Thankful for a Life Around Cattle

Hey FFT Blog readers!  My name is Lindy Bilberry and I’m a new face on the Food for Thought scene.  I am currently a sophomore studying Agribusiness at Kansas State University and grew up around cattle—both in a beef feedlot and on our family’s cow-calf operation.  Growing up, I lived for the mornings that my dad would let me tag along on Saturday mornings to check cattle at the feedlot with him.  A lot of us are probably unfamiliar with what exactly happens in a feedlot, so I am going to share about my experiences in our operation.  Hopefully it helps us all to understand a little bit about how the cattle in the pens eventually become the hamburgers and steaks that we like to see on our plate!

Growing up, spending time around cattle was my way of life.  That’s me in the leopard print jacket with the calf.

One summer in high school, I had the chance to work as a ‘pen rider’ at Circle Feeders in Garden City, Kansas.  Basically, this meant that my job was to get on my horse every morning at 6:00 and ride through pens of cattle, checking to make sure that none were sick.  If we did find an animal that was sick, we would take it out of the pen and to the hospital (yes, we call the barn where sick cattle are treated hospitals) where the employees who are trained in animal health treat the animals for their ailments.  Circle Feeders had a capacity of holding about 13,000 head of cattle.  At that time, I was riding about one-third of the pens and on an average day I would pull maybe four or five cattle out for treatment.

Last summer my dad and I did some work at a feedyard outside of Garden City, Kansas.  This is a picture of what a large-scale beef feedlot looks like.

There is a lot of talk right now about antibiotic use in livestock and the fear that we are ‘drugging up’ animals in order to make them bigger.  I have had the chance to spend time in a lot of feedlots and around a lot of beef producers in my day, and I have never once found this to be the case.  People who are raising cattle, whether it’s in a feedlot, a cow-calf operation, or whatever, ultimately care about the health of their animals.  When I was working at the feedlot, I would pull animals out to send to the ‘hospital’ because I was worried about their well-being.  They weren’t treated with medicine to bulk up or get muscles, but rather to treat an illness.  They’re going to an animal doctor, just like we go to the doctor to get medicine if we have a sore throat or the flu or a fever.  Cattle are treated so that they can get back to feeling normal so that they can continue to eat and grow!

Questions, thoughts, comments, or concerns?  I would love to hear them!  As we approach Thanksgiving, I can’t help but think about how thankful I am to have grown up around cattle, feedlots, and producers who truly care about the well-being of their animals!
 
Until next time,
Lindy

Cattle Enjoy Confinement

If you’ve even driven by a feedyard/feedlot you’ve likely seen cattle standing close together at the feedbunk, under the shade or just out in the middle of the pen. It sure seems like they are crowded in there, doesn’t it?

Well, did you know that cattle are gregarious? That’s just a fancy word for being sociable or fond of company, meaning that they live in close herds and social groups. So, while you may think that cattle in feedlots don’t have enough room to move around, they actually just like hanging out with their cow-pals. Cattle in feedlots have plenty of room to move around, play, lie down and eat; they would just prefer to hang out next to each other. It’s their natural instinct!

You’re probably thinking, “But Buzzard, what about when they are in large pastures with hundreds of acres to roam and graze on? Surely they spread out more to enjoy all that fresh, green grass, don’t they?”

Cattle are fundamentally a prey species, so grouping together is a way to keep the herd safer.

 

See all that green in the background? They could be spread out all over the place, but they prefer to stay together.

Nope! As you can see, the herding instinct doesn’t go away when they are on huge pastures. Even though they may have hundreds or even thousands of acres to roam, they still prefer to chill out in groups.

The point is that feedlot owners and employees want to keep their cattle as comfortable as possible and one of the ways they do this is by providing plenty of room for the cattle, but that doesn’t mean the cattle will take advantage of it. However, it’s important that they at least have the option.

Do you have beef production questions? Shout ‘em out – we’d love to hear from you!

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Been there, done that!

Have you noticed how so many critics of the food industry go on and on about how they "think" food is produced on "factory farms" here in America? How many of them have actually been to the farms, ranches, feeding lots, and packing plants where food is produced? Maybe before writing a book or article condemning the food industry, one should take a look at it first hand.

Check out this article about Ryan Andrew's, self-proclaimed plant-based eater, visit to Magnum Feedlot in Colorado. A good friend of mine's family owns Magnum, and I am proud that they opened their gates, allowed for their operation to be transparent, and took the time to educate a weary consumer.

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/cattle-feedlot-visit

Before you've been there and done that...don't read everything you believe. Know the truth behind where your food comes from!

What's in That Feed Bunk?

This past week I was in Ohio with my fiancé’s family for Thanksgiving. I was getting settled into our room when I saw this picture on the wall.

Very old fashioned, yet to the point. There are a lot of claims out there that livestock are fed non-nutritive feedstuffs or garbage. Obviously, farmers and ranchers wouldn’t feed our livestock any feed products that are detrimental to the animal or consumer’s health or safety. Would you like to know some of the ingredients in livestock feed? I thought you would….

The 5 main ingredients in a diet for market weight pigs are:

• Corn 
• Soybean meal 
• DDGS – Distiller’s dried grains with solubles – (by products of ethanol production that are high in protein, fiber and oil)
• Vitamins and minerals
• Fat

These ingredients meet the nutritional needs of the animal and also contribute to a safe, healthy end product for the consumer.

While on Thanksgiving break, I was fortunate enough to get to take care of the cattle at the Frobose feedlot – every morning and night we cleaned their bunks, gave them fresh feed and checked to make sure there were no sick animals. Those are some lucky cattle, here was their dinner menu:

• Whole corn
• Whole oats
• Mineral supplement
• Alfalfa hay
• Straw to keep their intestines in fine working order

These dinner items may not be the most delicious sounding to you, but cattle love them!

If you have any questions about livestock feed, here are some links that provide ingredient lists:
http://cattle.purinamills.com/OurProducts/GrowFinishFeedlot/default.aspx
http://www.admani.com/allianceswine/MomentumStartersCompleteFeeds.htm
http://www.kalmbachfeeds.com/Product-Information.html

 

Or, as always, ask a farmer! They’d be happy to share the components of their livestock’s rations with you.

Until next time, 

~Buzzard~

 

Welcome to my Family's Factory Farm

Frobose Family Farms

Fortunate enough to be home for the Thanksgiving Holiday, I thought it would be an appropriate time to highlight our beef cattle operation back home. We raise quite a few cattle as a family, not a factory!

I am very grateful to have a great family and a fourth generation farm outside of the small town of Pemberville, OH. For those of you who read my last blog, "Animal Welfare Judging", I briefly described that our team assessment involved evaluating a covered beef feedlot. This assignment struck particularly close to home as we operate a covered feedlot back home.

Since beef feedlot production systems have been criticized heavily over the past few years, I thought it would be beneficial to show some pictures of our feedlot, where we house approximately 100 head of beef cattle for approximately 150-200 days. Because we live in an environment that recieves 35-40 in of rainfall each year and about the same amount of snow, raising cattle outside in a dry lot situation is really not an option. We feed our cattle in the original Frobose barn, built in 1868, and have built additions in order to provide appropriate space for the amount of cattle we raise. We aren't about to haul out manure and fertilize our fields as often as would be ideal because of the added rainfall, so we provide straw or corn stalk bedding throughout the year in areas where the cattle rest.

The cattle on our operation are fed high quality ingredients including shelled corn, oats, a soybean meal supplement to provide additional protein, and a red clover hay as a forage to maintain gut health. Our cattle also have free access to wheat straw in order to prevent acidosis, a condition that can occur when cattle eat too much grain and not enough forage.

Our cattle are marketed through Ohio Signature Beef, a branded product line that our family and other Ohio producers created in order to provide an outlet for Ohio consumers to purchase a high quality beef product that was raised and fed in Ohio. Through our production system, we choose not to implant our cattle and we do not give antibiotics to our cattle in order to provide beef that some consumers prefer. Oftentimes cattle can get sick and need to be given an antibiotic, and in such case we market them through other outlets or often just process them and put them in our own freezer at home, because we know there are no issues with antibiotic or hormone residues in beef raised with traditional methods.

I hope you've enjoyed the story of our feedlot operation, if you have any questions about our family farm and dispelling the idea of factory farms, please feel free to email me at frobose@ksu.edu

Thanks,

Hyatt

Open Minds and Full Stomachs

It always amazes me how opinions change when people take the time to talk with others who don’t necessarily share their same experiences. That’s exactly what happened to Ryan Andrews, a vegan who recently took it upon himself to visit a Colorado feedlot.

Ryan quickly realized that things he had thought about feedlots before weren’t necessarily true. For example, the classifications of “factory farm” and “family farm” fell apart when Ryan realized most production agriculture operations – including the larger ones – are in fact family owned and operated.

In addition, Ryan’s perception that cattle in feedlots eat only corn changed when he saw the rations at the Gabel’s feedlot were made up of anywhere from 0 to 50 percent corn.

Click here to read the full reaction straight from the vegan who visited the feedlot.

After criticism, Ryan clarified his position. In no way is he advocating for meat production. He is a vegan after all. Rather, Ryan is simply encouraging people to open their minds and talk to others with varying opinions about the best way to fill your stomach. In particular, he recommends reaching out to hear from the people producing the food. In doing so, you will definitely learn something and your perceptions may even shift. Ryan’s certainly did.