Boron

 

If I were follow a macro mineral-to trace mineral continuum, boron, an ultra-trace would be at the bottom of the list.  Instead, let’s start with Most Relevant to Metabolic Horse Owners First.  Boron is very much a mineral of interest.

 

I have sufficient evidence to suggest that boron is up at the top of the list of Things to Know about Hay for the Metabolic Horse Crowd (hereinafter referred to as the MHC).

 

I know there’s a little chitchat amongst the MHC about boron.  But if you’re already considering supplementation, you are going to have a devil of a time buying a supplement with boron in it or trying to figure out how much to give, or even where to obtain it.  That’s because there is no recommended daily allowance (RDA) of dietary boron for man or beast.

 

It’s not a question of whether boron is a necessary human and animal nutrient. That fact has been established. I think the only creature that hasn’t been shown to need boron is some sort of insect.  The problem is that boron is very difficult for researchers to find when it’s hanging out in combination with other nutrients.

 

USDA studies performed by Dr. Curtiss Hunt, research biologist  have proved that 3 mg. of dietary boron in humans will prevent the excretion of magnesium through the urine.  I’ll include all the links I’ve got on boron so you can do some decision making for yourself.  If you’re in the osteoporosis risk gang like me, you might be thinking about taking some yourself after you’ve read the links.

 

The only in-your-face information I know of about supplementing boron to animals is in Pat Coleby’s book, “Natural Farming.”  She uses it as a cure/prevention for arthritis in her sheep and horses.  It stops joint clicking in horses. 

 

Dr. Hunt has linked boron to proper insulin metabolism in human and animal models.  Isn’t that enough to make you think about its implications for metabolic horses? 

 

In plants, Neal Kinsey says, “Boron increases nitrogen availability to the plant.  It has several other functions in the plant as well, including a roll in cell division, pollination, fruit seed and seed development.  Boron carries the starch from the leaf to the grain or fruit.  So when available boron runs out, production suffers.  Boron also helps in the nodulation of legumes.”

 

Remember that article by Jerry Brunetti about Nitrogen and “Funny Protein?”  In it he says, “Voisin suggests that not only does the extra tryptophan mean higher quality protein for the animal, but since tryptophan is very similar to indoleacetic acid, a growth hormone for plants, it also produces a higher yield of forage.

 

“Another trial measured the influence of Boron on tryptophan content of alfalfa.  The tryptophan levels actually doubled when boron concentrates in the nutrient solution were increased from .22 ppm to l.08 ppm.”  Less nitrogen, more amino acids. 

 

William Albrecht says that tryptophane (there appears to be two different spellings) and methionine are the first two amino acids to go missing in forage from unbalanced soil.

 

Have we also got some attitude and shelly hoof problems in our herd?  Keep in mind, when you provide a dietary supplement and you see a result, tryptophan for calming nerves, methionine for better hooves, you are relieving a hidden hunger.

 

Boron can be extremely toxic to plants and so it’s usually recommended with considerable caution by crop experts, and usually for high value crops like alfalfa.  For humans and animals, boron toxicity is “of the lowest order.”  You should be able to find that quote somewhere in one of the articles I’ll be linking you to.  So who’d bother to use it on soil for plain old hay? 

 

Maybe someone who wants to pack some boron into their horse’s lunchbox.  Besides the known benefits to plants, there may be prodigious benefits to the horse’s metabolism.

 

You just watch; as soon as an RDA is established, somebody will be packaging common borax up as the Great Metabolic Horse Cure and selling it to you for around $60 for a month’s supply.  You can buy a $3 box of 20-Mule-Team Borax in the laundry section of the grocery store and it’ll probably last you a year.

 

In the meantime, what to do for the horse?  I follow Pat Coleby’s advice and give the horses a quarter to a half teaspoon a day of plain old grocery store 20 Mule Team Borax.  It’s 100% pure mined Borax, containing somewhere between 11% and 14% boron.  If I read the chemicalese correctly, it’s in the 14% range.

 

I haven’t seen a visual result in the horses after a couple months of supplementing, and that fact has been stuck in my face, but that’s like expecting to see an external expression of what calcium is doing for my bones.  It’s just added insurance.  Maybe a new blood test will show a cumulative improvement for all the things I’m doing in a few months from now.

 

In the meantime, boron is only to be added to the soil on the advice of an agronomist.  That expert may instead suggest a foliar application.

 

How do we know if our horses are getting enough boron in their forage?  Well we don’t.  But we can find out if the crop is.  What’s good for the grass is probably good for the horse.  The usual labs don’t test for boron in a horse hay sample, but Texas A & M will.  A good grass hay will contain around 5-10 ppm boron, clover 20 ppm and alfalfa around 30 ppm between bud and 1/10 bloom stage (Penn State). 

 

Our first year Albrecht grass hay contains 11 ppm boron.  We have orders from Kinsey to apply more to the soil.  Boron is a Wayward Mineral (WM) and needs to be kept topped up. 

 

As far as boron goes in balance with other minerals, boron appears to be most active in a pH range of about 5.0 to 7.0 (More acid to Neutral.) Too much of the pH-influencing minerals such as calcium and magnesium will impact its availability to plants.

 

For more reading on Boron:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/Publications.htm?seq_no_115=166092

http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/borax_questions.html

http://www.dcnutrition.com/minerals/Detail.CFM?RecordNumber=47

http://www.borax.com/agriculture/files/an203.pdf

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10026&page=510

http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/files/Forageweb2.pdf

 

And of course, “Hands on Agronomy” and “Soil Fertility and Animal Health”

 

Comments

[Barb]

Hi Leslie, I've tried to do so many things to improve the health of my horses that I could not say for sure that any one thing is helping the most.
I take boron myself, but I don't know if it's keeping arthritis at bay. I'm 60 years old with a few aches and pains from too many falls. My husband is 72 and if he has arthritis, I don't know about it. But overall, we have a diet that differs considerably from the typical American diet, so is the additional boron helping? I can't say. The thing about boron is that although it's being researched, and proven to be necessary to almost all animal life, nobody knows how much is needed. So I always test my forage and if it's below 11ppm - the minimum for healthy grass, then I add some to the diet. Just plain old borax. I had to buy hay this year that is 1.43ppm so I am adding (seat of pants calculation) 1/2 tsp/day to their ration. Here is what Pat Coleby "prescribed" for an arthritic stallion: 5 grams per day (about 1 tsp) for 9 days, then 2.5 grams daily for the same period. After this time the stallion had recovered. Maintenance dose was 2.5 grams, 3x/week for life. Take it with a grain of salt, so to speak. With boron's lack of toxicity, there is little to lose. It works so closely with calcium and hormone metabolism, I would never want to risk a deficiency. Good luck!

[Lesley Magnus]

'I haven’t seen a visual result in the horses after a couple months of supplementing, and that fact has been stuck in my face, but that’s like expecting to see an external expression of what calcium is doing for my bones. It’s just added insurance. Maybe a new blood test will show a cumulative improvement for all the things I’m doing in a few months from now.'

I've just beginning researching into Boron in the hope of helping my arthritic horse and wondered if you did see an improvement after supplementing your horses with it.