In article , Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from (Jan Flora) contains these words:

In article , Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from Phisherman contains these words:

Bone meal is a good fertilizer for bulbs and tubers such as crocus,
tulips, hyacinth, iris, etc. Apply it after the blooms die.

Better buy it now, if the reports about BSE presence in the USA's
human food chain are accurate. Bonemeal use by gardeners was an early
casualty of BSE in the UK (steam sterilisation doesn't kill the prions).

Janet.

What have you heard about BSE in the states?

IIRC, during a "veterinary comment" on BBC radio a week or two back,
when the case in Canada was being discussed. Words to the effect of "Now
BSE has been found in Canada, it's almost certainly present in the USA
also".

That's what I'm afraid of. They found that BSE cow in Alberta in January and
took 90 days to report it to the world. This worries us... The cattle with
Johne's
disease we bought all came from Alberta in the last 2 years. We didn't
have Johne's
in Alaska before that. (It's like Crohn's in people. You sh*t yourself to
death, but
it takes a couple of years...)

Canadian ranchers have a close relationship to UK breeders. We *all* need
to close
our borders for awhile and get a grip on our diseases, in closed herds.
_Then_ we can
go back to buying and selling to each other. (Chris & I run British beef
breeds. We want
to be able to buy disease-free stock, or at least semen, from the UK.
British breeds
thrive in Alaska. Continental breeds wither away and die, due to our
rigorous climate.
One of our neighbor ranchers even has Scottish Highlands. They look like
yaks and they
just thrive up here. Underneath all of that hair and horns is a hell of a
beef carcass.
And the grizzly bears don't like to fight them. They kill big bears. *g*)

We quit feeding commercially
made grain mixtures to our livestock, because of concerns about animal
proteins
in the mix. And my SO told me to quit buying bonemeal for the garden.

Is dicalcium-phosphate derived from animal sources?

No idea. For lime-loving plants, I use crushed seashells.

I looked di-cal up on the web. It's made from degreased, crushed cow bones.
I have some 10# that I bought to give to a specific animal, that's old
enough that
it shouldn't be infected. (Bought even before the UK BSE disaster.) From
what I found
on the web, they can't guarentee that BSE isn't present in di-cal, even though
they use hydrochloric acid in the processing.

How do you crush your seashells?? We have a midden under my bird feeders.
Every time we go clamming and eat the clams, I throw the shells under my
feeders,
so the birds can pick out the tiny bits of meat left. (They love it.)

Janet.

I failed to gather any seaweed from our beaches this winter for my garden.
It's amazing (to me) how much good stuff for a garden can come from the sea.

I have to go down to the beach to find a big driftwood log for my new
shade garden,
for a garden bench.

Jan