- Location
- Grand Marais, MN
Roger, I maintain a cow/calf operation, hiring bulls as necessary. Most of the cattle operations here are family run on private land, the calves go to auction where bidders take them to range land (federal) to fatten them up, finishing in feedlots for that last important 250-lb weight gain thru science. Bidders are middle men mostly, the weight and growth substancially acheived from public lands and subsidized thru public monies and the feedlots are now principally foreign owned entities or subsidiaries of ConAgra or other large processors.
In a sense our cattle and this area-produced calves are organic, then after federal land grazing they feedlot a whole array of supplements including anti-biotics not for disease but for rapid weight (water retention) gain.
I have had (along with neighbors and friends) no predator problems, cows are too big. However there is pressure from interest groups to file claims on losses. Losses result from bad ranching, not coyote, and this is well known in our industry. Sheep and goats on the other hand, well, if you drive near a herd and honk your horn and they don't recognize you or your truck, many will die that night of psychological trauma, but tax monies will replace the dead.
Oh, and we have names for the calves, like pets. And the old cows are allowed to die in peace here, after producing for many years...not shipped-off for hamburger like the conglomerates do.
Yeah, it does get off aerial hunting, but it's related to the mentality that wolves are bad and we need to keep command to a world that we increasingly change for only human's needs. That will face-off in the future.
In a sense our cattle and this area-produced calves are organic, then after federal land grazing they feedlot a whole array of supplements including anti-biotics not for disease but for rapid weight (water retention) gain.
I have had (along with neighbors and friends) no predator problems, cows are too big. However there is pressure from interest groups to file claims on losses. Losses result from bad ranching, not coyote, and this is well known in our industry. Sheep and goats on the other hand, well, if you drive near a herd and honk your horn and they don't recognize you or your truck, many will die that night of psychological trauma, but tax monies will replace the dead.
Oh, and we have names for the calves, like pets. And the old cows are allowed to die in peace here, after producing for many years...not shipped-off for hamburger like the conglomerates do.
Yeah, it does get off aerial hunting, but it's related to the mentality that wolves are bad and we need to keep command to a world that we increasingly change for only human's needs. That will face-off in the future.
