Cattle Industry Analysis

Bill McKibben who is the author for the essay called The Only Way To Have a Cow claims that the way meat is made is an unclean practice that has many negatives. The biggest of them all is methane in the atmosphere. The release of methane can be of the past thanks to today’s methods and technology. Methane can be reduced by having the cows become free-range and grass fed but that would increase the price of meat. Other ways methane can be reduced in the atmosphere is by being stored and used for energy, and by altering cows diets.

The beef industry is an important asset to United States agriculture as a whole. Over a million agricultural entities benefited from the sales of cattle and calves in the year 2000. Gross totals from sales of cattle and calves in 2000 totaled $40.76 billion accounting of 21% of all agricultural receipts making the beef sector the largest single agricultural enterprise. Direct and indirect employment in or related to the production and processing of beef supports over 1.4 million full-time-equivalent jobs in the US as well. Cattle are produced in all 50 states and their economic impact contributes to nearly every county in the nation and they are a significant economic driver (Lawerance and Otto, 2000).

Why did cattle ranching develop on the Great Plains? Cattle ranching developed on the Great Plains because vast fortunes were made. The cattle industry was based on some very important factors which were wild cattle, wild horses, and grass. These factors made cattle ranching very profitable, but however, for the cattle barons the bonanza didn’t last forever. In the North the market for beef was growing huge, and that meant ranching was a good way to live.

The cattle industry started to rise after the American civil war. This was due to the increase of cows in Texas as cows weren’t fenced in. A man called Joseph McCoy soon came up with the idea of the cow town of Abilene, where Northern buyers could meet up with Southern sellers where they were on equal footing and couldn’t be attacked by Indians. Abilene was built on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. This made it easier to transport cattle bought to the cities in the East like Chicago. By 1870 300,000 cattle were being bought and sold in Abilene. Cows that were sold in Texas for $5 could be sold for $40 in a cow town. This helped the cattle industry rise as it meant more people would sell their cows and gain profit. This then developed even further as the railroad was moved westward which developed other cow towns such as Dodge city and Kansas because it meant there was more places where you could gain more profit for selling your cows.

In the US today cattle are part of everyday culture. With more than 93 million cattle in the dairy and beef industry, and tens of thousands in the rodeo business, cattle are definitely a huge part. Lately, there has been many concerns with the bovine friends along with multiple misconceptions. Rodeos may look tough on animals, and todays society is not educated well enough on the beef and dairy industry. People don’t realize that these animals are happy, healthy, and very well cared for.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is a trade association and policy group that represents all segments of the cattle industry: producers, feeders, and breeders. The association has over 28,000 individual members and represents over 230,000 people in the industry. The current president of NCBA, Scott George, is a cow/calf producer from Wyoming with a long history in the dairy industry and policy groups as a member of the Farm Bureau. In addition to its role in U.S. policy, the NCBA conducts research, marketing, and promotional work for cattle ranchers. The NCBA’s vision is “an industry united around a common goal of being the world’s most trusted and preferred source of beef and beef products.” The economic interests of the cattle

When eating anything, most people check the labels to see what the food all consists of. Just like when eating hamburger, some people may want to know if the hamburger came from grass-fed or grain-fed cattle. Depending on the person, they might prefer one over the other. Some people may think that one tastes better than the other or they may just think it is healthier. Not only might the meat coming from the cattle be affected, but also the milk coming from a cow. Either way, further explanations for grass-fed vs. grain-fed cattle will be discussed in this paper.

Holy cow, I haven’t eaten any beef or any red meat in over thirteen years. When I first saw the topic of this essay to discuss the primary differences between grass fed and corn fed beef. I had thought to myself hmmm I was thinking all cows had just ate grass. I always thought cow’s were slow food because they ate grass but I wondered how so much beef was being produced so fast, but then I thought about all the chicken steroid stories. Cows are ruminants designed by nature to stay healthy and be totally sustained taking nourishment on grass and only grass. Cows, have stomachs that are designed to digest grass. But of demand and because cattle producers are so profit driven, their operations use the cheapest

The effects of factory farming is not worth the damage that is done to the health of the environment, animals, and people. The idea of a factory farm is to produce meat at a faster pace, but the way these companies accomplish this task makes life a living hell for the animals. For example, “They’re often given so little space that they can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably. Egg-laying hens are kept in small cages, chickens and pigs are kept in jam-packed sheds, and cows are kept on crowded, filthy feedlots”(Factory). The animals on these farms have to experience constant fear and agony, especially since most factory farmed animals will be genetically manipulated to grow larger or to produce more milk or eggs than they naturally would, and suffer severe pain throughout their entire life(Factory). Animals, especially cows, are being abused not only physically, but mentally as well.. For example, “just within hours of birth, calves are taken away from

The top four meatpacking businesses hold 20 percent of the nation’s cattle in company owned feedlots or cattle bought before-hand, sometimes using secret pricing contracts (138). These farmers are doing everything they can to make a living. This includes rotation practices that big companies would never care about.

The conditions in which meat livestock live in is not exactly that of a large open green field in which they are free to roam and be merry. In the Economist article, Cows down: The beef business (2008) the effects of the ill conditions cows talks of how a

The reason I chose to use my show cattle as the main part of my video is because they are really important to me and have probably had biggest impact on my life as a whole. For the last 10 years I have been showing cattle and it has been a huge part of my life ever since. Showing cattle has taught me more about life and responsibility then anything else in my life ever has. Throughout the years of showing my cattle I have made many friends and been lots of places. The reason I chose the pictures that I did for my show cattle part of the video is because they show the way that I have grown and learned more over the last few years about showing cattle in specific. Having pictures of multiple years of calves that I have showed, explain how my showing abilities have improved since I started showing cattle. I mixed the different cattle that I have showed so that my video would show different perspectives of my show calves and the different breeds that I have showed. These pictures help me look back at the different shows I have been too with different calves helps me understand what I have improved on. Each calf that I have had, has been different in many ways, and each one has made me go out of my comfort zone in different ways and helped me learn new things such as, showing a different breed that I had no experience in, breaking calves to lead, new techniques for showing and prep, and figuring out new feed rations for my calves.

Focusing on cattle (since Tenderloin comes from a cow), most industrial cattle farms are called ‘C.A.F.O’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). Basically, they are unhealthy ‘farms’ where cattle are cramped into unsanitary, small, unnatural spaces. To put it lightly, the industrial farming of cattle is incredibly harmful to the animal’s health. In the book “The Omnivores Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, he talks about how “… 534’s eyes look a little bloodshot. Dr. Metzin had told me that some animals are irritated by the feedlot dust. The problem gets especially serious in the summer time...” (Pollan 80).

Have you ever had a burger from a restaurant and each burger you eat has the same beef taste if you’ve noticed from the label the burger is labeled beef, but what kind of beef? Let’s say you have a burger with Angus beef and a burger with regular beef you can tell the difference, the Angus beef taste much better than the regular beef. The Black Angus Cow is a main keystone for the meat industry in America and this breed of cow has changed how we eat and produce meat. Due to the uniqueness of this breed it is important to understand about what the Black Angus Cow is, how it got to America, where it came from, who brought it over, why it is so important, how to take care of it, and why it's so special.

The cattle industry produces vast amounts of strain in the environment. It is energy inefficient, pollutes water, occupies many acres of land, and deteriorates the health of the people who abuse its consumption. The government subsidizes this industry. Therefore, the price paid for meat doesn’t reflect the environmental hazards involved in the process. In order to protect our health and the health of the environment we should pay close attention to our food choices and make sure we don’t support industries that degrade it.