# Dairy, calcium, and apple cider vinegar



## Swampdweller (Oct 16, 2003)

I read a book written by a vet/M.D. in Vermont that was all about the benefits of vinegar. By his conclusions, the body, man or beast, is basically full of calcium, but, due to alkaline blood, the calcium comes out of solution and starts to form deposits around the body. Vinegar supposedly keeps the calcium in solution, thereby making it immediately available to the needs of the body. This doctor did extensive research with men and women, as well as cattle, especially dairy. His research concluded that milking cows, given a quarter cup or so of apple cider vinegar per feeding, had zero occurance of milk fever, zero occurance of mastitis, greater milk production, healthier calves with greater birth weights and faster rates of gain, often by as much as 30% in six to eight months. He also found that mastits could be treated with vinegar in the ration, the clincher being that the animals he tested with recouperated 100% with no long term negative effects for having contracted mastitis in the first place. Mastitis can ruin a bag. His findings were the same, if I recall correctly, with milk fever. Complete recovery with nothing more than apple cider vinegar in the ration.
We make a couple hundred gallons of cider each year, drinking some, and letting the rest go to vinegar. The cows LOVE the pomice, before and after it sours. Strait vinegar in the ration and you'd think they opened a bag of molasses. We feed with vinegar when we have it, and have never had a cow (we have ten jerseys) develop any calcium related problems that has been so fed. 

Swampdweller


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## Tom McLaughlin (Nov 16, 2002)

Swampdweller said:


> I read a book written by a vet/M.D. in Vermont that was all about the benefits of vinegar. Can ya remember the authors name and title of the book? I sent you a private message also, Thanks.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

Do a www.google.com seach on apple vinegar livestock and you will get over 4,000 hits.

One of the benefits of the Mediterranean diet is the consumption of olives. I wonder it is really the olives or the vinegar in them. I once dated a gal who's mother served green olives with lunch and dinner/supper. Said it aided digestion. She may have been on the right track. A green olive a day may do more to keep the doctor away than an apple.

Ken S. in WC TN


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## NRS Farm (Sep 8, 2003)

Here's a far stretch...I wonder if it is just the acid that is needed. In goats, they/we feed ammonium chloride to the bucks to keep them from getting urinary "stones". The ammonium chloride acidifies the urine. Wonder what it would do for cattle and such. The neat thing is it is a powder that could be added to the feed (that's how they feed the bucks).


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## Tom McLaughlin (Nov 16, 2002)

Man, what a subject "The Diet". I most times don't pay any attention to the mounds of information the Poo Pilers have gathered and eat just good healthy food. The reason we try to grow most of what we eat. But with the cows and trying to figure out a healthy diet for them is another thing. For me at least. And added complication of milk fever. Plenty of sure info on what to do if it does happen but pretty confusing about preventing or helping to prevent with diet. I ussually get most confused right before the light comes on but no light yet!! Me thinks there are as many folk remedies as there are folks!!! Tanks, Tom


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

This is just a casual observation. I have four yard turkeys. For water I use an old flat bottom bowl I refill from a plastic one-gallon jug. I usually put a couple of ounces of vinegar in the jug when I refill it, but forget sometimes. I also have a couple of Muscovy ducks who live on my pond, but come up to the house to get fed. I have seen them come off the pond, work their way up the spring run and then come in the yard to drink the turkey water IF it has vinegar in it. If not, they take a sip and don't drink anymore.

You can try an experiment by putting water in two five-gallon plastic buckets. In one just use straight water. In the other some vinegar. Do this for a while and see which one your livestock prefer.

Ken S. in WC TN


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## Tom McLaughlin (Nov 16, 2002)

I tried a little experiment with hay and grain and they ate the hay, grain that had vinegar added first and with enthusiasum(bad speller I am). As Swampdweller said in his original post " you think they opened a bag of molasses". My cows definatelly like it. Tom McLaughlin


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## Annie in S.E. Ohio (Jun 17, 2002)

Tom, the book you are thinking of is "Folk Medicine, by D.C. Jarvis, written in the 50's, he also wrote a couple of other books as well.

All the farm stock (cows, horses, and especially the laying hens) get apple cider vinegar in their grain ration, large animals an ounce each ration, chickens, an ounce per gallon of drinking water.

Works wonders for indigestion, colds and sore throat in humans, a tablespoon in a cup of hot water, sweetened with a little honey and sipped, not gulped.

Cider vinegar kills most all bacteria and some viruses when consumed regularly.


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