What are your cows eating? -thoughts and facts please

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  • RavenhairedWoman
    RavenhairedWoman Posts: 661 Member
    Cattle eat grass naturally. Even corn isn't completely good for them it is just cheaper than rotating the herd to a new feeding ground to only eat grass. Cows have a four chambered stomach and inside their stomachs are an organism that enables the cow to be able to break down the cellulose of the plant fibers. This process is completed with the help of chewing their cud and the four chambers of their stomachs of course. Cattle that are fed corn don't get the chance to "chew their cud" and the corn allows them to pack on extra fat. So corn fed cattle will have meat that is more marbled because they have a higher body fat content.

    Hearing things like this story is why I usually prefer to have venison as my main red meat. Venison (deer meat) is naturally leaner because deer usually feed on only plant matter, the way cattle should be. They are also more transient than cattle and when the populations are properly managed they are less prone to disease than cattle. It is hard work hunting, butchering, and cleaning venison but it is well worth it when I know that no one has pumped that deer full of hormones.
  • slkehl
    slkehl Posts: 3,801 Member
    You're no doubt aware that The China Study has been totally debunked? Of course you are.

    My theory is that anyone referencing the China Study as something to draw valid conclusions from has not actually read the full China Study. Or they've never taken basic stats, which means they wouldn't be able to understand it even if they had read it.

    Correlation does not equal causation, people.
  • kristengraham
    kristengraham Posts: 59 Member
    Not all farmers feed their cows such foods. I spend a lot of time on a farm (as my bf is a farmer) and our cows eat grass, hay, and some minerals. And farmers put manuer... liquid fertilizer... and many other chemicals on their fields to make the hay grow better. And the cows eat that hay all winter long.

    Now, I do have pigs as well. They typically are fed corn mash (which several months ago was $20 per hundred I believe) but whenever there are leftovers they get "slop." Sometimes I can get bread/milk from local stores that is going out of date and has to be pulled off the shelf. But really, think about it... pigs have been eating "slop" for many many years.

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