I totally agree with almost everything on the
video. Years ago I tried to follow the low fat idea and I felt terrible! now I eat real cream, fresh
raw milk that is around 4-6% fat and cook with butter and bacon grease. I have never felt better. I must disagree with one aspect of the husbandry demonstrated on the video for the sake of any new livestock owners that might come across it. purposeful experiments with animals known to be deficient in certainminerals have demonstrated that they have no ability to choose one mineral mix over another to rectify their deficiency. it is extremely important to have one mineral source in the form of a salt mix that is balanced for the species available free choice. the only mineral that the animals can self regulate is salt. so when the animal has a craving for salt they will go to their mineral mix and get the correct propertions of the other minerals in relation to the salt. unfortunatly because of the nature of mineral consumption,offering minerals separtley is a recipe for disaster. too much of one mineral can interfere with the absorption of other minerals. for instance if you have a good loose salt/mineral mix out and a source of zinc alone your critter could consume some of the zinc in excess and prevent the absorption of the copper that otherwise would be in correct proportion and adequatly absorbed, resulting in an animal that is defecient in copper despite copper being available to them in adequate amounts. I have seen first hand these problems created by having multiple mineral and salt sources available to goat herds,and people ask me why I think their goats are dropping dead literally.
The depleted mineral problem is part of the issue. Animals naturally would be getting most of their minerals from the food they eat and wouldn't selectively lick different parts of the ground containing different concentrations of minerals. And when an area of
land has been depleted due to irresponsible agriculture the animals trying to live off the land become deficient. Having a good loose mineral mix available to them in itself returns the minerals to the soil assuming that the animals waste and eventual carcass is kept on the property. Another reason why free choice mineral is important is that animals evolved to accomodate the mineral availability in their natural habitat or in the case of long domesticated species, to accomodate ancient husbandry techniques.
so what makes a "good mineral mix"? every species has differnet requirments but one major thing to look for is the salt content. some mineral mixes made for animals contain as much as 40% salt. this results in the animals craving for salt to be diminished before they have consumed adequate amounts of minerals. look for a salt mix that contains 12-14% salt and do your research on the given species to make sure that the mix supplies them with adequate minerals that the animals has a particular need for.
