Bone meal


Bone meal is a mixture of finely and coarsely ground animal bones and slaughter-house waste products. It is used as an organic fertilizer for plants and as a nutritional supplement for animals. As a slow-release fertilizer, bone meal is primarily used as a source of phosphorus and protein.

Uses

Dietary supplements

Bone meal, along with a variety of other meals, especially meat meal, is used as a dietary/mineral supplement for livestock. It is used to feed monogastric animals with bone meal from ruminants, and vice versa, to prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow disease". Proper heat control can reduce salmonella contaminants.
Bone meal once was often used as a human dietary calcium supplement. Research in the 1980s found that many bone meal preparations were contaminated with lead and other toxic metals; for this reason, bone meal is no longer recommended as a calcium source.

Fertilizers

As a fertilizer, the N-P-K ratio of bone meal can vary greatly, depending on the source, from as low as 3-15-0 to as high as 2-22-0,, although some steamed bone meals have N-P-Ks of 1-13-0. Bone meal is also an excellent source of calcium, but does not provide enough nitrogen to be beneficial to plants. Plants can only get phosphorus from bone meal if the soil pH is below 7.0, according to recent Colorado State University research.

History

The process was first suggested by Justus von Liebig around 1840 and first used in Britain by Rev James Robertson in Ellon, Aberdeenshire in 1841.
In 19th century Europe, large scale production and international trade in bone meal was seen as essential for agricultural development.