The Process Raising Cattle ­ field to table

A cow can eat 25 to 30 pounds of hay a day. A weanling calf (6 months) can consume half as much and a yearling about 3/4ths that amount. In the winter months when pastures are covered with snow, hay must be provided for cattle.

Nutritional Needs: Water - Clean, fresh water must always be available. A mature animal will generally consume between 10 and 20 gallons a day. Water needs increase with hot weather. In western North Dakota water availability is a major challenge and one of the reasons that open range grazing is so important to some ranchers. If water is not available naturally, it must be hauled in or piped to sites accessible to the cattle. Although initially expensive, an automatic watering system will reduce water waste.

Salt - Salt is essential. Salt blocks and specially designed holders are commercially available.

Feed - Cattle are ruminants (animals with stomachs that have 4 chambers) and consequently, rely mainly on hay or pasture for their dietary needs.

Feed necessary for maintenance is approximately 2% of the animal's body weight in dry matter/hay per day. Pasture ­ primarily grass lands - should be of a good quality and plentiful to meet the bulk of dietary needs. If adequate pasture is not available, hay is the preferred supplemental feed. Adult cattle need 2 lbs of hay per 100 lbs of body weight daily. Alfalfa hay is a very high protein hay and should only be used for sick or debilitated animals. During dry weather conditions, grass growth is slowed and existing grass dries, which necessitates the use of hay even during summer months.

While cattle gain weight faster eating grain, it is very hard on their stomach and liver and is not recommended. Grain-fed cattle suffer more infections than pasture/grass fed cattle. Most feedlots use grain in order to bring the cattle to slaughter weight at a faster rate and must introduce antibiotics into the diet to control bacterial infections.

"Organic" vs. "average" The most important difference between "average" and "organic" livestock ranching systems is the intensity. Most ranching operations move livestock from birth to butchering as quickly as possible. In organic operations animals are not fed and managed in ways that attempt to push them into production levels beyond their natural capacity. Organic farmers believe that the stress imposed on animals by unnatural regimes such as feeding high levels of inappropriate protein (bone meal or meat) to stimulate rapid growth, intensive housing, or the routine use of antibiotics and other drugs can all cause health breakdowns. Organic cattle are fed a natural, wholesome diet with a major emphasis on top quality, clover and herb rich organic grass as their staple diet. No artificial insecticides are permitted. Ranches are managed under systems designed to minimize animal stress. No artificial fertilizers, genetically modified feed or growth promoting agents are used in organically grown cattle. In other words, feed must not contain antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, artificial colorings or genetically engineered material of any sort.

Breeding the Perfect Cow

Artificial insemination Artificial insemination, commonly referred to as AI, can be carried out by qualified vets or on a do it yourself basis by ranchers. Semen is stored in plastic straws, holding 0.25cm of semen. For insemination, a straw is fitted into a special insemination gun (catheter) which is inserted into the cow's vagina and positioned so that the semen is deposited beyond the cervix. Insemination is carried out 12-24 hours after the beginning of oestrus, or "heat" which ensures that sperm arrive at the site of fertilization a few hours before ovulation. As the timing must be precise, recognition of oestrus is critical.

The benefits of AI are numerous. AI provides:

- Choice. AI gives ranchers the freedom to use the best possible bulls with the proven qualities needed to improve the genetic make-up of the cattle herd

- Access. Ranchers have access to genes from bulls of a quality which they may not individually afford. Frozen semen can be transported globally.

- Disease control. Many potentially devastating diseases are spread by sexual contact. Because of the extremely tight controls exerted over both the health of donor bulls and the technical procedures themselves, these risks are vastly reduced.

- Cost effectiveness. The cost of an AI straw is around $10 compared with the costs of buying a Holstein bull at approximately $10,000. A bull is expensive to rear, is relatively unproductive, vulnerable to disease or accident and may even prove to be infertile.

- Flexibility. For a variety of reasons, a rancher may not wish all calves to be sired by a single bull with the same characteristics. It may well be impracticable to keep sufficient bulls to cover all possible requirements.

- Safety. This was the major stimulus in the initial establishment of AI services. Although there are differences between breeds, any bull can be aggressive and is potentially dangerous.

- Timing

-- semen can be collected from bulls over a period of years and stored.
-- samples of stored semen can be used to inseminate high quality cows and the performance of the progeny can be measured. In this way, the quality of semen from individual bulls is assessed before it is made available on a wide scale.
-- A bull can sire offspring over a period long exceeding its natural life. Sometimes, when a bull has donated sufficient semen, it is culled to avoid maintenance costs. Cattle Castration

Castration is an essential procedure in a competitive commercial cow-calf operation. When done properly, castration of the bull calves will increase the return on investment.

Steers, castrated male cattle, sell better than the uncastrated bulls. The beef marketing system favors steer carcasses. The steer carcasses can be marketed through a greater number of channels than bull carcasses. Feedlot managers generally prefer steers to bulls because steers are easier to handle and more docile than bulls. Steers are also not as rough on equipment and are easier to manage when new to the feedlot.

The Stockyard

At the stockyard there are three kinds of buyers:

-Meat packers looking for slaughter animals for meat-packing plants
-Order buyers looking for a specific number of animals by size or type
-Dealer buyers who think they can acquire an animal and then resell it for a higher price.

When it comes time for cattle to be sold, cattle are usually transported to a stockyard. At the stockyard, animals are sorted into pens by age, size, breed, sex, weight, and quality. Most cattle are sold the day they arrive. Prices go up or down daily due to consumer demand, holidays, the number of animals available, or the amount of meat that meatpackers have on hand.

Some buyers are looking for finished animals ready to be slaughtered. Others are looking for young or thin stock that will go to a feedlot to be finished. Some buyers are looking for male animals because they grow faster and produce more meat. Other buyers are looking for females because they are less expensive and they will be used for breeding stock.

Slaughter practices

Approximately 30 million cattle are slaughtered each year in the United States. The slaughter procedure itself, now conducted primarily in large-scale, state-of-the-art facilities capable of slaughtering as many as 400 to 600 animals per hour are, if operated properly, humane.

Cattle are channeled into various pens and "chases" quietly and effectively. In cattle, vocalizing, or mooing, is a sign of distress. When vocalizing is at a minimum, distress is at a minimum. Cattle are creatures of habit and will remain docile as long as they feel comfortable. Temple Grandin, a Colorado State University professor and an expert in slaughter house practices says that "Noisy chute doors, poor lighting and bad traction needlessly alarm animals. As a result, animals back up, requiring the use of electrical prods, which makes them jumpy and more difficult to stun. When a good plant is working right, (cattle) just walk up the chute and bang, they're done," she said. "It's no more stressful than vaccinations in the feed yard." The races approaching the stunning chute can be designed to look just like those through which cattle have passed previously for routine veterinary care, experienced handlers can move animals along without prodding, cattle do not "smell blood in the chutes," and "stunning" is a misnomer for what happens in the kill chute. A properly placed shot with a properly maintained "stun gun" obliterates the animal's brain, making it impossible to regain consciousness. In 2002, 2.86 million head of cattle produced 3.87 billion pounds of beef in the U.S.