (And full human bellies with meat sourced from our regenerative farm in North Texas!)