This report will be investigating the weight gain of feedlot and pasture fed cattle. Both beef productions have advantages and disadvantage but which will determine the greater weight gain?
A feedlot is a type of managed animal feeding facility which is use to fatten cattle ready for slaughter. Feedlot Cattle generally spend 50 – 120 days in a feedlot which is around 10 -15% of their lifespan. Before Cattle are put into a feed lot they are first weaned from their mother at 8 months old and pasture fed until 12 – 13 months old then are lot fed until 18 – 24 months old. Cattle are finished in feedlots to meet market requirements earlier and because pasture may not be sufficient enough for cattle to develop consistent meat quality and quantity due to environmental factors such as drought.
The advantages of lot fed cattle are the minimum land usage required for large numbers of cattle which is a more economical way for beef production. Also cattle are fattened earlier with better meat consistency and more meat can be distributed for the increasing global demand. However, the disadvantages of feed lot production are greater, lot cattle are exposed to constant sunlight, dust, small spaces, faeces, heat and disease. Cattle are not designed to constantly consume grain and have to be given antibiotics of health issues. Lot fed cattle have better marbling and tender, taster meat as a result of the grain based diet. However despite the flavour and texture of grain-fed- beef it contains higher bad fat levels as well as growth hormones and antibiotics.
Grass fed cattle are more healthy and happy because they undergo less stress and grow in a more natural environment. Grass fed cattle are allowed to roam freely and consume there natural di...
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The Animal welfare of feedlot cattle are main priority, feedlot cattle are require by legislation to have a minimum 9m2, however feedlot production generally provides 13- 15m 2 per cow for animal health benefit. This space allows cattle to maintain natural behaviour which is required by the RSPCA. Feedlot cattle are supervise on a daily basis, hospitalised if unwell, given specifically developed diets by nutritionists an protected from starvation, floods, fire and droughts. Also a veterinarian is employed to overview animal health and welfare. However, these actions to improve animal welfare feedlot cattle are susceptible to disease due to constant contact with faeces and other factors due to living condition. Infections and disease do occur and cattle are given antibiotics which mean feedlot cattle have antibiotics in the beef.
In today's society, organic food is a giant new thing in which food is produced without any chemicals. In other words, the product must be 100 percent natural. A major food source of the American people is meat, and the way that it is produced today is a major issue. In feedlots, where cattle are fed grain to grow before being slaughtered, the conditions are terrible and horrifying. Cattle are confined to a limited amount of space and not allowed to roam freely. Also in these cattle growing yards, the risk of disease is much higher in these animals than out on the open range grazing on the grass. Beef critics say that there are no cattle breeds that posses the amounts of marbling present to make a good steak. It is a true statement to say that these critics are very indeed wrong. Also, Many people also do not know that that the meat from cattle that are fed grain, is high in fat content and has too much marbling. Grass-fed beef is much leaner than grain-fed beef, has less fats, and is produced all naturally. Therefore, grass-fed beef is much healthier and safer to eat than grain-fed beef.
Hribar, Carrie, MA. Understanding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Their Impact on Communities. Ed. Mark Schultz, MEd. Http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/docs/understanding_cafos_nalboh.pdf. National Association of Local Boards of Health, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2013. .
Kellems, Richard O., and D. C. Church. Livestock Feeds and Feeding. 6th ed. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
People may argue that meatpacking is an important industry for its efficiency and low cost. These naysayers are correct in saying this is an important industry. One way to mke it a much healthier industry, however, is to cut the efficiency of it. If there are not thousands of cattle in a pin, the risk of the cattle contracting a deadly virus such as E. Coli is proven to come down tenfold.
Factory farming began in the 1920s soon after the discovery of vitamins A and D. Shirley Leung said, when these vitamins are added to feed, animals no longer require exercise and sunlight for growth (B2). This allowed large numbers of animals to be raised indoors year-round. The greatest problem that was faced in raising these animals indoors was the spread of disease, which was fought against in the 1940s with the development of antibiotics. Farmers found they could increase productivity and reduce the operating costs by using machines and assembly-line techniques. Unfortunately, this trend of mass production has resulted in incredible pain and suffering for the animals. Animals today raised on factory farms have had their genes manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals to encourage high productivity. In the fast food industry, animals are not considered animals at all; “they are food producing machines” (BBC). They are confined to small cages with metal bars, ammonia-filled air and artificial lighting or no lighting at all. They are subjected to horrible mutilations: beak searing, tail docking, ear cutting and castration. The worst thing is that ...
We should be concerned about the health of the animals that we are eating because if they are not consuming any healthy food we will not get our required nutrients. In the movie Food Inc. it shows how cows are only supposed to eat grass which is essential to them however we are now feeding them corn which makes the cows bigger and fatter faster than usual but there are many things wrong with it. This could cause Cows to raise the acid level this also creates existence for the dangerous disease E. Coli. E. Coli is a bacteria that is inside your intestines that helps you break down food. When cows are fed corn it also decreases the healthy acids such as Omega-3 and increases Omega-6 which is unhealthy. We should also care about their living conditions because a cow is in one area for most of the day just eating corn and when cows eat corn they tend to poop a lot. It is crowded in the eating area for cows so when they poop it falls on the ground and they eat so much corn that they just keep pooping so eventually they start stepping in it and this would cause them to get diseases. Some farmers when they slaughter them they do check for diseases but some don’t, so the diseases travel with the cow and onto your dinner plate which means that you could be eating an infected cow without knowing it. This could give you diseases and it could cause death. In Food Inc. they showed an example of a boy called Kevin who died because of consuming some unsanitary meat. He got E. Coli and died 12 days later. This proves that this should not be taken lightly because many people die from diseases similar to this one.
Speed, in a word, or, in the industry’s preferred term, “efficiency.” Cows raised on grass simply take longer to reach slaughter weight than cows raised on a richer diet, and for a half a century now the industry has devoted itself to shortening a beef animal’s allotted span on earth… what gets a steer from 80 to 1,100 pounds in fourteen months is tremendous quantities of corn, protein and fat supplements, and an arsenal of new drugs. (71)
Every beef cattle produced is injected with steroids. With the injection of steroids it makes the cow grow at an alarming rate, and helps turn food into muscle at a quicker rate. But this is the obvious information. What are they putting into both dairy cattle and beef cattle that could cause harm to us? There is a harmful hormone called IGF. Now, this hormone is not directly put into the cattle. But, all cattle are given rBGH (to put simply it helps them produce more milk/meat). But, rBGH is directly linked to IGF, a hormone that mimics the effects of the growth of human hormones in dangerous ways. It is said that cattle containing rBGH produce 10 times to IGF than cattle without rBGH. “In a 2004 study, patients with above-average IGF levels had nearly a 50% higher risk of prostate cancer and a 65% higher risk of hormone-dependent premenopausal breast cancer than people with below-average levels.” says Carina Storrs of Health.com. Also, a lot of cattle are dosed with high amounts of antibiotics, like penicillin. It is said that a lot of the antibiotics that humans use become ineffective from being exposed to antibiotic resistant bacteria from eating beef! These are just a few of MANY drugs put into cattle. Do you see how consuming high amounts of beef could be harmful to
Holsteins are a versatile breed of cattle. They are adaptable to all types of different utilizations. This breed can thrive in both barn and pasture life or a mixture of both throughout the year. With such versatility, Holsteins are resistant to stress and produce strong and hearty calves that have a rapid growth and an early maturity rate. Although Holsteins are resistant to stress, they do show intolerance to heat and disease. The consequence of such intolerance is a reduction in milk productivity (1).
About 90% of farms in the US suffer from topsoil loss. This is due to the farmers using pesticides, which kill weeds and other plants on the farms. Some scientists worry these pesticides can be very harmful to our environment. Chemically processed and hydrogenated vegetable oils like corn and canola cause conditions like heart disease, cancer, and obesity. They contain harmful free radicals and trans fats formed during chemical processing. These oils do not need to be consumed on a vegetarian diet and are more likely consumed whilst one is cooking meat. Natural oils from fruits and vegetables can not harm the body as much as the fat included in most meat
However, health concerned organizations want to ban the use of these products due to the increasing fears that they can cause harm to the consumers. For over 50 years, antibiotics have been added to the food of animals such as poultry, cattle and pigs. The main purpose for doing so is to lower the risk of disease in animals. Farm animals are housed together in overcrowded areas, which are very dirty. The hygiene level can get to such a poor state that they are often in contact with their own excreta as well as excreta of the other animals they are housed with and because of tight single air space they share, the likelihood of catching diseases from one another is further increased and very often a whole heard can be infected at one time.
Increasing consumer sentiment towards the negative health effects of red meat, timed with increasing inventories of product supplied from Canada and Mexico as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has caused prices in the consumer market to plummet. (Mohr, 1999) As a result, ranchers were seeing that their finished product was commanding lesser dollar values while their inputs of feed and medication was remaining the same or rising. Another factor contributing to the shrinking profit margins of beef producers was the overall consistency and quality of the meat.
Blowey, R. W. (1990). A Veterinary Book for Dairy Farmer (Third ed.). Old Pont Publishing Ltd.
Cows go through a cycle of impregnation, birth and milking. 9.3 million cows are used to produce milk while they're impregnated. "Cows spend their lives indoors, typically on hard, abrasive concrete floors, frequently connected to a milking apparatus" (Farm Sanctuary). Cows are slaughtered for beef in the United States. These cows used for human consumption live for an average of 5 years because they are exhausted after all the intense torturing. "Young calves endure a long and stressful journey to a feedlot, where they are fattened on an unnatural diet until they reach "market weight" and are sent to slaughter" (Farm Sanctuary). Animal abuse in the food industry has allowed the companies to get more money because of the food they
This is a form of rotational grazing. It is considered the best method of grazing. It involves the farmer dividing grazing areas into 20-25 paddocks. The paddocks depend on the size of our herd. Every day cows will graze one paddock. This method is based on the idea that each tiller has three actively growing leaves at an...