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Cattle are not raised in feed lots. Feed lots do sometimes come into play for finishing beef cattle, but this takes only ~4 months. And it is very possible to

Cattle are not raised in feed lots. Feed lots do sometimes come into play for finishing beef cattle, but this takes only ~4 months. And it is very possible to buy pasture&grass finished beef that doesn’t use feed lots at all.

dundarious 3y ago
I shouldn't have said "raised", that was wrong, but I just wanted to talk about beef cattle that are not pasture grazing at all, or at least only for a tiny percentage of their lifespan. About 80% of beef cattle go from mother's milk, to feed lot once weaned. Of course you can buy the other stuff, I said as much. My point is that this statement is one part deceptive, and one part obviously wrong for the US, the market in question. > Beef cattle are almost always raised on open pastureland. They live a very normal, happy, life for all their years.
- explaininjs 3y ago
  “Once weaned” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. The bulk of their life - until month 12-14 is on pasture with the mother. A ~third of those females stay on pasture indefinitely as birthers. The rest go to feed lots (assuming not pasture finished), where they spend the final ~120 days of their life. So at absolute minimum roughly 3/4 of the life is on pasture land.
  - PretzelPirate 3y ago
    > indefinitely as birthers Let's not ignore how terrible of a life that is. Forcefully impregnated repeatedly and then having your calf taken from you while your body slowly falls apart form abuse. Cows aren't dumb beasts, they have social relationships and care for their calves.
    - explaininjs 3y ago
      Calves stay with mothers until appropriately developed. Then some leave, others remain. Humans are the same. But how many human mothers do you know that spend their whole life with 1/3 of their children? To the extent “keeping families together” is something to optimize for, they’re doing better than us.

dundarious 3y ago

I shouldn't have said "raised", that was wrong, but I just wanted to talk about beef cattle that are not pasture grazing at all, or at least only for a tiny percentage of their lifespan. About 80% of beef cattle go from mother's milk, to feed lot once weaned. Of course you can buy the other stuff, I said as much. My point is that this statement is one part deceptive, and one part obviously wrong for the US, the market in question. > Beef cattle are almost always raised on open pastureland. They live a very normal, happy, life for all their years.

explaininjs 3y ago
“Once weaned” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. The bulk of their life - until month 12-14 is on pasture with the mother. A ~third of those females stay on pasture indefinitely as birthers. The rest go to feed lots (assuming not pasture finished), where they spend the final ~120 days of their life. So at absolute minimum roughly 3/4 of the life is on pasture land.
- PretzelPirate 3y ago
  > indefinitely as birthers Let's not ignore how terrible of a life that is. Forcefully impregnated repeatedly and then having your calf taken from you while your body slowly falls apart form abuse. Cows aren't dumb beasts, they have social relationships and care for their calves.
  - explaininjs 3y ago
    Calves stay with mothers until appropriately developed. Then some leave, others remain. Humans are the same. But how many human mothers do you know that spend their whole life with 1/3 of their children? To the extent “keeping families together” is something to optimize for, they’re doing better than us.