4 ms·

That's not true at all. Almost all cattle are raised on pasture for the first (roughly) half of their life. Then some are raised the rest of the way on pasture

by dgacmu 4y ago

That's not true at all. Almost all cattle are raised on pasture for the first (roughly) half of their life. Then some are raised the rest of the way on pasture (grass-finished) and substantially more are moved to a feedlot, a large outdoor pen where they're fed on a mix of grains, soy, and whatever feedstock is nutritionally sufficient and available cheaply. If you're not seeing them it's because you're not going where they are. Land in places like the bay area is WAY too expensive to use for grazing. C'mon over to Pennsylvania, I can show you thousands of cows within an hour or two of Pittsburgh. (I run an agtech startup that specializes in helping cattle ranchers optimize their grazing operations to reduce the need for buying supplementaln grain and sequester more carbon via improved pasture management.) Overgrazing can absolutely be a problem, as can run-off from feedlots. It's really important to hit the right stocking rate (the number of head of animals per acre) in order to operate regeneratively instead of destructively. (Disclaimer: that's part of what we help ranchers do, so I'm a little biased here! :)

myshpa 4y ago
> https://extension.sdstate.edu/grass-fed-beef-market-share-grass-fed-beef https://extension.sdstate.edu/grass-fed-beef-market-share-gr... (updated June 28, 2021) "About 4% of U.S. beef retail and food service sales is comprised by grass-fed beef with a value of roughly $4 billion. .. There were about 92 million head of cattle in the United States at the end of 2015, with roughly 30 million head slaughtered that year. For perspective, the grass-fed industry currently slaughters about 230,000 head, or less than 1% of the total conventional slaughter." > https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is-grass-fed-beef-really-better-for-the-planet-heres-the-science https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is... "About 75% to 80% of grass-fed beef sold in the U.S. is grown abroad, from Australia, New Zealand and parts of South America ..." At least we know where the Amazon beef goes to.
- dgacmu 4y ago
  Yes. "grass fed" here means finished on grass. The first 600-800lbs of growth are almost always on pasture, eating a mix of forage (the grasses) and possibly supplemental feed in winter depending on location. As I said above, most animals are finished (grown from 600-800 to final weight of about 1400lbs) on a feedlot eating grains and soy and whatnot. Those are not counted as grass-fed beef. Feedlots are still outdoors. It's silly expensive to build a building around them. Feedlots are big.
  - myshpa 4y ago
    You're right about buildings and feedlots. I'm not from USA, we don't really have feedlots here. I must have been thinking about dairy cows, pigs and chickens. Crammed in buildings like this: https://web.archive.org/web/20230219172107/https://i.redd.it/bszw3bosz7ja1.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20230219172107/https://i.redd.it... https://images.ctfassets.net/ww1ie0z745y7/6Uw3q2e3Ee5LLG53DsDIvP/aaf6ccc729974ff755a476ab4d5ff75e/img-news-article-placeholder_2x.png https://images.ctfassets.net/ww1ie0z745y7/6Uw3q2e3Ee5LLG53Ds...
    - dgacmu 4y ago
      Correct, most chickens are raised in enclosed buildings. And most pigs are farmed intensively, whether that be fully outside or with a roof. Dairy cows in the US are a mix of confined and pastured; it's kind of an ongoing experiment. Dairy calves are more likely to be raised in some form of shelter/confinement than beef calves. (Here, a "beef calf" is one being raised specifically with the intent to raise it for slaughter; many dairy cows will end up becoming beef eventually but the path to getting there is different.) Beef cattle outnumber dairy cattle about 3:1 in the US.
Dalewyn 4y ago
>If you're not seeing them it's because you're not going where they are. This. As far as California is concerned, you can't drive down the I-5 or CA-99 without seeing cattle and other livestock (and smelling them, with the windows up!). The talk of "windowless buildings, out of sight, out of mind" is straight up woke propaganda with no basis in reality.

by dgacmu 4y ago

myshpa 4y ago

> https://extension.sdstate.edu/grass-fed-beef-market-share-grass-fed-beef https://extension.sdstate.edu/grass-fed-beef-market-share-gr... (updated June 28, 2021) "About 4% of U.S. beef retail and food service sales is comprised by grass-fed beef with a value of roughly $4 billion. .. There were about 92 million head of cattle in the United States at the end of 2015, with roughly 30 million head slaughtered that year. For perspective, the grass-fed industry currently slaughters about 230,000 head, or less than 1% of the total conventional slaughter." > https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is-grass-fed-beef-really-better-for-the-planet-heres-the-science https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is... "About 75% to 80% of grass-fed beef sold in the U.S. is grown abroad, from Australia, New Zealand and parts of South America ..." At least we know where the Amazon beef goes to.

dgacmu 4y ago
Yes. "grass fed" here means finished on grass. The first 600-800lbs of growth are almost always on pasture, eating a mix of forage (the grasses) and possibly supplemental feed in winter depending on location. As I said above, most animals are finished (grown from 600-800 to final weight of about 1400lbs) on a feedlot eating grains and soy and whatnot. Those are not counted as grass-fed beef. Feedlots are still outdoors. It's silly expensive to build a building around them. Feedlots are big.
- myshpa 4y ago
  You're right about buildings and feedlots. I'm not from USA, we don't really have feedlots here. I must have been thinking about dairy cows, pigs and chickens. Crammed in buildings like this: https://web.archive.org/web/20230219172107/https://i.redd.it/bszw3bosz7ja1.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20230219172107/https://i.redd.it... https://images.ctfassets.net/ww1ie0z745y7/6Uw3q2e3Ee5LLG53DsDIvP/aaf6ccc729974ff755a476ab4d5ff75e/img-news-article-placeholder_2x.png https://images.ctfassets.net/ww1ie0z745y7/6Uw3q2e3Ee5LLG53Ds...
  - dgacmu 4y ago
    Correct, most chickens are raised in enclosed buildings. And most pigs are farmed intensively, whether that be fully outside or with a roof. Dairy cows in the US are a mix of confined and pastured; it's kind of an ongoing experiment. Dairy calves are more likely to be raised in some form of shelter/confinement than beef calves. (Here, a "beef calf" is one being raised specifically with the intent to raise it for slaughter; many dairy cows will end up becoming beef eventually but the path to getting there is different.) Beef cattle outnumber dairy cattle about 3:1 in the US.

Dalewyn 4y ago

>If you're not seeing them it's because you're not going where they are. This. As far as California is concerned, you can't drive down the I-5 or CA-99 without seeing cattle and other livestock (and smelling them, with the windows up!). The talk of "windowless buildings, out of sight, out of mind" is straight up woke propaganda with no basis in reality.