Perhaps another item of interest would include manufactured fertilizer. This may hasten plant growth to the point where insuffient trace minerals can be assimilated. This loss will show up in the end product the feed is designated for.
Poorboy, this could be your opportunity to differentiate your product from the feedlot cows. Since "mad cow" comes from bad food, advertise how your cows are "grass fed on pasture", in an open, healthy environment. Begin to solicit local restaurants and people who are willing to pay more for a quality product. The inconvenience will be in the slaughter process, but you could control that by developing a subscription service.
Anybody see whether this impacted the demand for sheep?
<font color="blue">The U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) said the cow was slaughtered at Vern's Moses Lake Meat, Inc., in Moses Lake, about 70 miles northeast of Mabton, on Dec. 9, after she became paralyzed, apparently as a result of calving.
The USDA said the slaughtered cow was deboned at Midway Meats in Centralia, and the meat  though no contaminated spinal or brain tissue  was sent to two other plants in the region, identified as Willamette and Interstate Meat. </font color>
The are very careful to repeat no brain or spinal tissue made it into the food supply. Apparently, it is alright to ship everything thing else. Bet we see some legislation on this one.
First of all to clear a few things up. Dave you of all people should know about the quality of beef. Supermarket beef is the worst. The supermarkets buy the poorest beef so that they can make the most profit. The good beef usually goes to the restaurants that ARE good. Try a t-bone at Flying J and one at a good steak restaurant. Alot of difference. It takes alot more money, care, and time to raise good beef.
Next about mad cow disease. 1st you are not at risk by eating the muscle. It's only by eating the brain, spinal cord, and other nervous tissue that a person would become infected. This would only happen by eating processed meat where everything is mixed together and reprocessed into balogna, hot dogs, etc. Most processors don't even use the brain and nervous tissue anymore. Also downed cattle are NOT processed for human consumption. Downed cattle are processed for other non human uses.
The spread of this disease is also extremely easy to control and prevent. It is not like hoof and mouth disease. This will not be an epidemic or outbreak. Likely we are going to see even more controls put into place than now. This is a good thing. The ONLY way to spread it is by eating infected tissue. With cattle this it is very easy to control the mad cow disease. A rancher feeding only his own grown hay and grain will never see mad cow disease. It isn't by the blood or anything else. ONLY by eating infected tissue. This only happens with commercial feed, which granted is the way alot of cattle are fattened. But it is also a product of the market. As profits were trimmed to zero and going bankrupt people look for alternate way to produce beef and not go under.
To me it is extremely sad that the biggest thing I have heard from all of this is how it's good news for the consumer. That now beef will be coming down in price. Just like with Walmart to hell with the producer let's just keep everything cheap for the consumer. Someone mentioned Mexican cattle coming across the border. Well what do you think they feed mexican cattle down there for protein? They sure was heck don't have the hay and good oats and corn we have here.
For the first time in a great long while ranching was profitable this fall. At market prices from before it was barely enough, and most times not enough, to make a living. Now prices finally get where you can make a living and this happens. I was trying to buy a ranch last fall and told the realtor the prices they were asking for the place a person could no way make it even break even. He said heck nobody buys a ranch anymore to make anything, it's just for show. And he's right. Alot of ranchers these days are rich only in the land they have. They can't make it pay. The only way they can make anything is by selling land. The wrath if a man wants to make a good living at it, let's just keep the prices low for the consumer. No high food prices in this country.
What will it do to the market? Well likely it is going to crash. For how long and the damages it will depend greatly on which side the public is going to believe. The spin doctor press or the truth. Unfortunately it has already spiraled downhill. In the short term it's going to have devastating effects on the cattle industry. It already has. How long it will last is another question. It's going to cost some people who haven't sold their cattle this year alot.
The sad part is there are already precautions in place. The disease was caught and the appropriate measures taken. The system worked just like it is supposed to. But you sure don't hear that. All you hear is all the hysteria. Dave the reason they said the food supply has not been contaminated is because the cow in question was never destined for the food supply. LIke I said earlier a downed cow is not put into public consumption.
Our food supply is the safest one in the world. There are more protections and precuations in place than anywhere else on earth.
On a plus side, as already noted here, there are significant markets available. Raising and selling beef on one's own ranch is certainly the way to go. The beef is better. The rancher gets a much better price and can make a good living as opposed to the middleman getting it all. A rancher can then afford to put quality feed into an animal and not have to resort to the products that caused this mess in the first place, most of which were not in this country. But before anyone goes off on it when these animal products were being used for protein there was absolutely nothing that showed that it did cause mad cow disease. As soon as we find out how this one caught it I sure hope that it isn't found out that someone violated those laws to not use animal by-products for feed. If it was it's sad that a few people did that and the effects it will have on the market. Yea poorboy it is a sad day for cattle but hopefully the truth will prevail in this matter.
Richard, You and I both know that most grocery store meat is cow meat and not quality Angus or steer meat raised for that purpose. krogers and other chains are strictly buying for profit. No mystery there. I only focused on that because thats where the average RETAIL consumer is shopping. I expect the vast majority of quality beef is purchased by the restaurant industry. Now I am a little reluctant to disscuss this with you in a open forum because I do not want others to read too much into our conversations and frankly I think you probably know more about some of this than I do. It would be a great conversation in front of a fire with a couple of cold sodas. [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] While I understand your adversion to consumers wanting to see a lower price I can only say as a educated consumer what I want to see is more consistant priceing on the retail level. This Christmas beef prices were totally out of whack. If gas stations price gouged like that they would get prosecuted. Retailers here wound up cutting their noses off to spite their own faces. Simply put, many did not buy beef. This is not any better for the Cattleman than a price crash. I certainly hope everyone realizes that such losses, while it might mean short term savings on this months grocery bill is NOT a good thing for the future. We could digress into a lot of sub topics on this but I think the long and short of what is Fact is really moot in the average conumers world. Look at 9-11 and the gas lines. Hysteria and panic. We saw the same thing here after the big power outage. People freaked. Most people are just simply so unprepared for life that it is frightening on many levels. Many take the news puffery as gospel. Now I want to be clear that as a consumer I DO want to see the prices of the last month to go down. There is a huge difference between a rancher makeing a living and retailers makeing a killing. I for one do not expect something for nothing and I would never expect or even want to buy a product or service from another N.American that causes them a loss.
Now at the Restaurant level my purchaseing is totally different from what most people would imagine. I can speak directly or order on line from major processers and I know not only whether I am buying Morel, Excel, IBP or other processers but select grades such as Angus, Sterling Silver as well. I also have a good idea just what area my meat was processed in. I have a enormous amount of control over quality. The average consumer likely thinks all beef is "choice". I'd be willing to place a friendly side wager Richard that the majority of US consumers have no idea what no roll is. But then meat standards have been VERY lax for about 20 years now. If you look up the fat trim specs for a rib eye and match them to what you get it will make your food cost calculator go into cardiac arrest. In short I pretty much agree with you, BUT, that wont help out in this dilema.
I cant speak for any one else but I do not want to consume any flesh from a diseased animal and I dont believe you would choose to feed it to your family either. The real caveat in what you said is that "MOST" processors do not use the spinal cord etc any more. How many here know what Slurry is...? mmmmmmm Think Mcky'Ds BLUCH ! Not in this lifetime, I wont eat that stuff. Not on a train not on a plane. Now I dont really want to dissagree in any sort of sense other than a gentlemans discussion. Thats to say I dont know for sure if I am right . I do know that when we hear , As consumers, the government putting the spin cycle on the beef, where it was headed etc. Many of is are very skeptical. In fact I dont think its much of a exageration to say the majority of us probably think the goverment mouth pieces are not much brighter than Sheep Dip. I expect we both have strong finacial ties to this one Richard. This is not something I would wish on any one. Well Ok I wont Lie. It would not break my heart one tiny little bit if we locked the doors on Mexico. But I am not happy to see this in the US or Canada. As I said earlier, This is one time I really HOPE I am wrong. Many corporations that use purchaseing contracts and SOP manuals dictate Midwestern US Beef ONLY. I really do think in the near future we will see more organic and free range e-tailers. Personaly I think thats a good change and I welcome the choice to buy a healthier higher quality product on the reatail level. Dave
You are pretty much right on with everything you said Dave except the processing. There are very strict guidelines in place in the US. Where we get into trouble is bringing in food from other countries. I didn't get into this before but where the blankety blankety blank stupid disease came from was from importing animal feed. It didn't happen here. In 1997 all animal byproducts were banned. Mostly this was from UK. What we're dealing with now IS NOT A US problem. This problem, like about every other rotten disease and pest, has been imported to this country. That's what makes me so dang mad about it all. Our govt. lets all of this stuff happen and then the rancher or any other business gets screwed by their screw-ups. If we would just worry about things here, produce things here, and not worry about the dang rest of the world we'd be a whole lot better off.
WOW, now theres a statement I can agree with Richard. 100%. I think our views on processing differ a bit but it wouldnt be much fun to talk if we always agreed [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] I believe that some of that feed comes in south of the border as well. Either way, its bleepin poor enforcement on our part. I remember years ago before the internet and instant satellite news ( yeah a whole 10 years ago ! ) that when traveling in Europe they were BIG TIME anal about going from country to country and what you brought. They used to make you take your shoes off and they werent looking for bombs they were looking for dirt ! I think its also a manifestation in our socity now to get the lowest over head and maximum profit with OUT provideing the best service or product. You know where we both come from Cowboy the winner gets the pot of gold and the girl. Our society seems to have a (sadly) majority contingent that feels they are owed somehow and deserve the riches like the big dog. Its not hard to understand the sub cultures that exist in pockets here and function on the barter system. I saw a news article not so long ago about a town that made its own currency and you bartered your services for currency. Then you could spend your town dollars for any goods/services in that town. We need to get back to being a self sufficient country. I am and have been out raged that for years now China has been our only Prefered trade nation. Here we are the big giant that is going to free the world and our only prefered trade nation pretty much functions on slave labor at ten cents per hour. I'll be very honest when I tell you I fear we are going south in a hand basket and we need to reach down and pull our selves up by the boot straps......SOON !
Well it looks like the cattle producer has been vindicated. The diseased cow came from Canada. This means the US will be able to keep it's mad cow free status. I sure hope that the hysteria doesn't rule out now and common sense does.
I hope your right but I really have to wonder if the spin cycle has just been kicked up a notch. As a lay person I sure dont understand why that's relevant if the cow has been in the US for two years. I wish the media would do a better job explaining the process and the disease. Dave
<font color="blue"> Also downed cattle are NOT processed for human consumption. Downed cattle are processed for other non human uses.
</font color>
Cowboydoc, what am I missing here, the following article indicates the meat from this cow was shipped to several states for human consumption.
"
Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an Agriculture Department veterinarian, said investigators have determined that some of the meat from the diseased dairy cow slaughtered Dec. 9 in Washington state went to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and Guam. Earlier, officials had said most of the meat went to Washington and Oregon, with lesser amounts to California and Nevada, for distribution to consumers.
"The recalled meat represents essentially zero risk to consumers," said Petersen, of the USDA's food safety agency.
He said the parts most likely to carry infection  the brain, spinal cord and lower intestine  were removed before the meat from the infected cow was cut and processed for human consumption."
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