The Costs of Grain-Finishing Cattle vs Grass Fed
Even though much of the cattle you see are grazing out on pasture, it's the way that cattle are fed before slaughter (also called finished) that is what causes the problems and controversy.
Calves that are not needed for the breeding herd--steers which comprise of 90 to 100% of beef cow-calf herds and 100% of most dairy herds, and heifers which comprise of 80% of cow-calf herds and 40% of dairy herds--are sold to the feedlot to be backgrounded or stockered on grass and/or hay and a little grain, then finished on a hot-grain-based diet before being slaughtered for the beef that we see in our national-chain grocery stores.
It's not the stockering/backgrounding part of the equation of producing beefers that's the problem, it's the finishing methods.
You see, it's all in part of how they are raised and what they are fed that's the problem.
Most people have a bigger problem with what these cattle are fed and the environmental implications of that diet than how they are raised.
You're always going to come across someone, like me, who keeps reminding everyone that cattle are not meant to have grain (in the context of corn, barley, wheat, and oats) as a main-course of their diet, which is undisputedly true.
Cattle do get sick on a 90% grain-based diet, and thus antibiotics are needed to both prevent and treat these sick animals.
They get sick because of the high level of proteins and carbohydrates and low levels of plant fibre, cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin that is present in a milled diet create lower pH in their rumen, releasing lactic acid (from acid-loving bacteria in the rumen) and causing a severe belly ache, decreased appetite, and diarrhea, with the acute part of this metabolic disease resulting in death.
This metabolic disease is called Acidosis.
Subacute acidosis often results in the animals recovering but they get other illnesses like bloat, founder, polio, and often severe liver abscesses.
The death rate in feedlots are not let out to the public (though some people wish they would), but it is hypothesized, through logic and common sense, that it is high: higher than what you'd have in a grass-fed beef operation.
Now let's step away and talk about their living conditions, or how they are raised.
A while ago in the news there was a feedlot in and around Kansas that had 2,000 head of cattle die in the hot summer heat.
Mainly this is because: a) most of the cattle raised in the USA, including Kansas, are Angus-type cattle, which are all black-hided cattle (elementary school taught us that the colour black absorbs heat); b) there is no shelter provided for the cattle during hot summer days, except for the wind-breaks along the fence (though they contain much shelter from the sun because, during the summer months, the sun is right over head and not angled like in the winter), and c) as mentioned above, they are fed a "hot" grain diet of high protein and carbohydrates.
Even though it is not 100% grain, it is still of high energy in order to get a bovine to gain weight in terms of more fat than muscle or bone.
Lack of appropriate shelter is one issue that feedlot owners face in terms of death-loss in feedlots.
Cattle that are not heat-tolerant, be it any breed, and do not have access to shelter or any other cool spot to find any relief in, will suffer from heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and heat stress, with a number succumbing to death.
But it's not just the heat itself that can cause cattle to die, like was mentioned before.
Their diet can also attribute to this, with the grain increasing fat deposit on their bodies, and increasing their "insulating" layer which is detrimental in hot weather.
You know that people who are obese or overweight sweat a lot in the heat of summer? Well, so do fat cattle, only they don't have sweat glands like people do, and have to pant to allow the release of body heat within.
(Note that I'm referring to Bos taurus cattle, not Bos indicus cattle.
Bos indicus cattle do have sweat glands in their skin like horses do, which is a big advantage in a hot and humid climate over B.
taurus cattle like Angus).
The second problem about their living conditions is what's under their feet: dirt.
On dry days, dirt easily turns into dust with the beat and movement of hooves across the ground, resulting in respiratory problems in a lot of cattle.
On wet days, dirt turns to mud.
Mud is really hard to get around in, and cattle will only wade and wallow in mud if it's hot and dry out, not when it's cold and wet.
Soil that remains wet can soften the hooves, and when these hooves get injured with a cut or abrasion, bacteria from the soil enter the wound causing serious infection called foot rot.
Areas that is dry all the time can cause hard hooves which can crack easily, especially on sharp objects like rocks or even nails, resulting in bacteria entering the wound and causing infection.
Neither scenario is good.
In muddy conditions, when cattle are needing a place to stay warm and dry, sometimes that hill that was built up in the middle of the pen isn't enough.
It's still made of dirt, and like I mentioned before, dirt can turn to mud which makes it miserable for any animal to be in.
Knolls of hills tend to dry faster than valleys do, which makes this hill ideal for feedlot cattle to lay on and keep out of the wet.
But overall, to live on nothing but dirt, dust and mud and have to live with your own feces and urine for the rest of your life is just not right.
Environmentally, these living conditions can have a significant impact.
Urine often has no place to go except down or out, and often the feedlots are so soil-compacted that when it rains and when cattle pee, the water runs off and gets into other bodies of water.
Ground water can also be contaminated from intensive livestock production, sometimes resulting in high E.
coli counts that can lead to a lot of people getting sick just from drinking water.
Manure and urine run off into lakes, rivers, creeks, etc.
Encourage an explosion of algal growth.
This algae growth will often block the sunlight from streaming to the bottom of the body of water resulting in death of plants and animals that thrive in the water-bottom community.
Death and decomposition release huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane gas, as well as the eventual die-off of the algae itself.
This decomposition turns the lake or pond into a bog instead of a healthy water habitat for fish, birds, bugs, plants and other wildlife.
Grazing cattle on grass does not have this big of an impact on riparian areas, especially if a buffer zone is kept and the cattle are kept off of this "reserve" 95% of the time.
Another environmental concern with feedlot cattle or intensive feeding operations is the manure output.
Compared to grasslands which are carbon sinks, feedlots are carbon sources because of the manure that builds up and needs to be taken off via machinery.
Manure on bare soil also doesn't do much because no plants are around to take up the nutrients as Nature intended.
Huge amounts of CO2 and methane are released when manure is moved into piles and shipped out to be spread on fields.
Even though the FAO states in their book Livestock's Long Shadow about how less methane and carbon dioxide is emitted from cattle who are fed a concentrate diet versus those on a grass pasture, this same organization misses the mark on manure management in the pasture: there is no real need for "manure management" since the cows are spreading out on the pasture themselves where the grass and other pasture plants can take up the nutrients without any human intervention, except to maybe sweep by with the harrows after the cattle have grazed there.
Less CO2 is being released because machinery are hardly ever used, the carbon cycle and water cycle are happening normally as Nature intended, and there is hardly ever need for human intervention to deal with feeding and manure, except to switch cows from one paddock to another once a day or so.
Cattle on a grass-only diet have no need to be fed antibiotics or growth hormones to increase the rate of gain per day.
Sure they take a little longer to finish to slaughter, but the meat is certainly a lot healthier.
That's because they are on a natural diet of grass, not an unnatural diet of grain and food waste that we humans won't eat.
Calves that are not needed for the breeding herd--steers which comprise of 90 to 100% of beef cow-calf herds and 100% of most dairy herds, and heifers which comprise of 80% of cow-calf herds and 40% of dairy herds--are sold to the feedlot to be backgrounded or stockered on grass and/or hay and a little grain, then finished on a hot-grain-based diet before being slaughtered for the beef that we see in our national-chain grocery stores.
It's not the stockering/backgrounding part of the equation of producing beefers that's the problem, it's the finishing methods.
You see, it's all in part of how they are raised and what they are fed that's the problem.
Most people have a bigger problem with what these cattle are fed and the environmental implications of that diet than how they are raised.
You're always going to come across someone, like me, who keeps reminding everyone that cattle are not meant to have grain (in the context of corn, barley, wheat, and oats) as a main-course of their diet, which is undisputedly true.
Cattle do get sick on a 90% grain-based diet, and thus antibiotics are needed to both prevent and treat these sick animals.
They get sick because of the high level of proteins and carbohydrates and low levels of plant fibre, cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin that is present in a milled diet create lower pH in their rumen, releasing lactic acid (from acid-loving bacteria in the rumen) and causing a severe belly ache, decreased appetite, and diarrhea, with the acute part of this metabolic disease resulting in death.
This metabolic disease is called Acidosis.
Subacute acidosis often results in the animals recovering but they get other illnesses like bloat, founder, polio, and often severe liver abscesses.
The death rate in feedlots are not let out to the public (though some people wish they would), but it is hypothesized, through logic and common sense, that it is high: higher than what you'd have in a grass-fed beef operation.
Now let's step away and talk about their living conditions, or how they are raised.
A while ago in the news there was a feedlot in and around Kansas that had 2,000 head of cattle die in the hot summer heat.
Mainly this is because: a) most of the cattle raised in the USA, including Kansas, are Angus-type cattle, which are all black-hided cattle (elementary school taught us that the colour black absorbs heat); b) there is no shelter provided for the cattle during hot summer days, except for the wind-breaks along the fence (though they contain much shelter from the sun because, during the summer months, the sun is right over head and not angled like in the winter), and c) as mentioned above, they are fed a "hot" grain diet of high protein and carbohydrates.
Even though it is not 100% grain, it is still of high energy in order to get a bovine to gain weight in terms of more fat than muscle or bone.
Lack of appropriate shelter is one issue that feedlot owners face in terms of death-loss in feedlots.
Cattle that are not heat-tolerant, be it any breed, and do not have access to shelter or any other cool spot to find any relief in, will suffer from heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and heat stress, with a number succumbing to death.
But it's not just the heat itself that can cause cattle to die, like was mentioned before.
Their diet can also attribute to this, with the grain increasing fat deposit on their bodies, and increasing their "insulating" layer which is detrimental in hot weather.
You know that people who are obese or overweight sweat a lot in the heat of summer? Well, so do fat cattle, only they don't have sweat glands like people do, and have to pant to allow the release of body heat within.
(Note that I'm referring to Bos taurus cattle, not Bos indicus cattle.
Bos indicus cattle do have sweat glands in their skin like horses do, which is a big advantage in a hot and humid climate over B.
taurus cattle like Angus).
The second problem about their living conditions is what's under their feet: dirt.
On dry days, dirt easily turns into dust with the beat and movement of hooves across the ground, resulting in respiratory problems in a lot of cattle.
On wet days, dirt turns to mud.
Mud is really hard to get around in, and cattle will only wade and wallow in mud if it's hot and dry out, not when it's cold and wet.
Soil that remains wet can soften the hooves, and when these hooves get injured with a cut or abrasion, bacteria from the soil enter the wound causing serious infection called foot rot.
Areas that is dry all the time can cause hard hooves which can crack easily, especially on sharp objects like rocks or even nails, resulting in bacteria entering the wound and causing infection.
Neither scenario is good.
In muddy conditions, when cattle are needing a place to stay warm and dry, sometimes that hill that was built up in the middle of the pen isn't enough.
It's still made of dirt, and like I mentioned before, dirt can turn to mud which makes it miserable for any animal to be in.
Knolls of hills tend to dry faster than valleys do, which makes this hill ideal for feedlot cattle to lay on and keep out of the wet.
But overall, to live on nothing but dirt, dust and mud and have to live with your own feces and urine for the rest of your life is just not right.
Environmentally, these living conditions can have a significant impact.
Urine often has no place to go except down or out, and often the feedlots are so soil-compacted that when it rains and when cattle pee, the water runs off and gets into other bodies of water.
Ground water can also be contaminated from intensive livestock production, sometimes resulting in high E.
coli counts that can lead to a lot of people getting sick just from drinking water.
Manure and urine run off into lakes, rivers, creeks, etc.
Encourage an explosion of algal growth.
This algae growth will often block the sunlight from streaming to the bottom of the body of water resulting in death of plants and animals that thrive in the water-bottom community.
Death and decomposition release huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane gas, as well as the eventual die-off of the algae itself.
This decomposition turns the lake or pond into a bog instead of a healthy water habitat for fish, birds, bugs, plants and other wildlife.
Grazing cattle on grass does not have this big of an impact on riparian areas, especially if a buffer zone is kept and the cattle are kept off of this "reserve" 95% of the time.
Another environmental concern with feedlot cattle or intensive feeding operations is the manure output.
Compared to grasslands which are carbon sinks, feedlots are carbon sources because of the manure that builds up and needs to be taken off via machinery.
Manure on bare soil also doesn't do much because no plants are around to take up the nutrients as Nature intended.
Huge amounts of CO2 and methane are released when manure is moved into piles and shipped out to be spread on fields.
Even though the FAO states in their book Livestock's Long Shadow about how less methane and carbon dioxide is emitted from cattle who are fed a concentrate diet versus those on a grass pasture, this same organization misses the mark on manure management in the pasture: there is no real need for "manure management" since the cows are spreading out on the pasture themselves where the grass and other pasture plants can take up the nutrients without any human intervention, except to maybe sweep by with the harrows after the cattle have grazed there.
Less CO2 is being released because machinery are hardly ever used, the carbon cycle and water cycle are happening normally as Nature intended, and there is hardly ever need for human intervention to deal with feeding and manure, except to switch cows from one paddock to another once a day or so.
Cattle on a grass-only diet have no need to be fed antibiotics or growth hormones to increase the rate of gain per day.
Sure they take a little longer to finish to slaughter, but the meat is certainly a lot healthier.
That's because they are on a natural diet of grass, not an unnatural diet of grain and food waste that we humans won't eat.
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