Sheep fed a little shungite digested their food measurably better

The short version

We already have threads on Russian farm data for cows (more milk) and hens (more eggs). Here's the sheep version, and it's a cleaner measurement: researchers actually tracked how much of the feed the animals digested, with and without shungite mixed in.

What they found

Shungite was added at 0.3%, 0.9%, and 1.5% of the dry feed. Digestibility went up across the board:

"увеличение переваримости сухого вещества на 0,75-3,48%, органического вещества - на 1,82-3,57%, сырого протеина - на 4,0-4,3% и сырой клетчатки - на 0,92-4,89%"
"an increase in digestibility of dry matter by 0.75-3.48%, organic matter by 1.82-3.57%, crude protein by 4.0-4.3%, and crude fibre by 0.92-4.89%."

The protein number is the interesting one - getting 4% more protein out of the same feed is a real result in livestock terms, and it lines up with the milk-and-eggs findings already on the forum: the animals aren't eating more, they're extracting more.

Sources

- Bogolyubova N.V., Romanov V.N., Devyatkin V.A. (2015), "Процессы пищеварения и переваримость питательных веществ у овец при использовании минерала шунгит...", Известия Самарской ГСХА: cyberleninka.ru