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How animal welfare affects shopping
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Oklahoma Duster
Posted 4/15/2007 11:40 (#137074 - in reply to #136973)
Subject: Re: How animal welfare affects shopping


Grey, you sure put a lot of thought into the above statement. I do agree with all of that, too. I'm not saying it's impossible to feed all that corn to the cattle. Obviously, it's been on now for some 40-50 years now. I'm old enough to remember exactly what you mean by the square, blocky -bodied cattle so popular 45-50 years ago, too. It seemed if a hanging carcass did not have at least a 2-3" layer of tallow all around, it just wasn't worth a darn, either. Aged beef was also a big deal, back then, too.

I also agree with you on the general standards of the business back then, too. It's a very good sign you're doing the right thing, when you can "randomly" select a particular individual from your regular herd, show it, and place high up. I could probably do much the same with my [dressed or butchered] beef, anyway.

Beef is still every bit if not more important to the overall ag income of Oklahoma, as is wheat. Yes, on all of the marketing issues. I do, in fact, move quite a few uncut , real, honest to good BULLS, not steers, as well. Yes, all my beef is tender, edible and tasty. I have not had one dissatisfied customer, yet. Most of my market is direct sales. It's only a small niche, I realize, but as I can see, clearly a growing one, too.

I have had my struggles in dry years here, too. Last year was the worst I've ever seen, and had to sell off too many cattle to keep them from starving. I suppose they went to the finishing lots in Kansas or Texas, maybe. I would have never thought that grass or grazable vegetation would have been in any short supply, up in Minnesota, either. We all just do what we can, in order to survive as producers. Like you mentioned, you saw all this evolution to such leanness from the days of the square, blubber-coated carcasses. I never intended to get big or even expand on what I've got. It's just something to keep me busy and some needed income.

I believe some 4-6 months ago, there was another discussion on here, somewhere about grass-fed vs corn-fed beef, too. Someone got really mad and started name-calling and such--so nothing more was said. I don't remember the name, but I thought it was just sooo rude, too. That other guy was just trying to get the point across, like I did, about the benefits of naturally-grazed, leaner beef. Maybe someday, the really fatty stuff will come back. If it does, and I'm still around [approaching 70 already], then I suppose I'll have to start cramming corn and other feeds down them to make them FAT. In business, the CUSTOMER is ALWAYS RIGHT. Farming is also, still a business.

By the way, I was as far from the cattle business in the early 1970's as maybe you were from the combine business. I do remember during those horribe Nixon years [when he froze the price of beef, but not the feed] how so many producers simply shot cattle, rather than finish them. I even read in some farm magazine, where any kind of roughage [including sawdust] was added to corn or hay as a supplement. You were obviously in the peak of the feeding business back then. Was there any reality to that, or was that just media hype, anti-meat propaganda or what?

No, such did not bother me, nor deter my appetite for beef. I started my run with at least 1 to 1-1/2 beefs in a huge freezer we took along and along the way, every ounce was eaten by 12 hungry drivers! I did not even care how the "cow" was fed. It was FOOD, period. The bonuses were ay freshly hit, road-killed deer, sometimes ones shot by and given to us by the farmers we cut for, and a few pheasants we nabbed, too. Such was life on the harvest run.
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