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It was a lucky accident of sorts for dairy producer Aaron Smith.

A broken bag of biochar inside his barn allowed his cows to sample the powdery black charcoal when it spread on the floor near the feeder.

“As we were sweeping it up, the cows all came over and next thing you know, two or three of them were actually eating mouthfuls of it, which I had not expected,” said Smith, the owner of Don-Mair Farms near Mount Hope, Ont.
“I thought the palatability of it would probably deter them from doing it, but actually one by one they would all get a mouthful of it and walk away and go stand off to the side chewing on it like they were chewing on dirt out in the pasture,” said Smith.

“We observed that it was the recently fresh cows that were consuming it by the mouthful.”

Smith operates a 75-head milking herd of purebred registered Holsteins on his 500-acre dairy farm.

He recently completed a one-year trial where activated charcoal was used in his calf starter and dairy ration. He recounted the results during a recent webinar about activated charcoal and herd health in Canada.

More recently its environmental benefits have been discovered because cows that eat biochar produce less methane.

Studies have also found that when added to animal feed, initially as a colourant, biochar allows animals to recover more quickly from illness, with less need for antibiotics. Dairy cattle also produce more milk and the barns smell better.

Armed with this knowledge, Smith conducted a trial with his Holsteins.

“I put two and two together that if it’s a full pass-through product, it’s kind of like getting double bang for your buck. It’s like dumping a bag of charcoal out in your field, but first it goes through the cows. So it helps their gut and promotes overall better health by pulling toxins out of their system.”