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Am thoroughly confused now
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<blockquote data-quote="ChrisB" data-source="post: 796157" data-attributes="member: 122"><p>I still don't exactly know what makes a farm a factory farm. And why is their beef is so bad?</p><p></p><p>Guy #1 - Raises 5 head per year in a 50'x 100' pen. He buys all his feed in a sack from the local feed store using advice from the kid behind the counter. He runs out to the barn after work and dumps a coffee can of feed to the herd collects a couple of eggs, gives hay to the horses and rushes back to the house glad to be done with chores for another day. He can buy bulls cheaper than steers and since he hasn't ever had a problem he leaves them intact.</p><p></p><p>Guy #2 - Raises 100 head per year in a 200' x 500' pen. He raises some corn and buys some soy-meal, ddgs, etc. from the local mill and mixes the feed on his farm. He feeds the cattle once daily and looks things over to make sure there are no sick ones; if so he runs them in the chute and gives a shot of LA200. He implants his cattle with a one-time implant that lasts 400 days and is good for both steers and heifers.</p><p></p><p>Guy #3 - Raises 20,000 head per year in 20 different pens that are 200' x 500'. He buys all his corn and other feed ingredients from around the area. He has a nutritionist on staff that continually monitors feed quality to make sure each pen is getting their nutritional requirements met. This guy has a mill on the farm and employs a 5 full time workers. The cattle are feed 2 times each day to make sure feed is always fresh, there are a couple of pen riders that ride through each pen everyday looking for hanging heads, droopy ears, etc. If anything looks 'off' a trained worker or vet will look at the animal to determine the best course of action and they procede accordingly. He also implants the cattle but uses different implants on steers and heifers and also different ones at different growth stages so they can be most effective.</p><p></p><p>Guy #3 - Raises his cattle until they have a finish on them and weight about 1400 lbs. He may have several buyers bid on each pen and will hopefully get some premiums for quality. He ends up getting $1.60 average per pound. He ends up making $15/head and he can make some improvements and fill the pens up again.</p><p></p><p>Guy #2 - Raises his cattle until he feels they also have a nice finish on them, also about 1400 lbs. He will bring a trailer load every couple of weeks to the local auction and since they buyers know his cattle he gets top dollar for the day and it works out to be $1.55 pound. He also sells a few of the tailenders to family and friends and charges an extra $0.10/lb. for the extra trouble of bringing a few to the locker and collecting money, etc. He's not exactly sure how much he made per head since he raised most of his own feed and isn't exactly sure how much he feed. But the checking account has enough money to take a nice vacation pay his salary and to keep going another year.</p><p></p><p>Guy #1 - He butchers his steers every fall so he doesn't have to feed them through winter. They are 900 lbs. each when they head to the locker. He takes 1 for his family and sells one to his brother. Since he just wants good healthy beef to eat and isn't out to make a profit so he just charges his brother 1/2 the costs incurred along with another little sum to make it worth the effort. He actually started raising just 2 head a few years ago but since his beef is way better than anything you can buy at the store there is the line of customers. The friends and family are happy to pay the $3.00 per pound since they know they are getting healthy farm raised beef and they know how it was raised. He ends up with a profit of $300 per head, but he doesn't do it to make money, he just enjoys raising animals.</p><p></p><p>Yea guys #2 and #3 use implants to increase rate of gain. We have debated implants before and the fact is their is no proof that implanted beef is anything but 100% safe. The fact is guy #1's beef would have more hormones in the meat than guys #2 & 3 combined. So why do customers think beef from #1 is so much better? The truth is they are just uneducated on modern food production. And it doesn't help when small hobby farmers are using scare tactics to get people afraid to buy meat over the counter so they can charge more for their product.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ChrisB, post: 796157, member: 122"] I still don't exactly know what makes a farm a factory farm. And why is their beef is so bad? Guy #1 - Raises 5 head per year in a 50'x 100' pen. He buys all his feed in a sack from the local feed store using advice from the kid behind the counter. He runs out to the barn after work and dumps a coffee can of feed to the herd collects a couple of eggs, gives hay to the horses and rushes back to the house glad to be done with chores for another day. He can buy bulls cheaper than steers and since he hasn't ever had a problem he leaves them intact. Guy #2 - Raises 100 head per year in a 200' x 500' pen. He raises some corn and buys some soy-meal, ddgs, etc. from the local mill and mixes the feed on his farm. He feeds the cattle once daily and looks things over to make sure there are no sick ones; if so he runs them in the chute and gives a shot of LA200. He implants his cattle with a one-time implant that lasts 400 days and is good for both steers and heifers. Guy #3 - Raises 20,000 head per year in 20 different pens that are 200' x 500'. He buys all his corn and other feed ingredients from around the area. He has a nutritionist on staff that continually monitors feed quality to make sure each pen is getting their nutritional requirements met. This guy has a mill on the farm and employs a 5 full time workers. The cattle are feed 2 times each day to make sure feed is always fresh, there are a couple of pen riders that ride through each pen everyday looking for hanging heads, droopy ears, etc. If anything looks 'off' a trained worker or vet will look at the animal to determine the best course of action and they procede accordingly. He also implants the cattle but uses different implants on steers and heifers and also different ones at different growth stages so they can be most effective. Guy #3 - Raises his cattle until they have a finish on them and weight about 1400 lbs. He may have several buyers bid on each pen and will hopefully get some premiums for quality. He ends up getting $1.60 average per pound. He ends up making $15/head and he can make some improvements and fill the pens up again. Guy #2 - Raises his cattle until he feels they also have a nice finish on them, also about 1400 lbs. He will bring a trailer load every couple of weeks to the local auction and since they buyers know his cattle he gets top dollar for the day and it works out to be $1.55 pound. He also sells a few of the tailenders to family and friends and charges an extra $0.10/lb. for the extra trouble of bringing a few to the locker and collecting money, etc. He's not exactly sure how much he made per head since he raised most of his own feed and isn't exactly sure how much he feed. But the checking account has enough money to take a nice vacation pay his salary and to keep going another year. Guy #1 - He butchers his steers every fall so he doesn't have to feed them through winter. They are 900 lbs. each when they head to the locker. He takes 1 for his family and sells one to his brother. Since he just wants good healthy beef to eat and isn't out to make a profit so he just charges his brother 1/2 the costs incurred along with another little sum to make it worth the effort. He actually started raising just 2 head a few years ago but since his beef is way better than anything you can buy at the store there is the line of customers. The friends and family are happy to pay the $3.00 per pound since they know they are getting healthy farm raised beef and they know how it was raised. He ends up with a profit of $300 per head, but he doesn't do it to make money, he just enjoys raising animals. Yea guys #2 and #3 use implants to increase rate of gain. We have debated implants before and the fact is their is no proof that implanted beef is anything but 100% safe. The fact is guy #1's beef would have more hormones in the meat than guys #2 & 3 combined. So why do customers think beef from #1 is so much better? The truth is they are just uneducated on modern food production. And it doesn't help when small hobby farmers are using scare tactics to get people afraid to buy meat over the counter so they can charge more for their product. [/QUOTE]
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