Is Garlic Our Savior

As fans of Supernatural, salt and garlic are important items in our household--you never know when you'll need to protect yourself from a demon or rogue supernatural monster.  I've heard rumor even Jesus loved garlic.  I'm fairly certain it's known as one of those super foods.  Honestly, I love garlic so we usually do have a good supply around the house in most readily available forms, like: garlic powder, garlic bulbs, garlic cloves, garlic salt, pickled garlic, minced garlic, and probably some garlic oil.  Victoria has even started a garlic bulb in a planter in the house as a gardening experiment, she's been getting geared up for planting the garden and I'm pretty sure wants to plant a garlic bed.  Theresa grew up near the "Garlic Capital of the World," or so Gilroy, California is nicknamed because they grow lots of garlic and are known for their annual garlic festival.  Interestingly enough it's near Castroville, California; which is known as "The Artichoke Capital of the World."  Another of my favorite foods, but I'm getting off subject here.

So, this whole garlic post actually started this past weekend when I saw a short news story on TV that reported garlic as being used in cattle feed to reduce methane gas.  Apparently it reduces the population of methane producing microbes in the cow's digestive tract by 50%, which is substantial.  The problem with using garlic in feed is the taste actually passes to the milk, so adoption of adding garlic to feed hasn't caught on that quickly.  The research though is leading to alternatives that don't bring the garlic taste along with the milk.  I found the story interesting so I decided to do a little research of my own.  In the process of searching and reading a few articles on the subject I also discovered garlic is being used in cattle diet for another purpose.  Apparently, it helps reduce fly populations.  I'm assuming garlic "flavored" manure isn't that attractive to flies...  I'm not sure our chickens will appreciate that because they enjoy scratching through cow patties to chow on all the bugs.  Hum, maybe there will be a side effect in the chicken's diet that would reduce the likelihood of mites?  Okay, I hope that thought doesn't stick in your head, my apologies.

I haven't completed my research, there's a bit more to learn and some unanswered questions for me.  I'm not sure how much garlic it takes in a cow's diet to make a difference, and what are the other impacts.  I do like the idea better than the specialized backpack-tanks designed to capture methane from the cows for energy use. It's definitely something I'd like to learn a bit more about and maybe we'll experiment a little with our own cows, at least it gives us a reason to get that garden bed of elephant garlic going...



References -

• How Garlic May Save the World, Rupp, National Geographic, Apr 2014
• Ranchers uses garlic to keep flies at bay, Arnason, The Western Producer, Aug 2012 
• Garlic, Wikipedia
• Gilroy Garlic Festival