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I keep seeing people make this claim that cattle spend their entire lives on feed lots, but I've never seen this anywhere and I've been all over cattle country.

I keep seeing people make this claim that cattle spend their entire lives on feed lots, but I've never seen this anywhere and I've been all over cattle country. Where do they do this? Because around here feedlots are only for finishing cattle and typically only spend about 2-3 months there after having very happy lives as calves on a ranch.

notesinthefield 2y ago
[flagged]
- pests 2y ago
  No one said that. They did not live the entire lives in the feedlot. Anything else, you read into.
  - neolefty 2y ago
    Probably responding to this from a parent comment: > Shoving 100 cattle into a 1 acre feed lot for their entire lives
  - whimsicalism 2y ago
    yes they did say that, we can all read
    - pests 2y ago
      They said they don't spend all their time in the feedlots... are you sure about that?
      - whimsicalism 2y ago
        > Shoving 100 cattle into a 1 acre feed lot for their entire lives ?
- toolz 2y ago
  There is no hypocrisy in cattle farming. No species on earth other than humans care about another species existence other than how it will benefit their own species. I'm not saying humans shouldn't be different, but there is no hypocrisy in keeping in line with every other species in the known universe.
  - rurp 2y ago
    Humans didn't care either until very recently, when it became apparant just how much capacity we have to drive other animals to extinction. Our ability to destroy is many orders of magnitude beyond any other animal, so having at least a little more restraint is basically a requirement for a sustainable society.
  - thejazzman 2y ago
    I don't disagree with you, but I'm unaware (naive?) of any other species farming/enslaving/capturing hordes of another species and effectively torturing them the way humans do Being suddenly killed by a lion is a rather short torture/cruel experience compared to what humans do at larger and larger scales. I think animals even have a mechanism that I forget the name of that spares them a lot of the pain involved in such a situation (adrenaline, "going into shock", etc) I really do wish I/we could do something to be less cruel but everything seems driven by profit margins and that makes it rather difficult/impossible. They're outlawing 'lab grown' meat! :| (I eat meat, but I don't feel good about it when I think about it)
- samatman 2y ago
  > Ah yes its fine to kill them Yes. Fundamentally, most people, including myself, believe that it's fine to kill animals and eat them. There's no hypocrisy here, disgusting or otherwise. You have your own concept of morality, I have mine, yours is considered extreme by society at large, mine is a shared moral belief of the great majority. That's all that's going on here.
  - whimsicalism 2y ago
    most people also do not care about factory farming. think the claim is that it is hypocrisy if you care about the animal suffering when you will just kill it at the end
    - psunavy03 2y ago
      It's not hypocrisy to believe that a) animals can be killed for their meat, but also b) they should be treated humanely until then and killed as humanely as feasible. That's the great thing about human intelligence; we can ensure a humane kill of our prey as opposed to ripping it apart with fangs and claws like other predators.
    - Gud 2y ago
      That's a very bold statement. I believe most people "care" about the welfare about the animals they eat.
      - whimsicalism 2y ago
        I guess my threshold for care is if it is sufficient to motivate any action to be taken at all, whether that is eating slightly less meat or switching to non-factory farmed. The vast majority of people don’t do that, so their revealed “care” is very little. Frankly, I don’t really care which type they eat, meat is meat and has pretty much the same environmental (and ethics of killing) issues.
- adolph 2y ago
  What is the "disgusting hypocrisy of cattle farming?" The term "happiness" is an anthropomorphic emotion term to describe animals not living in the distress so well characterized by Temple Grandin. The theory is growing the animal in a low stress environment leads to a higher quality product. Given the scary prions which spread in part by feeding cows to themselves, it makes sense to avoid some of the conditions humans often find aesthetically or morally objectionable.
throwup238 2y ago
> I keep seeing people make this claim that cattle spend their entire lives on feed lots, but I've never seen this anywhere and I've been all over cattle country. Where do they do this? Nobody does that, it’d be way too expensive. People here on HN have absolutely zero knowledge of how industrial cattle farming operates and have some really bizarre beliefs about the process. Largely because their only experience with it is the supermarket meat section and passing those massive stinky feedlots along the CA I5. For everyone else: After a calf is raised and weaned from their mother, they are sent to “background” on pasture and the last few months a cow spends packed in a feedlot is just to fatten it up for human consumption. These are usually steps done by different companies altogether. The whole point of beef is utilizing marginal land that can’t grow human food. It converts tons of grassland to usable farmland, and that pasture makes up 2/3 of the total agricultural land in the US.
- adolph 2y ago
  I'm not here to police tone, but it sounded like you were disagreeing with the parent comment but your factual claims do not appear to disagree. >> typically only spend about 2-3 months there after having very happy lives as calves on a ranch. > After a calf is raised and weaned from their mother, they are sent to “background” on pasture and the last few months a cow spends packed in a feedlot is just to fatten it up for human consumption. The only difference is the introduction of "sent to “background” on pasture" which arguably is not different from "happy lives as calves on a ranch" given different interpretations of calf to distinguish between baby and adolescent cattle.
  - throwup238 2y ago
    Thanks, edited for clarity.
- Sightline 2y ago
  I agree with everything you said except: >"The whole point of beef is utilizing marginal land that can’t grow human food." FYI: 36% of corn is grown just to feed cattle/livestock. I'm trying to breed chickens that are less dependent on commercial foods, so I'm somewhat familiar with the topic. Also if anybody is interested in reading about how cattle are raised just read the USDA's page on it: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/sector-at-a-glance/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/...

notesinthefield 2y ago

[flagged]

pests 2y ago
No one said that. They did not live the entire lives in the feedlot. Anything else, you read into.
- neolefty 2y ago
  Probably responding to this from a parent comment: > Shoving 100 cattle into a 1 acre feed lot for their entire lives
- whimsicalism 2y ago
  yes they did say that, we can all read
  - pests 2y ago
    They said they don't spend all their time in the feedlots... are you sure about that?
    - whimsicalism 2y ago
      > Shoving 100 cattle into a 1 acre feed lot for their entire lives ?
toolz 2y ago
There is no hypocrisy in cattle farming. No species on earth other than humans care about another species existence other than how it will benefit their own species. I'm not saying humans shouldn't be different, but there is no hypocrisy in keeping in line with every other species in the known universe.
- rurp 2y ago
  Humans didn't care either until very recently, when it became apparant just how much capacity we have to drive other animals to extinction. Our ability to destroy is many orders of magnitude beyond any other animal, so having at least a little more restraint is basically a requirement for a sustainable society.
- thejazzman 2y ago
  I don't disagree with you, but I'm unaware (naive?) of any other species farming/enslaving/capturing hordes of another species and effectively torturing them the way humans do Being suddenly killed by a lion is a rather short torture/cruel experience compared to what humans do at larger and larger scales. I think animals even have a mechanism that I forget the name of that spares them a lot of the pain involved in such a situation (adrenaline, "going into shock", etc) I really do wish I/we could do something to be less cruel but everything seems driven by profit margins and that makes it rather difficult/impossible. They're outlawing 'lab grown' meat! :| (I eat meat, but I don't feel good about it when I think about it)
samatman 2y ago
> Ah yes its fine to kill them Yes. Fundamentally, most people, including myself, believe that it's fine to kill animals and eat them. There's no hypocrisy here, disgusting or otherwise. You have your own concept of morality, I have mine, yours is considered extreme by society at large, mine is a shared moral belief of the great majority. That's all that's going on here.
- whimsicalism 2y ago
  most people also do not care about factory farming. think the claim is that it is hypocrisy if you care about the animal suffering when you will just kill it at the end
  - psunavy03 2y ago
    It's not hypocrisy to believe that a) animals can be killed for their meat, but also b) they should be treated humanely until then and killed as humanely as feasible. That's the great thing about human intelligence; we can ensure a humane kill of our prey as opposed to ripping it apart with fangs and claws like other predators.
  - Gud 2y ago
    That's a very bold statement. I believe most people "care" about the welfare about the animals they eat.
    - whimsicalism 2y ago
      I guess my threshold for care is if it is sufficient to motivate any action to be taken at all, whether that is eating slightly less meat or switching to non-factory farmed. The vast majority of people don’t do that, so their revealed “care” is very little. Frankly, I don’t really care which type they eat, meat is meat and has pretty much the same environmental (and ethics of killing) issues.
adolph 2y ago
What is the "disgusting hypocrisy of cattle farming?" The term "happiness" is an anthropomorphic emotion term to describe animals not living in the distress so well characterized by Temple Grandin. The theory is growing the animal in a low stress environment leads to a higher quality product. Given the scary prions which spread in part by feeding cows to themselves, it makes sense to avoid some of the conditions humans often find aesthetically or morally objectionable.

throwup238 2y ago

> I keep seeing people make this claim that cattle spend their entire lives on feed lots, but I've never seen this anywhere and I've been all over cattle country. Where do they do this? Nobody does that, it’d be way too expensive. People here on HN have absolutely zero knowledge of how industrial cattle farming operates and have some really bizarre beliefs about the process. Largely because their only experience with it is the supermarket meat section and passing those massive stinky feedlots along the CA I5. For everyone else: After a calf is raised and weaned from their mother, they are sent to “background” on pasture and the last few months a cow spends packed in a feedlot is just to fatten it up for human consumption. These are usually steps done by different companies altogether. The whole point of beef is utilizing marginal land that can’t grow human food. It converts tons of grassland to usable farmland, and that pasture makes up 2/3 of the total agricultural land in the US.

adolph 2y ago
I'm not here to police tone, but it sounded like you were disagreeing with the parent comment but your factual claims do not appear to disagree. >> typically only spend about 2-3 months there after having very happy lives as calves on a ranch. > After a calf is raised and weaned from their mother, they are sent to “background” on pasture and the last few months a cow spends packed in a feedlot is just to fatten it up for human consumption. The only difference is the introduction of "sent to “background” on pasture" which arguably is not different from "happy lives as calves on a ranch" given different interpretations of calf to distinguish between baby and adolescent cattle.
- throwup238 2y ago
  Thanks, edited for clarity.
Sightline 2y ago
I agree with everything you said except: >"The whole point of beef is utilizing marginal land that can’t grow human food." FYI: 36% of corn is grown just to feed cattle/livestock. I'm trying to breed chickens that are less dependent on commercial foods, so I'm somewhat familiar with the topic. Also if anybody is interested in reading about how cattle are raised just read the USDA's page on it: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/sector-at-a-glance/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/...