Tom
09-17-05, 02:18 PM
In the library, I came across an article in the May 2005 issue of "Monthly Labor Review", published by the U.S. Department of Labor.
From "Factors affecting beef and cattle producer prices movements", by Marta Norton:
The United States is the world's dominant producer of beef, and maintains a large fed-cattle industry that produces high-quality, grain-fed beef. While the industry has evolved over the years... production can still be considered in two general divisions: cow-calf and cattle feeding.
...At the cow-calf stage, cattle are calved and maintained on pasture until they weigh about 400 pounds... Cow-calf operations need, on average, 5 tons of forage on a dry-matter basis per cow per year...
Cattle feeding is the second sector of cattle production and occurs on feedlots located mostly, although not exclusively, in the Great Plains. The aforementioned weaned calves generally... become feeder cattle and are moved to a feedlot when they weigh between 500 and 750 pounds. Depending on conditions and desired results, the feeding period lasts approximately 90 to 300 days. During this time, an animal is fed grain and protein concentrates... Cattle are generally sold from the feedlot to the slaughter plant when they weigh between 950 and 1.250 pounds."
Lately, there has been a lot of noise about how many animals are killed in the production of vegan foodstuffs. And that is a problem. But generally, eating meat would appear to have at least as high a toll of animals (BESIDES the cattle being butchered themselves). During those three to ten months in the feedlot, cattle would be eating foods which would have to be grown with the same small-animal-squashing heavy equipment which would have been used to grow crops for human consumption.
The environmental effects of the grazing phase of cattle production might be harder to quantify. Cattle can graze on land which isn't readily suitable for raising crops. And they don't necessarily harm the land they graze upon, so long as there aren't an excessive number of them. But 5 tons of pasture forage (DRY WEIGHT, no less) is a lot of biomass being used by livestock.
From "Factors affecting beef and cattle producer prices movements", by Marta Norton:
The United States is the world's dominant producer of beef, and maintains a large fed-cattle industry that produces high-quality, grain-fed beef. While the industry has evolved over the years... production can still be considered in two general divisions: cow-calf and cattle feeding.
...At the cow-calf stage, cattle are calved and maintained on pasture until they weigh about 400 pounds... Cow-calf operations need, on average, 5 tons of forage on a dry-matter basis per cow per year...
Cattle feeding is the second sector of cattle production and occurs on feedlots located mostly, although not exclusively, in the Great Plains. The aforementioned weaned calves generally... become feeder cattle and are moved to a feedlot when they weigh between 500 and 750 pounds. Depending on conditions and desired results, the feeding period lasts approximately 90 to 300 days. During this time, an animal is fed grain and protein concentrates... Cattle are generally sold from the feedlot to the slaughter plant when they weigh between 950 and 1.250 pounds."
Lately, there has been a lot of noise about how many animals are killed in the production of vegan foodstuffs. And that is a problem. But generally, eating meat would appear to have at least as high a toll of animals (BESIDES the cattle being butchered themselves). During those three to ten months in the feedlot, cattle would be eating foods which would have to be grown with the same small-animal-squashing heavy equipment which would have been used to grow crops for human consumption.
The environmental effects of the grazing phase of cattle production might be harder to quantify. Cattle can graze on land which isn't readily suitable for raising crops. And they don't necessarily harm the land they graze upon, so long as there aren't an excessive number of them. But 5 tons of pasture forage (DRY WEIGHT, no less) is a lot of biomass being used by livestock.