As I posted on the Crop Talk page, I am currently in the Ukraine. I had to stand up at an international meeting here the other day and question a speaker at this future directions in world ag/precision ag meeting about his presentation about how we will all need to be vegetarians in 50 years due to water used in raising beef, beef has too many antibiotics in it, beef is the largest consumer of  and source of hormone contamination etc etc.

I spoke up truthfully about how I raise my own herd in the USA.

But it is embarrassing for me as an American cattleman (if small scale) to read thread after thread on here about culling/selling sick and highly medicated cows before they die, etc or something to that effect.

I am NOT saying don't talk about it, I AM saying DON'T DO IT!!!

Cull them earlier before they reach this point, or nurse them back to health, or sell them to the renderer, or bury them. DO NOT put them into the food chain! 

The few dollars ($10/cwt in one case below) you receive for this animal is definitely not worth the loss of trust around the world. You are just providing proof of this presenters' theses.  DON'T DO IT!

The world expects American beef to be high quality. And it is high quality.  It just takes a couple instances to ruin our reputation around the world. And the world is watching what we do in raising beef.

End of rant from the Ukraine.

Jim at Dawn