Pasture-Based Farming Enhances Animal Welfare
By Jo Robinson
Many of the news clippings below explain
how farm animals benefit when they are kept out of the feedlots and allowed to
mature on pasture at a normal rate of growth and production. Other items show
how factory farming compromises their health and well-being. As you will see,
there is a dramatic difference between the two systems of production. Choosing
meat, eggs, and dairy products from grass-based farms is a highly effective way
to enhance animal welfare. New term you need to know: “by-product feedstuffs”
Fresh pasture and dried grasses are the
natural diet of all ruminant animals. In factory farms, animals are switched to
an unnatural diet based on corn and soy. But corn and soy are not the only
ingredients in their “balanced rations.” Many large-scale dairy farmers and
feedlot operators save money by feeding the cows “by-product feedstuffs” as
well. In general, this means waste products from the manufacture of human food.
In particular, it can mean sterilized city garbage, candy, bubble gum, floor
sweepings from plants that manufacture animal food, bakery, potato wastes or a
scientific blend of pasta and candy.
Here are some of the “by-product
feedstuffs commonly used in dairy cattle diets in the Upper Midwest.”*
· Candy. Candy products are available through a
number of distributors and sometimes directly from smaller plants… They are
sometimes fed in their wrappers…. Candies, such as cull gummy bears, lemon
drops or gum drops are high in sugar content.
· Bakery Wastes. Stale bread and other pastry
products from stores or bakeries can be fed to dairy cattle in limited amounts.
These products are sometimes fed as received without drying or even removal of
the wrappers.
· Potato Waste is available in potato processing
areas, and includes cull potatoes, French fries and potato chips. Cull fresh
potatoes that are not frozen, rotten, or sprouted can be fed to cows either
whole or chopped. Potato waste straight from a processing plant may contain
varying amounts of inedible or rotten potatoes. French fries and chips contain
fats or oils from frying operations.
· Starch. Unheated starch is available from some
candy manufacturers and sometimes may contain pieces of candy.
· Pasta is available from pasta plants and some
ingredient distributors as straight pasta or in blends with other ingredients,
such as candy.
*This list is excerpted from “By-Product
Feedstuffs in Dairy Cattle Diets in the Upper Midwest,” published in 2008 by
the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin at
Madison.
Healthy
Eggs: What We Knew in 1932
In the 1930s, animal scientists were
trying to determine the best diet for cows, pigs, and chickens that were raised
in confinement. It was a time of trial and error.
In a 1993 experiment conducted by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, breeding hens were taken off pasture and fed a wide
variety of feed ingredients. When the birds were fed a diet that was
exclusively soy or corn or wheat or cottonseed meal, the chickens didn’t lay
eggs or the chicks that developed from the eggs had a high rate of mortality
and disease.
But when birds were fed these same
inadequate diets and put back on pasture, their eggs were perfectly normal. The
pasture grasses and the bugs made up for whatever was missing in each of the
highly restrictive diets.
“The effect of diet on egg composition.” Journal of Nutrition 6(3)
225-242. 1933.
