Wollastonite’s various properties make it a beneficial additive to ground material in the production of livestock with the following effects.
Many people are familiar with diatomaceous earth (DE) – the silicon-rich shell fragments of ancient marine life – and its pest control properties. Wollastonite has a similar effect: its needle-like calcium silicate crystals scratch and desiccate the skin and exoskeleton of insects and insect larvae. The advantage of wollastonite is that unlike DE which loses its “edge” when it gets wet, wollastonite retains its beneficial properties even in moist environments like soil, manure, bedding, and inside the digestive system.
Cattle (Dairy and Beef)
Spread on floors, alleys, walkways, or added to stall bedding, wollastonite improves traction while balancing manure pH, potentially reducing odours and disease-causing bacteria. Wollastonite crystals can also dessicate fly larva, leading to reduced fly populations. Wollastonite will add calcium, magnesium, and silicon to the manure and adsorb phosphorus, increasing the fertilizer value of the manure or compost applied to fields.
Poultry
Poultry producers are using wollastonite added to the bedding, or between flocks, as part of their disinfection and insect/mite control protocol. Growers report that chickens who ingest wollastonite appear to be in better overall health. Controlled feeding trials are currently underway in layers, broilers, and turkeys. Wollastonite will add calcium, magnesium, and silicon to the manure and adsorb phosphorus, increasing the fertilizer value of the manure or compost applied to fields.
Swine
Pork producers are experimenting with wollastonite to improve traction on slatted floors. In the manure pit, calcium silicate helps control odours, stabilize nutrients, adsorb phosphorus, and balance pH, creating a higher-value, lower-risk fertilizer for field application.
Sheep
When added to bedding, wollastonite can help control external and internal parasites at various stages in their life cycles. Sheep farmers are beginning to experiment with wollastonite as a feed additive to aid in the control of internal parasites. Wollastonite will add calcium, magnesium, and silicon to the manure and adsorb phosphorus, increasing the fertilizer value of the manure or compost applied to fields.
Regulation and Oversight
In Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada lists calcium silicate as an approved anti-caking agent for animal feed (to a maximum of two percent of the finished feed) in Schedule IV, section 8.13 of the Feeds Regulation.
Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency categorizes calcium silicate as a “List 4A” formulant, the level of least concern, reserved for substances “which are generally regarded to be of minimal toxicological concern, as well as substances commonly consumed as foods.”
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration considers calcium silicate to be “Generally Recognized as Safe.” It is listed under “Food Additives Permitted in Feed and Drinking Water of Animals” as “an anticaking agent in animal feed, provided that the amount of calcium silicate does not exceed 2 percent.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers calcium silicate to be exempt from the requirement for a residue tolerance level if used in accordance with good agricultural practices when applied to both growing crops or raw agricultural commodities after harvest and animals.