by Jerry Brunetti

The resurrection of interestamongst graziers in medicinalplants seems to parallel the bur-geoning movement of livestock

operators in organic (and ecological)meat, milk and egg production, rotationalmanaged grazing, and the stockman’sincreasing interest in reducing depend-ence on pharmaceutical drugs — due totheir costs, side effects and concerns overresidues in meat, milk and egg products.There are numerous books available onthe medicinal properties of various plants,many of which are considered weeds inpastures and meadows on farms.

Sadly, the trend in crop management,even on organic farms, is oriented towardhigh-yielding, domesticated grasses andlegumes. This is due to the ability of theseforages to efficiently and economicallycontribute to yields of milk and/or gain ofbodyweight.

Evidence points to the profitability ofmanaging warm and cool season cultivarsin one’s meadow or paddock, but it is veryimportant to recognize that indigenousherbs, many of which are deep-rootedperennials, provide a number of otherattributes, including medicinal properties,nutrient density (i.e. forage quality),drought resistance, palatability, perennialpersistence, soil conditioning characteris-tics, and abilities to accumulate minerals— they are also valuable indicators of soilconditions. Many agricultural authorshave made strong cases for incorporatingvarious herbs and other plants in paddockseed mixtures and hedgerows.

Newman Turner, who in Fertil-ity Farming discusses the importance ofsubsoiling every seven or eight years,goes on to state, “once deep-rooted herballeys have been all round the farm, and arecontinued in the rotation, even subsoilingshould not be necessary. There is no bet-ter means of aerating the subsoil than byroots of herbs like chicory, burnet,lucerne, and dandelion, all of which pen-

etrate to a depth of 3 or 4 feet and more inas many years.” He continues, “I haveseen my Jersey cattle going around patch-es of nettles, or docks, eating off the flow-ering tops and relishing something thatthey have been unable to obtain from thesimple shallow-rooting ley mixture. Sothe thing we must do is to get back intoour dairy pastures as many herbs as possi-ble to assist the health of the cattle graz-ing the leys and to benefit the topsoil in away any amount of chemical dressing cannever do. All my leys contain a high pro-portion of these weeds deliberately sown— burnet, chicory, plantain, wild vetch,sheep’s parsley, dandelion, sweet clover,chickweed — and when the leys havebeen down four years and developed rootsto a depth of several feet they are thenmost relished by cattle. The cattle didanything to get from the younger shallow-er-rooting leys, when I still had some, tothose herbal leys that had penetrated thevaluable untapped resources of the deepersubsoil.” He adds that “bloat has becomea thing of the past since such leys wereused, whereas before I lost cattle everyyear when I practiced the method of sow-ing leys with three or four ingredientsonly.”

Turner’s recipe for seeding a paddockafter the harvesting of oats appears onpage 8. He stresses that adequate organicmatter and calcium are prerequisites in

order for this mixture to become ade-quately established and emphasizes that“a mixture containing deep-rooting herbsis essential to soil, crop and animal health,assisting in the aeration of the topsoil ofimportant minerals and trace elements.”

Turner adds, “Hedgerows should con-tain comfrey, garlic, raspberry, hazelnut,docks and cleavers, etc.”

He was amazed that soil samples takenfrom fields that hadn’t received lime for10 years indicated no need for supple-mental lime. “It is now evident that organ-ic methods, which include subsoiling anddeep-rooting herbs over a period of years,maintain a correct soil balance even onfarms which are sending away large quan-tities of milk.” He adds, “subsoiling willbe unnecessary once deep-rooting herbshave been included in a ley on each field.”

In his subsequent book, FertilityPastures, Turner reports on a test to deter-mine which forages were most and leastpreferred by his Jersey cattle. In 1952,Turner planted 35 individual plots, eachsown with a single ingredient of theherbal ley, using a half-pound of seed ofeach of the herbs, clovers or grasses. Plotsmost relished were single stands ofsheep’s parsley, plantain and chicory (inthat order); least preferred were ryegrass-es, meadow fescue and hard fescue. Nextin preference were burnet, kidney vetch,sainfoin and alsike. Interestingly, lucerne

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Benefits of Biodiverse Forage

(alfalfa) and American sweet clover wentuntouched in the presence of otheroptions. The grasses most preferred wereshort rotation ryegrass and meadow fes-cue; all other grasses appeared to bedesired equally, except hard fescue, whichwas not grazed at all.

Turner points out a significant issue:“It would be interesting to know whethersoil conditions . . . deficiencies and vary-ing availability of the different mineralsand trace elements, organic content andmoisture, and even breed of cow had anybearing on the choice for the cow. Theonly way that this information could beprovided, and I think it is vital that itshould be, would be for my experiment tobe repeated on all classes of soil in differ-ent parts of the country and with differentbreeds of cattle.”

Looking at yields was another matter,except in the case of chicory, which pro-

duced the heaviest bulk, fol-lowed by lucerne andAmerican sweet clover.Research conducted in the late1890s and early 1900s andreported by Robert Elliot in hisclassic The Clifton ParkSystem of Farming features theremarkable properties ofchicory, as well as otherunconventional forages.During a severe drought in1895 in Scotland, Elliot notedthat chicory, burnet, kidneyvetch and yarrow survivedalmost completely intact.Apparently, chicory was firstintroduced and cultivated inEngland in 1787 by ArthurYoung, who brought it fromItaly, where it was ubiquitousforage. The English farmersfound that chicory was muchmore prolific than lucerne,producing 11 tons of hay peracre (compared to lucerne at4.5 tons), with six cuttingsyielding 30 green tons innorthern Scotland in 1788.Elliot had actually observedthe roots of chicory traveling22 inches in five months and30 inches in 15 months.

It didn’t take ThomasJefferson long to hear of thisremarkable plant that grew in awide range of soils and provid-

ed unrivaled nutrient density for cattle,sheep, horses and hogs. It was the basis ofan American political scandal, asJefferson was attempting to import chico-ry into America when British-Americanrelations were strained. Based upon bulkyield as the sole criteria, Newman Turnerproposes a mixture, in order of preference(without suggesting proportions), of thefollowing: chicory, lucerne, New Zealandryegrass, cocksfoot, timothy, meadow fes-cue, perennial ryegrass, late-flowering redclover, S.100 white clover, sheep’s pars-ley, yarrow, tall fescue.

Turner’s field and grazing experimentsresulted in his various formulas for“herbal ley mixtures,” which include:

• Early Grazing Herbal Ley Mixture,which circumvents “forcing” growth withnitrogen fertilizers and their attendantimpact of reducing energy and increasingnon-protein nitrogen.

• Midsummer Grazing Herbal Ley, towithstand drought damage.

• Herbal Ley Mixture for Autumn &Winter Grazing, chosen from herbs andgrasses growing later into autumn andwinter.

• Herbal Ley Mixture for Very Thin,Dry Soils, consisting of species predomi-nantly of the deepest-rooting varieties.

• All-Purpose Herbal Ley Mixture, pro-viding maximum grazing yield for mostof the year.

• Herbal Hedgerow Mixture, to sup-plement existing pastures, particularly forgoats, and to be sown in or near thehedgerows.

There are also mixtures for light landand heavy land, both direct seed andunder-sown with a nurse crop, and pig andpoultry leys, with a large emphasis onchicory, plantain and a lesser amount ofburnet, sheep’s parsley, yarrow and kid-ney vetch.

Turner credits much of his inspirationof herbal ley mixtures to Robert Elliot’sThe Clifton Park System of Farming.Elliot conducted a trial that lasted four tofive years and compared two fields of sim-ilar soils but seeded to different mixtures.Field #1 used a simple mixture consistingof cocksfoot, perennial ryegrass, late-flowering red clover, S.100 white cloverand one pound per acre of chicory, a totalof 25 pounds of seed being sown per acre.Field #2 contained the same legumes andgrasses as Field #1, but with the followingadditions: three pounds per acre of chico-ry, four pounds burnet, two poundssheep’s parsley, two pounds kidney vetch,one pound yarrow, two pounds lucerne,and two pounds American sweet clover,for a total of 45 pounds of seed per acre.

Both fields achieved equal establish-ment, yet despite the variation of growth,which was deliberately varied for test pur-poses, whenever cows were led from Field#1 to Field #2 (the herbal ley) milk yieldsalways increased. This was so even whencattle were removed from Field #1 (withample grazing available) and moved to

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Goosegreen Herbal Ley Mixture

pounds/acre variety

4 Perennial Ryegrass (S.23)

4 Perennial Ryegrass (S.24)

5 Cocksfoot (S.143) lighter soil

5 Cocksfoot (S.26) medium soil

4 Timothy (S.51) heavy soil

4 Timothy (S.48)

1 Rough Stalked Meadow Grass

1 Meadow Fescue

3 Red Clover (Montgomery)

1 White Clover (S.100)

1 Wild White Clover

2 Chicory

4 Burnet

½ Yarrow

2 Sheep’s Parsley

1 Alsike

2 American Sweet Clover

1 Kidney Vetch

2 Lucerne

1 Plantain

1 Dandelion

½ Fennel

6 Italian Ryegrass(or bushel of oats if sown direct)

Field #2 where grazing might even beenless than adequate.

These results make the case that thereis more to nutrition than the usual param-eters surrounding protein, energy, totaldigestible nutrients (TDN), neutral deter-gent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber(ADF) and so on. Perhaps the diversity ofsuch a mixture in a paddock provides crit-ical trace elements or various plant hor-mones, enzymes, aromatic oils, tannins,amino acids, fatty acids, alkaloids, pig-ments, vitamins and their co-factors,unidentified rumen flora stimulants, etc.The point is that there is no substitute fordiversity; there is no way to quantify allthe possible and synergistic interactionsamong both identifiable and unidentifi-able components.

Livestock producers must have faith(and many professionals in animal hus-bandry do not) that animals are the bestjudges of their diet (when not in confine-ment), that such livestock are able to makedietary choices that reflect the fertility ofthe soil, and that livestock health is a pri-mary, not secondary, consideration withregard to farm profitability. Only then willthe attributes of diversity be more closelyinvestigated and researched to determinehow it can contribute in so many ways toa stockman’s bottom line.

The foremost concerns or questions bystockmen in regards to the grazing ofunconventional forages are probably theirpalatability and toxicity. In cooperationwith Utah State University, the NaturalResources Conservation Service, GrazingLands Technology Institute, and UtahAgricultural Experiment Station,researcher Fred Provenza, Ph.D., hascompiled a vast amount of data on thistopic, which is available in a publicationentitled Forage Behavior: Managing toSurvive in a World of Change.

Provenza suggests that livestock devel-op a “nutritional wisdom” as a result ofinteractions between flavors, nutrients andtoxins. Decreases in palatability occurwith foods containing excessive levels ofeither nutrients or toxins, and with foodscausing nutrient imbalances and deficits.Animals are able to discriminate betweenfoods based on sensory feedback fromnutrients, including protein, energy andmineral levels. Grazing animals typicallyeat a variety of plants because no singlefood contains all the necessary nutrients,and all plants contain various amounts of

toxins. Livestock thus “learn” that eatinga variety of plants not only helps themobtain their nutrient requirements and reg-ulate their intake of toxins, but also pro-vides compounds that can either neutral-ize toxins or activate metabolic pathwaysto eliminate them. This is a healthiermodel than constraining livestock to a sin-gle food, even if that food is nutritionally“balanced.”

Since animals prefer familiar foods tonovel ones, rotational grazing methodsthat incorporate low stock densities mayhave actually detrimentally modified thebehavior of generations of livestock to“eat the best and leave the rest,” thusaccelerating a decline in biodiversity.According to Provenza, heavy stockingfor short periods encourages diet mixing.Mothers then “teach” their young —beginning as early as in the womb andlater through the mother’s milk as well asgrazing examples — which plants aresuitable and desirable to consume.

Recognizing the fact that rhizospheresof plants are actual eco-systems in and ofthemselves, it’s agronomically critical totake into consideration that a diverse num-

ber of species — perennial deep-rootedherbs, legumes, perennial grasses, annualgrasses, biennial legumes and herbs —provide an indescribable substrate uponwhich a very complex food web can beestablished. The food web includes multi-ple species of bacteria, protozoa, fungi,arthropods, earthworms, nematodes, andso on. This diversity in the soil creates thesame opportunities for the higher lifeforms that are dependent upon the “plank-ton of the earth,” whether these ecosys-tems are grasslands, rain forest, coral reef,bayou or the savannah.

Life begets life continually becausepredation, digestion and recycling occureffectively when there is this diversity.One example that explodes the monocul-ture myth is a tale of two plots on thesame field on a farm in Ohio. Plot A con-sisted of only perennial ryegrass seeded toglyphosate-treated soils. The soils weregenerously fortified with lime, phosphate,potash, boron, gypsum (for sulfur) and ofcourse, nitrogen. Plot B consisted of thesame soil fertility program (without nitro-gen), but Alice clover, festulolium, redclover and orchard grass were included inthe seeding.

The ryegrass-only plot took off run-ning and clearly was in the lead for pro-ducing more dry matter per acre. But bymid-summer, and during hot and humid

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conditions, the ryegrass-only plot explod-ed with a devastating outbreak of rust.The diverse plot next to it was completelyunscathed. Clearly, the only difference inthese two plots was forage diversity, andjust as clearly, the results made a strongcase for diversity creating plant immunityagainst disease. Who can specificallydetermine what mode of action was atwork in this protection? How many iden-tifiable, as well as unidentifiable vari-ables, were involved in this phenomenon?

Back to Elliot’s observations in TheClifton Park System of the late 1800s: “Agrass mixture should consist of the seedsof plants, some of which are of deep-root-ing and drought-resisting character, so asat once to draw support from the lowerstrata of the soil . . . when other plantsshould, besides, be of a kind especiallycalculated to promote the health of thestock, and also act as a preventive againstdisease.”

THE MIRACLE OF ROOTSElliot conducted a remarkable experi-

ment aimed at breaking up hardpan on a“deep, strong soil on a low-lying alluvialflat.” He explains: “The following mix-ture, on the 25th April 1895, was sownwith a thin seeding of oats: 5 lb. each ofcocksfoot, meadow foxtail, and tall fes-cue; 7 lb. of meadow fescue; 4 lb. of tim-othy and 1 lb. each of wood meadow grassand rough-stalked meadow grass; 2 lb.each of white clover, alsike, and perenni-al red clover, kidney vetch, and lucerne; 3lb. chicory, 8 lb. burnet, 1 lb. of sheep’sparley, and one-half lb. of yarrow. Thefield of fifteen acres was in 1896, cut forhay, which amounted to 36 tons, 14 cwt.,or nearly 2½ tons per acre, and the after-math grazed with lambs, was an excellentcrop. Two trenches were cut in the field toa depth of about three feet, and on 11thSeptember 1896. . . . I carefully inspectedthe land in order to estimate the depth towhich some of the plants had penetrated.The results were particularly interestingas regards chicory, which seemed to havea profound contempt for the very hardpan, which we found at about 14 inchesbelow the surface, and which was about10 inches to a foot in thickness and was sohard that a powerful man with a sharpspade had to use great force to break itopen when we were tracing the descent ofthe chicory roots, which had passedstraight downwards without any deflec-

tions. . . . In passing through the pan, thestrong roots of these plants, notably thechicory, had succeeded in disintegratingthe apparently impenetrable pan. This panwas composed of very small particles ofsoil washed down from the soil above.This pan evidently was not formed solelyfrom ploughs and horses, but owed muchof its hardness and compactness to thesmallness of the washed-down particles,which may be so small as to arrest capil-lary attraction. Altogether, we estimatedthat the roots had gone down about 30inches. The burnet and vetch roots hadgone down about 20 inches, and thelucerne from 8 to 10 inches. . . .Altogether we came to the conclusion thatthe roots of these plants are capable ofdoing all the work of a subsoiler.” All thisoccurred in only one year!

It’s interesting to see that lucerne(alfalfa) only penetrated this soil to adepth of 8 to 10 inches. Elliot pointedlystates, “Of all the cultivating agencies,then, roots stand by far at the head, and itis by applying this principle to our arablelands that we shall at once manure, aerate,and cultivate them in the cheapest man-ner.”

Hugh Corley’s British classic OrganicSmall Farming, first published in 1957,gives praise to the same deep-rootingchampions as his other English compatri-ots and stockman did. He points out that“it is necessary to sow deep-rooting andtap-rooting plants, so that the greatestpossible depth of soil is permeated bytheir roots. And it is sensible to sow avariety of herbs to ensure the health of thegrazing animals, and the palatability ofthe herbage. These herbs probably benefitthe soil, too, toning up the soil organismsand making better humus when ploughedin. Bacteriological work by the SoilAssociation at Haughley suggests thatphosphate-dissolving bacteria thrive bestin compost made from a big variety of dif-ferent wastes. Similarly, the humus madefrom a mixture of herbs and grasses maywell be much more beneficial than thatmade from one grass and one clover.”

THE SOIL CONNECTIONIt is my responsibility to alert the read-

er that this discussion does not addressforage quality and pasturing success as itpertains to sound pasture management.This of course includes managed inten-sive rotational grazing, with adequate restperiods for recovery, etc. Nor does thisdiscussion fully address soil fertility andagronomic practices necessary for opti-mum forage quality. There are soil fertili-ty parameters that have a direct correla-tion to the nutrient density of forages,which in turn are necessary for livestockto be productive and healthy. On soils thattend to be imbalanced and/or in poor fer-tility, species diversity — including deep-rooted herbs — can assist in bringing upfertility from below and hastening thedecay process in order to recycle nutrientresidues associated with urine, manureand forage, both foliage and roots. Thiscan be especially helpful when the soils inquestion are natively deficient or depletedfrom abuse or neglect, and the economicsof purchasing fertility from off-farmsources becomes a prohibitive option.

Starting with soil fertility, the modeldeveloped by William Albrecht, Ph.D.,has a long history of success, utilized onhundreds of thousands of acres with awide range of crops. Using a method thatincorporated what is known as base(cation) saturation, the goal is to provide asaturation of the soil colloid comprising:calcium, 65-75 percent; magnesium,12-15 percent; potassium, 3-5 percent;sodium, less than 3 percent; phosphatelevels (P2O5) should be in the range of250-500 pounds/acre; sulfur, 50-100pounds/acre; boron, 4-5 pounds/acre;copper, 4-10 pounds/acre; zinc, 10-20pounds/acre; manganese, 50-80 pounds/acre; and iron, 100-150 pounds/acre.These numbers of course are rangesdependent upon a Mellick III ExtractionMethod and certainly allow for some flex-ibility.

This information is provided to notethe relevance of forage quality and ishardly meant to be a synopsis on the con-cerns of productive soils. Most nutrition-ists used a wide range of lab determinantsto gauge quality. My first inclination is tolook at the mineral levels to see if I’m “ontarget,” i.e., certain mineral levels andmineral ratios give clues as to the qualityof protein, the presence of energy, theability of that forage to supplement an

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October 2003 • Vol. 33, No. 10

animal’s needs for immunity and repro-duction, and so forth. If the minerals areabsent, I am suspicious as to whether thisforage can supply the necessary essentialsfor productivity and health, regardless ofthe crude protein or relative feed values.Of course, the “proof of the pudding is inthe eating,” and ultimately livestock willprove the quality of their forage basedupon production, reproduction, immunityto disease, healthy offspring, milk andmeat quality, including flavor, keepingand cooking characteristics, and so forth.Keep in mind that typical soil and forageanalyses often do not test for all the criti-cal trace elements required by livestock,including selenium, chromium, cobalt,iodine, silica, vanadium, etc. This factmakes a strong case for diversity, espe-cially of deep-rooted plants, whichlessens the vulnerability inherent in for-age that includes only a few species that,although efficient in accumulating certainminerals, would be inefficient in accumu-lating others.

The table on this page lists the levels ofvarious minerals associated with a pro-ductive forage.

MINERAL CONTENTFor domesticated forages, having cal-

cium levels approaching 2 percent pro-vides a superior quality of protein thanthat of forages with less than 1.5 percent.Additionally, high calcium levels indicateforages rich in energy, synthesized as cal-cium pectate. Although crude protein lev-els are preferred in the 20-22 percentrange (or 3.3-3.5 percent nitrogen), sulfurlevels should be at least 10 percent of thenitrogen. That is because a 10:1 or lowernitrogen-to-sulfur ratio indicates thatthere is less non-protein nitrogen (NPN),and therefore the protein content has amore complete amino acid profile. Sulfuris also a vital component of the essentialamino acid methionine, as well as cys-teine, precursors to glutathione, a tripep-tide antioxidant that also happens to be abuilding block of glutathione S-trans-ferase, an important liver detoxifier, andglutathione peroxidase, a critical immuneactivator. Phosphorous is a necessary ele-ment of ATP and ADP, energy moleculesassociated with the Krebs Cycle.Magnesium is associated with over 300enzymatic reactions, including energyproduction in animals.

Trace element deficiencies, quite com-mon in today’s conventionally growncrops, are associated with soil depletion,soil erosion and hybridization. Volumeshave been written on their multiple cat-alytic properties, so necessary for immu-nity, reproduction, growth and perform-ance. Zinc, for example, is associated withat least 200 enzyme processes in the body;copper is a component of healthy redblood cells; manganese is absolutely nec-essary for conception; boron is associatedwith the parathyroid gland. These com-ments address just a few of the many ele-ments necessary for optimum health andproduction, and we’ve barely begun to listtheir numerous functions and benefits asthey relate to profitable livestock produc-tion.

CONCLUSIONSIncorporating plant biodiversity on a

livestock farm increases the diversity ofanimal-required nutrients, including min-erals, vitamins, pigments, enzymes,amino acids, fatty acids, sugars and othercarbohydrates, sterols, hormones and thenumerous phytochemicals that are able toprovide countless medicinal and metabol-

ic properties. Increasing the farm’s plantbiodiversity provides weatherproofingfrom heat, drought, frost and excessivemoisture. It minimizes the vulnerabilitythat monocultures face through thevagaries of weather, because differentplants have different strengths and weak-nesses with regard to climatic influences.Complex plant polycultures also createnumerous microclimates, which are ableto buffer the extremes of temperature andmoisture. Shade from trees and hedge-rows can offset production losses associ-ated with heat and humidity impactingliveweight gain and milk production.Windbreaks can reduce winter feedrequirements by effectively reducing,even eliminating, the “wind-chill” quo-tient.

An extended food supply can be morereadily realized with a biodiverse live-stock operation, starting with early grow-ing grasses, legumes and herbs, then later-arriving leaves, and finally berries, fruitsand nuts late in the season. Woody plantshave the advantage of actually having ayear-round growing season, thus provingmore efficient than grasses and certainlyrow crops in producing biomass. Winterbrowse on terminal buds provides excep-tional medicinal components and a highlevel of nutrient density.

Plant diversity also increases the diver-sity and number of other wildlife, includ-ing songbirds and bats, which consumeinsect pests affecting plants and animals.These in turn attract raptors, which thenprey upon rodents. Pollinators and preda-tory insects are able to find habitats and inturn help increase yields of crops bearingseeds, fruits and nuts. The soil food web,or soil ecosystem, is enhanced due to apermanent polyculture of plants growingon undisturbed soils. This means moreefficient nutrient recycling and healthierroot systems for all plants, again con-tributing to farm productivity. A healthypolyculture also means improved waterpercolation and purification, translatinginto cleaner groundwater and surfacewater, devoid of silt and excessive nutri-ents, and this situation ultimately benefitsthe ecosystems of invertebrates and fish instreams and lakes.

Plant diversity with livestock can read-ily provide the opportunity of two or threeincome streams for the farm, while alsoimproving the farm’s health. Animal prod-ucts such as livestock, meat, eggs and

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Targets for Conventional Forage Quality

Nitrogen: 3.50 percentCalcium: 1.60+ percentPotassium: 2-3 percentMagnesium: 0.50 percentPhosphorous: 0.50 percentSulfur: at least 10%

of Nitrogen level

Chloride: 0.40 percentIron: < 200 ppmManganese: 35+ ppmCopper: 15+ ppmBoron: 40+ ppmZinc: 30+ ppmAluminum: <200 ppm

dairy products; the use of timber as lum-ber or fence posts; fruits, nuts and berriesto offset purchased feed and/or solddirectly to the human marketplace — alloffer multiple economic rewards thatdon’t necessitate additional (net) humanlabor investments. This is especially truewhen factoring in the reduction or elimi-nation of conventional agricultural prac-tices and/or equipment.

Jerry Brunetti is managing director ofAgri-Dynamics, which specializes inproducts for farm livestock and pets, andconsults on a wide variety of otherissues. He works with such materials asseaweed, herbs, enzymes, probiotics,vitamins, chelated minerals, rare-earthminerals and more. He can be reached atAgri-Dynamics, P.O. Box 735, Easton,

Pennsylvania 18044, phone (610) 250-9280, e-mail <jbrunetti@agri-dynamics.com>, website <www.agri-dynamics.com>.

Newman Turner’s Fertility Pasturesand Cover Crops is available from theAcres U.S.A. bookstore for $20 plus ship-ping. Hugh Corley’s Organic SmallFarming is also available, for $18 plusshipping. To order, call toll-free 1-800-355-5313 or visit <www.acresusa.com>.

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