Fritz Ranch Case Study

Part of the farm has been used by the Austin Rains family to raise Angus beef cattle since 1987. Utilizing approximately 96 acres, the Rains family raises up to 40 cattle annually.

In On the Range, a chapter of the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, Schlosser is with a man named Hank, a local rancher, who offered to give Schlosser a tour of the city of Colorado Springs. The Chapter takes place in July of 1997, in Hank’s town of Colorado Springs. After the tour, they went to Hank’s farm twenty miles from the city. Before Reagan, ConAgra, IBP, Excel, and National Beef only slaughtered around 21 percent of cattle, but after they slaughtered about 84 percent. Reagan allowed companies to merge which made them larger. This put Colorado farmers in a tough economical situation, with most leaving their farms. Not only are farms starting to vanish but the state in general is losing their farming culture. Schlosser went to Harrison

The Pitchfork Ranch is one of the most historic ranches in west Texas. The Pitchfork Ranch has been owned by the same family for more than a century. On December 13, 1883 the Pitchfork Ranch was bought with 52,500 acres of land in west Texas. It was started with 9,750 head of cattle. It’s the only ranch in west Texas that didn’t have to downsize during the Great Depression. Today the Pitchfork Ranch is spread over 162,000 acres in west Texas. It spreads over Dickens and King Counties (Nordyke). This paper will discuss various topics about the Pitchfork Ranch, from the history of it to how they work their horses, cattle, and everyday maintaining the ranch. The Pitchfork Ranch has many different kinds of income. Its main income comes from cattle, but they also have mineral rights to the land and they just recently started drilling oil. They also have 500 acres of farmland which they sale some of the crops but they mainly use it to feed the cattle crop every year. They also have a feedlot at the ranch headquarters. The feedlot is a necessity because they have over 5,000 head of calves every year, and it’s a lot more economical to feed them out on the ranch, instead of selling them for a lower price whenever they’re younger (Ranch). The Pitchfork has been in operation over one hundred years, and it has only been through seven ranch managers. The current ranch manager is Bob Moorehouse, he has been the manager since 1987. “I love this way of life, there is

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

There is a big hunt coming up and Artemis hears there will be a huge prize for winning the hunt. So Artemis goes down to sign up and runs into another competitor that is competing for the same prize. The competitor says to Artemis,“Hello my name

The demand for meat in America is on the rise while the number of family owned farms is declining. The farming industry has had to change century old practices like free-range grazing to keep up with the mass amounts of meat that Americans and other cultures have become accustomed to. A process known as factory farming is controlling the farming industry worldwide. Factory farming is an unnatural and inhuman way to raise mass amounts of livestock. Unfortunately to keep up with demand, small farmers around the world are struggling to survive and are being pressured to work for large corporations raising animals using theses factory farming strategies rather than the natural alternative. As described by Wenonah

In the second section of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pastoral grass and “organic foods” are the main focus and many agree that grass is a far better choice for animals that graze. By switching a cows diet back to normal food, will impact the market of food prices because the supply would not be able to keep up with the demand, thus making the food market a disaster, or at least that’s what I picture when I think of the outcome. The demand for beef now is so great that these cattle are being slaughtered at roughly 12 months, that’s not even half of the total life-span they’re supposed to live. A grass fed cow takes about 4-5 years to be ready for some great steaks, but thanks to our wonder crop, “corn”, we can slice that

The Old Mule Farms is a cow-calf operation that provides calves for feedlots to fatten up before being sent to packing houses and eventually sold as meet for consumers. The current owners have been experiencing a problem with losses in revenue. The expenses that Old Mule Farms incurred are veterinary bills, labor, nutritional supplements and minerals, and a variety of forage. The forage is primarily grazed grasses but is supplemented with hay.

As the United States grew in the beginning of the 20th century the demand for meat was always needed. Fortunately for the young state of Oklahoma the prairie lands of the Great Plains were a perfect area to feed the numerous heads of animals sent to the butchers that fed America. In 1907, there were 1,206,800 animals within Oklahoma; nearly all farmers in every country of Oklahoma raised hogs (Goins and Goble, 171). Oklahoma’s ranching economy changed in the youthful years of statehood as the profession of ranching became more commercialized with intent to maximize the meat per hoof, which would increase the profit margins (Baird and Goble, 194). One way the ranchers maximized the meat per hoof was the replacement of Spanish breed longhorn cattle for the heartier English breed, Hereford (Baird and Goble, 194). “Herefords were raised in such numbers that many referred to Oklahoma as ‘Hereford Heaven’ (Goins and Goble 172)”. As mentioned before plains of Oklahoma were ideal for grazing

A Brief History of Agricultural in the 21st Century and how it applies to grass fed Beef

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).

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.

Over the last 10 years or so Americans have been at odds with themselves and other Americans regarding the treatment of food source animals. The term “factory farm” is being coined for method in which animals are being processed in the food system. I will be discussing what a factory farm is, who or what benefits from them, and finally at what cost? Factory Farms have become an institution in support of the American way life, regardless of what we think; they have advantages and disadvantages.

According to a website spiked “in defense of factory farming”, the CEO Gary Corbett from Fair Oaks dairy farm in Indianapolis said that the cows lives better than other animals. The cows have their own Scientifics that created

Organic ranchers and dairy farmers in California also feel the effects of the drought. They rely on green pasture to feed their animals a healthy diet. Due to the lack of rain, the pasture are drying up and the ranchers have to purchase supplemental organic hay from other states. In an attempt to fund the purchasing of this out of state hay, the organic farmers are selling herds to businesses for hamburger meat and the small