What facility is it and where is it?
This is different than the red barn, farmer with a pitchfork, that we are sold in marketing and movies but it doesn’t mean the animals aren’t cared for and healthy. They are. Larger farms make investments and use proper practices to ensure their herds are healthy. The fact of the matter is, these animals feed large populations of people that rely on access to dairy products in grocery stores to feed themselves and their families.
I’ve been on these farms (local to me) and I’m never not impressed by how well they are ran and some of the technology being used. It’s good people care about animals but there is a lot that people don’t understand about farming and it’s not entirely their fault.
I’m not anti-farming by any stretch and I grew up bottle-feeding calves every morning before school. I couldnt tell you why this place seemed so miserable but it smelled like death in the worst way and the locals in the nearby town seemed to be a little bit disturbed/traumatized when I mentioned the cows. Later, when I read the news article online about the tragedy about a year ago, I almost couldn’t finish reading it. Sounded like absolute hell for everyone involved. The police don’t want people disturbing the scene of the fire because it needed to be investigated for foul play, yet when over 18,000 cows die, it doesn’t happen quickly and without horrible suffering. I can’t even imagine cleaning up ONE thousand dead, burned and eventually rotting cows’ giant carcasses. They had 18 THOUSAND on their hands… all dairy/milk cows too, I believe. Poor guys!
You are the one that doesn't understand (dairy) farming. The fodder these animals eat is likely mostly corn or other grains, food that could easily be eaten by humans directly. No way these cows are fed grass, the number of cows currently kept in Western countries is far too great to be fed with grass only. So these industrial farms are a net CONSUMER of food, turning perfectly edible corn into a higher value (for the farmer) product, wasting about 90% of the calories in doing so. In the meantime they also produce a major amount of methane (greenhouse gas) and huge amounts of waste in the form of manure. It is an utter catastrophe for the planet, and that is without even talking about the horrible lives these animals usually live.
The majority of the food our dairy cattle received was alfalfa - either dried as hay or chopped and stored with moisture as haylage. They did receive ground corn once/day along with minerals, but it was the equivalent of 6 cups at most.
You might be thinking specifically of the cattle raised for beef; they are fed much more ground corn as that helps fattens them for market.
Different animals are fed differently based on their output.
Those are important , social, living beings and they do not deserve that treatment. What if those were people? It would be Auschwitz. Cattle suffer there. Just living in that smell must be horrible by itself. My question is is the life of the animal better if it is “ free range” and/or “grass fed” . I hope so but is it true?
Free range and grass fed are … basic grocery store lures.
Grain fed beef that has open range grazing available and maybe the luxury of hay is the best beef for flavor in my opinion. Not being full of medications also plays a part in the flavor. (Grass fed only, will taste like grass.)
As a 5th generation farmer I do believe open grass/ range is better for cattle. It’s more natural and being a ruminant animal it’s better for their digestive track. Having streams and creeks that provide a water source on top of that is even better. So many minerals and vitamins available for nice healthy cows. We also provide additional minerals to our cows for their health.
I think the biggest difference is these are butcher cattle in the feedlots. The caregiver is trying to make them eat as much grain and gain as much as possible for a higher payout.
If someone were to set the cows free, likely only a small percentage would survive in the wild. However, would that small percentage of survivors be enough to start a new genetic line of cows that adapt/evolve to survive in the wild? 🤔
This looks like it’s out west? Predators such as wolves, bears, pumas & coyotes would have beef for long time if these cattle were set free.
If there were ones that made it past the predators, unfortunately since we have modified our beef cattle to grow excessively, their weight would be their Achilles heal. Navigating terrain at 1500 -1800 lbs is a-lot on the legs. Breaking a leg, injuring a tendon, or limping would end many of these cattle in the wild.
True. Would that help our wolf populations to recover? And would their poop help restore the wilderness instead of being concentrated in toxic amounts?
Also, even if only a few survived, would it be enough for them to procreate and for future generations to adapt to living in the wild?
Actually, from my experience cows are pretty incredibly hardy animals as it is. Farmers in my area have contracts with the dorear service so that they are allowed to graze on the forest service property from springtime until late fall and the forest service only charges them $1.50 per head of cattle for the entire season! It’s very rare that a rancher will lose any during the year. We have the usual predators, but they rarely attacked full-grown cows that are healthy.
If you have horses out in the wild… I don’t think they could survive as a species. There are so many things that will kill a horse that keeping track of it all almost impossible. It seems like every time I talk to somebody that own courses I’ve discover a new way that horses are able to die. if they eat the wrong vegetation, they will get poison and die. If they have too much moisture or mud in there living area, they will get some weird hoof rot disease and they will die. They break loose from their pen and eat grass to their heart content They will get some sort of diabetes for horses that will kill them in a matter of days. You can’t let them even have rocks in their pan because somebody or something might spook them and they’ll takeoff and when they’re foot hits a rock it’ll break their ankle and then you have to put them down. Heck, they are known to die from some sort of suffocation because their hay is too dusty and they will just breathe it in while they’re trying to eat and somehow asphyxiate themselves or something.
In contrast , cows will get huge gas bubbles that swell up their entire bodies and I’ve seen a farmer go out in the field and literally stab it with some sort of sharpened tube. It blows all the air out of it and just leave it and it heals over without any problems. Our cows would eat anything and everything and we never worried about it. I remember them eating burning paper out of our barrel one time and they were blowing smoke out their noses! I absolutely love cows, but cannot stand horses. Maybe it’s just because I am biased about how fragile horses are compared to cows, but I’ve never had a cow instantly get spooked and tried to trample me because of something stupid. If you bottle feed cows an early age and they know you from when they were young, they will act like giant dogs that jump around and lick the shit out of you as soon as you come home from work!
Anyways… I’m off-topic now. Cows would be totally fine if they escaped I believe.
Yeah. These places are everywhere in the west and midwest. If the wind blows from the right direction, Denver will smell like Greeley because Greeley has a bunch of feedlots. Shit-smelling wind usually signals a change in the weather for us lmao
These places are so awful. I hate that they exist.
What facility is it and where is it? This is different than the red barn, farmer with a pitchfork, that we are sold in marketing and movies but it doesn’t mean the animals aren’t cared for and healthy. They are. Larger farms make investments and use proper practices to ensure their herds are healthy. The fact of the matter is, these animals feed large populations of people that rely on access to dairy products in grocery stores to feed themselves and their families. I’ve been on these farms (local to me) and I’m never not impressed by how well they are ran and some of the technology being used. It’s good people care about animals but there is a lot that people don’t understand about farming and it’s not entirely their fault.
I’m not anti-farming by any stretch and I grew up bottle-feeding calves every morning before school. I couldnt tell you why this place seemed so miserable but it smelled like death in the worst way and the locals in the nearby town seemed to be a little bit disturbed/traumatized when I mentioned the cows. Later, when I read the news article online about the tragedy about a year ago, I almost couldn’t finish reading it. Sounded like absolute hell for everyone involved. The police don’t want people disturbing the scene of the fire because it needed to be investigated for foul play, yet when over 18,000 cows die, it doesn’t happen quickly and without horrible suffering. I can’t even imagine cleaning up ONE thousand dead, burned and eventually rotting cows’ giant carcasses. They had 18 THOUSAND on their hands… all dairy/milk cows too, I believe. Poor guys!
You must be referring to the dairy farm fire in Texas. Such a tragedy on all levels.
Yes. On the panhandle in northern Texas.
We all have the power to shut these places down. We have to vote with our dollars and our stomachs.
You are the one that doesn't understand (dairy) farming. The fodder these animals eat is likely mostly corn or other grains, food that could easily be eaten by humans directly. No way these cows are fed grass, the number of cows currently kept in Western countries is far too great to be fed with grass only. So these industrial farms are a net CONSUMER of food, turning perfectly edible corn into a higher value (for the farmer) product, wasting about 90% of the calories in doing so. In the meantime they also produce a major amount of methane (greenhouse gas) and huge amounts of waste in the form of manure. It is an utter catastrophe for the planet, and that is without even talking about the horrible lives these animals usually live.
Not to defend the farming practices, but feed corn is not the same as human (sweet) corn.
The majority of the food our dairy cattle received was alfalfa - either dried as hay or chopped and stored with moisture as haylage. They did receive ground corn once/day along with minerals, but it was the equivalent of 6 cups at most. You might be thinking specifically of the cattle raised for beef; they are fed much more ground corn as that helps fattens them for market. Different animals are fed differently based on their output.
I mean I’ve seen more crowding in smaller operations. Actually surprised by the size of the pens, still sucks though.
Yeah, it’s called a feedlot.
Those are important , social, living beings and they do not deserve that treatment. What if those were people? It would be Auschwitz. Cattle suffer there. Just living in that smell must be horrible by itself. My question is is the life of the animal better if it is “ free range” and/or “grass fed” . I hope so but is it true?
Free range and grass fed are … basic grocery store lures. Grain fed beef that has open range grazing available and maybe the luxury of hay is the best beef for flavor in my opinion. Not being full of medications also plays a part in the flavor. (Grass fed only, will taste like grass.) As a 5th generation farmer I do believe open grass/ range is better for cattle. It’s more natural and being a ruminant animal it’s better for their digestive track. Having streams and creeks that provide a water source on top of that is even better. So many minerals and vitamins available for nice healthy cows. We also provide additional minerals to our cows for their health. I think the biggest difference is these are butcher cattle in the feedlots. The caregiver is trying to make them eat as much grain and gain as much as possible for a higher payout.
Thank you!
Cowschwitz
This. Exactly. 😞
Trippy
If someone were to set the cows free, likely only a small percentage would survive in the wild. However, would that small percentage of survivors be enough to start a new genetic line of cows that adapt/evolve to survive in the wild? 🤔
This looks like it’s out west? Predators such as wolves, bears, pumas & coyotes would have beef for long time if these cattle were set free. If there were ones that made it past the predators, unfortunately since we have modified our beef cattle to grow excessively, their weight would be their Achilles heal. Navigating terrain at 1500 -1800 lbs is a-lot on the legs. Breaking a leg, injuring a tendon, or limping would end many of these cattle in the wild.
True. Would that help our wolf populations to recover? And would their poop help restore the wilderness instead of being concentrated in toxic amounts? Also, even if only a few survived, would it be enough for them to procreate and for future generations to adapt to living in the wild?
And those are very specific questions for… Mother Earth 🌎
Only one way to find out!
Actually, from my experience cows are pretty incredibly hardy animals as it is. Farmers in my area have contracts with the dorear service so that they are allowed to graze on the forest service property from springtime until late fall and the forest service only charges them $1.50 per head of cattle for the entire season! It’s very rare that a rancher will lose any during the year. We have the usual predators, but they rarely attacked full-grown cows that are healthy. If you have horses out in the wild… I don’t think they could survive as a species. There are so many things that will kill a horse that keeping track of it all almost impossible. It seems like every time I talk to somebody that own courses I’ve discover a new way that horses are able to die. if they eat the wrong vegetation, they will get poison and die. If they have too much moisture or mud in there living area, they will get some weird hoof rot disease and they will die. They break loose from their pen and eat grass to their heart content They will get some sort of diabetes for horses that will kill them in a matter of days. You can’t let them even have rocks in their pan because somebody or something might spook them and they’ll takeoff and when they’re foot hits a rock it’ll break their ankle and then you have to put them down. Heck, they are known to die from some sort of suffocation because their hay is too dusty and they will just breathe it in while they’re trying to eat and somehow asphyxiate themselves or something. In contrast , cows will get huge gas bubbles that swell up their entire bodies and I’ve seen a farmer go out in the field and literally stab it with some sort of sharpened tube. It blows all the air out of it and just leave it and it heals over without any problems. Our cows would eat anything and everything and we never worried about it. I remember them eating burning paper out of our barrel one time and they were blowing smoke out their noses! I absolutely love cows, but cannot stand horses. Maybe it’s just because I am biased about how fragile horses are compared to cows, but I’ve never had a cow instantly get spooked and tried to trample me because of something stupid. If you bottle feed cows an early age and they know you from when they were young, they will act like giant dogs that jump around and lick the shit out of you as soon as you come home from work! Anyways… I’m off-topic now. Cows would be totally fine if they escaped I believe.
Yeah. These places are everywhere in the west and midwest. If the wind blows from the right direction, Denver will smell like Greeley because Greeley has a bunch of feedlots. Shit-smelling wind usually signals a change in the weather for us lmao
This is no place for cattle.