News,The Cow Turns Green (environment, water, best, California)

[d_Random]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

The point of my link above was that if you're truly motivated you can find links to prove whatever you want to prove. Including that deforestation for crops (to feed people) is worse than deforestation for pasture (to feed cattle), from an environmental standpoint.

That is true that there is now more crops being grown than cattle pastures cleared. This is because the president of Brazil announced an emergency measure to halt burning and cutting of the country's rain forest for crop and grazing land. A vast majority of that land is being used to grow soybeans. Those soybeans are used to feed livestock.

[d_Random]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Plus, that link you posted regarding how much can be grown on an acre of land? Not the most unbiased in the world, to put it mildly, if you look at their purpose for existing.

You can find all sorts of sources for this info searching google.

[TexasHorseLady]

So why did you choose one with the obvious bias?

[d_Random]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

So why did you choose one with the obvious bias?

I have read this particular information on so many web sites I just picked it up from a random one.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by Omaha Rocks

Actually, that's a matter of opinion. I grew up on Iowa corn-fed beef. My dad always fed his cattle (still does, actually) a good mix of roughage and corn. Unless you've had it, there's no way to describe how great it is.

Oh... I didn't know we were considering the deliciousness of the end product... My bad.

But you're totally right, that is opinion (and incomplete opinion).

Grass fed beef is also less profitable. It takes quite a long time to go from 500 lb. yearling to market-ready on grass. If you want an all-natural tag for your cattle then you are going to suffer more attrition and spend more money on your land for every pound of beef that you sell. If you want an organic tag for your cattle then you are probably a masochist suffering from an extended psychotic break.

Regardless of how well informed the people of this nation become, it will always be extremely difficult for primo beef raised with the utmost care and a high degree of environmental conscientiousness to compete with central/south American conglomerate feedlot beef. It's just too cheap.

Omaha - Have you ever eaten longhorn? They are great because they are extremely hardy, can live anywhere, and don't need a donkey to turn dogs/coyotes/wolves - but it's about like eating alligator.

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by jimboburnsy

Oh... I didn't know we were considering the deliciousness of the end product... My bad.

But you're totally right, that is opinion (and incomplete opinion).

Grass fed beef is also less profitable. It takes quite a long time to go from 500 lb. yearling to market-ready on grass. If you want an all-natural tag for your cattle then you are going to suffer more attrition and spend more money on your land for every pound of beef that you sell. If you want an organic tag for your cattle then you are probably a masochist suffering from an extended psychotic break.

Regardless of how well informed the people of this nation become, it will always be extremely difficult for primo beef raised with the utmost care and a high degree of environmental conscientiousness to compete with central/south American conglomerate feedlot beef. It's just too cheap.

Omaha - Have you ever eaten longhorn? They are great because they are extremely hardy, can live anywhere, and don't need a donkey to turn dogs/coyotes/wolves - but it's about like eating alligator.

Haven't done Longhorn, but I have done Bison. It was big for awhile, but its popularity seems to be waning. Basically it tasted just like beef, except dry. I think the big sell on Bison was that it was supposed to be extremely low in cholesterol and fat, and hardier on the hoof. I'm guessing those are a lot of the same positives as Longhorn.

As with most things in life, the key to the best beef is balance. This has to do with both the profitability and the taste of the beef. Because cattle are ruminants, they need a lot of roughage. But grain not only increases weight gain, but efficiency of gain. It also adds favorably to the taste. A really good all-purpose feed is corn silage. Lots of roughage, solid grain content, and already "pre-digested" for great results.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by d_Random

Actually if we all went vegetarian (which I am not suggesting) we would require much less land to produce food. As I mentioned in a previous post, "one acre of prime land can produce 60,000 pounds of celery, 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, 40,000 pounds of potatoes, 40,000 pounds of onions, 30,000 pounds of carrots, or 250 pounds of beef".

Also, if we went to a plant based diet it would free up 30% of the earth's ice-free land that in involved in livestock production.

And as mentioned ...Livestock is a major culprit of wildlife biodiversity lost through habitat change, climate change, invasive alien species and pollution.

But much of the land used for livestock can't support much else. Look at all the land in the Western U.S. used for livestock that is terrible farmland...

Around here runoff from the streets (covered with oil, gasoline, etc.) is the biggest contaminator of water, everytime it rains the rain mixes with everything in the roads and runs into streams, rivers, ponds, lakes...

[TexasHorseLady]

The best meat I've ever had was Water Buffalo. Made a fantastic chili. Second favorite is grass-fed beef from my own pasture, where I know exactly what's gone into it and have control over the impact on the environment (and a breed that will do well on our Austin chalk soil where you may have, naturally, anywhere from a quarter inch to four feet of topsoil within just a few feet of each other, and growing vegetables is NOT an option). Plus it just tastes better than corn fed. Corn fed may be more tender, but grass fed has more flavor and it doesn't take a lot to learn how to cook it right.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

The best meat I've ever had was Water Buffalo. Made a fantastic chili. Second favorite is grass-fed beef from my own pasture, where I know exactly what's gone into it and have control over the impact on the environment (and a breed that will do well on our Austin chalk soil where you may have, naturally, anywhere from a quarter inch to four feet of topsoil within just a few feet of each other, and growing vegetables is NOT an option). Plus it just tastes better than corn fed. Corn fed may be more tender, but grass fed has more flavor and it doesn't take a lot to learn how to cook it right.

A girl I had some involvement with about a decade ago cooked a lasagne for me with some of the best beef I've ever had. I was a little turned off when I learned that I was eating a cow that had a name. She had bottle fed that lasagne as a calf, it basically lived in the 40 homestead on their ranch, grazed in the yard and followed her around like a dog.

Eating game or livestock is one thing, eating a borderline pet falls in a gray area for me. Still delicious, though.

[TexasHorseLady]

You'd probably consider our beef to be from a borderline pet, then. Basically because I insist on giving them the best possible life during their time here, so while I don't bottle feed them, I do pour beer in their feeder periodically. And they do come to me for backrubs and cookies and such, when they're not wandering around in pastures of lush grass with their herd. Figure it's the least I can do.