Welcome to the Ranch!

Have you ever heard of diatomaceous earth?  I had not, until Cross Creek Cattle Company began raising grassfed beef.  Diatomaceous earth is the fossilized remains of a hard-shelled algae, also called diatoms.  It has many uses and can be given to many different kinds of mammals and even humans.

One of our happy calves

First, I am going to describe the uses of diatomaceous earth with cattle.  It can be used both internally and externally.  We combine  diatomaceous earth with the cow’s natural mineral supplements of salt and kelp meal.  The diatomaceous earth removes any worms or parasites in the animal.  It is a natural de-wormer with no danger to the animal or consumer; therefore, there is no withdrawal time before consuming the animal.

In addition, there are many external uses of diatomaceous earth.  You can dust the backs of the animals with diatomaceous earth  to get rid of any pest like fleas, ticks, lice, and/or flies.  In order to kill the pests, they must come into contact with the dust.  You can rub it in for the best results.  However, try not to breathe in the dust.  Eventually it will irritate your lungs if you breathe in too much.  You can also sprinkle diatomaceous earth in the barn to get rid of insects and to repel them too.

You can purchase food-grade diatomaceous earth from most good feed stores.  Its use is approved by the government for organic companies.  We do not have organic certification.  However, we do use all-natural products on our animals.  Diatomaceous earth is one example.

This fossilized dust can be used with most other animals as well.  For the large animals like cows, goats, and sheep, 2% of their daily ration should be diatomaceous earth.  Since we give no grain to our cows, we mix it with their free-choice minerals.  This is recommended as a daily feeding rate.  Dogs and cats can also benefit from it.  The best site I have found on using diatomaceous earth is Wolf Creek Ranch.  They are a wholistic animal sanctuary and give amounts for most animals.  It is a very informative website on the subject.  You can also use diatomaceous earth on your lawn and in your home.  I highly recommend checking into diatomaceous earth if you are wanting an all-natural pesticide/insecticide.

If you are curious about our grassfed beef, now you know that they are treated naturally with diatomaceous earth.  Additionally we give no growth-hormones or antibiotics to our cattle.  If for any reason a cow falls ill, they are removed from the grassfed program.  We will then give them antibiotics for their own health, but we will not sell them for human consumption.   If you have any questions, please contact us.

Tags: de-wormer, diatomaceous earth, insecticide, pesticide

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 7:27 am and is filed under Grassfed Beef. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.