Re: [RC] slaughter Sorry it's so long - Barbara McCrary
It would be wonderful if all cattle could be
pasture-raised and sent to market right off grass. I asked my husband
whether there is enough pasture in our county (not country) to raise enough beef
to feed all the people in the county and he said no way. Houses are
replacing pastures at an alarming rate. Farther south and east of us in
CA, vineyards and shopping malls are replacing pastures at an even more alarming
rate. And when the vineyards don't make money for the owner, they
are abandoned with all their wire trellises, not restored to
pasture.
We've had a small cattle operation for nearly 60 years,
and it is hard to clear expenses. Pasture lease has gone up, hay
prices have gone up, cattle prices went up only about two years ago, but not
enough to clear expenses. We do it because it's a way of life that has
been a part of my husband's family since they settled here in 1869, and we
derive enough joy from seeing a crop of new calves every fall to keep doing it
for as long as we are able.
Point being, pastureland is being lost everywhere
to the pressure of society's demand for more homes (and often oversized ones)
and pressure from some organizations to leave the land "natural", meaning no
cattle, just nature's animals...deer, antelope, bears, wolves, etc. Until
we stop taking pastureland and converting it to development, we will never have
enough of it to raise enough grass-fed meat for the nation's demands.
Small areas with modern-thinking people are looking toward grass-fed beef, but
(refer to previous sentence.)
Another fact many do not know is that grain-feeding
makes fat beef, and fat is what gives the flavor and tenderness that most people
want. It may not be good for us, but it's what the market
demands.
I know this is off-topic, but the topic WAS started,
and I thought I would give a cattleman's viewpoint.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled
program......
It justs tastes better and I feel better knowing that I'm not eating
a lot of chemicals, hormones etc and that the animal was fed things it was
supposed to eat; i.e. cows eat grass, corn, and grain, not ground up cow
meat full of hormones.
