clay good for sheep

Researchers at the University of New England in Australia claim to have made a surprising discovery. While searching for means to combat a serious stomach disorder common to Australian sheep, they found that "small quantities of a naturally occurring clay, called bentonite, mixed into a sheep's drinking water" not only improved the animal's digestion but increased wool growth, reports The Australian. One of the researchers, Professor Ron Leng, said that a daily dose of a half ounce of bentonite mixed into their drinking water had resulted in increase of up to about one tenth of an ounce a day in a sheep's growth. It is hoped that use of this mixture on sheep nationwide will bring increases in wool production worth millions of dollars.
note:
there is much interest in the use of bentonite clay in humans - especially as a way of detoxing heavy metals such as mercury.