> You guys seem to think that feeding chicken litter is a new thing. On the contrary, farmers have been doing it for decades. And they aren't feeding it pure it will make up to 10-15% of the diet, and the litter isn't pure feces.
Nobody said anything about it being a new thing -- but being an old practice doesn't make any less disgusting.
>Here's how it works: Farmers
> regularly feed Urea(nothing to do
> with urine) which is also used as
> fertilizer for the nitrogen,
> cattle can break down nitrogen
> into protein. Chicken litter has a
> high amount of nitrogen, so they
> get their protein from this
> source.
Urea is a NON-NITROGEN protein source -- and I don't feed it to my cattle.
If the packers would pay a
> decent percentage of what they
> make for the cattle and not take
> such a big margin from the
> consumer then farmers wouldn't
> have to look for alternative feed
> sources.
Totally agree with you on that -- it's a sin how the farmer and the consumer are both being raped by "middleman".
> And would you rather buy meat that
> has been "medicated and
> hormoned up" or would you
> rather buy synthetic food that is
> manufactured from preservatives
> and artificial flavors.
Neither, that's why I raise my own -- my animals are not implanted with hormones, and the only time they get medication is if they are sick.
> Do the same people that don't eat
> meat refrain from drinking and
> smoking, or taking hormones for
> menopause, or taking viagra, or
> even aspirin and other pain
> killers, or coffee.
Drinking and smoking and these other things shouldn't even enter into this -- they have nothing whatsoever to do with food. And as for hormones for menopause -- any woman is CRAZY if she allows her doctor to give her HORSE URINE, if hormone replacement is necessary there are plant-based estrogens that are identical to human estrogens are available. And this is my point -- I will not be convinced that the waste of one species is beneficial to another species.
> When raising pigs if they were fed
> 100% all-natural diet, they would
> still eat things that would
> disgust city slickers (skip this
> part if you are squeamish): their
> afterbirth (womb), their feces,
> their own piglets, another dead
> animal before it can be properly
> disposed of, and lots of times
> they are fattened up in a cattle
> lot and never eat nothing but the
> corn that passes through cattle.
Pigs are omnivores and meant to eat just about anything, but cows are herbivores. Cow were not meant to eat chicken manure.
> And how about the water that you
> are drinking, in many towns it is
> recycled sewage.
We're on a well that taps into a 180 ft deep aquifer and we're pumping up 300 year old water that is cleaner than any city water -- and no chemicals.
> Hope this doesn't cause too much
> of a stir but it provides
> something to discuss.
Discussion is great -- and nothing says that everybody has to agree, that's what makes the world interesting. If it was decided tomorrow that all cows in the US were to be fed broiler litter, I won't do it, no matter how much literature there is available telling how safe it is. I will continue to raise mine on as natural a diet as possible -- and know that I'm not going to have to deal with stomach problems that seem to be a direct result of feeding and/or slaughtering procedures. Sure is funny that meat from the store (any meat) will tear up my stomach, but meat I raise or hunt and butcher myself doesn't give me any problems.
I also don't have any trouble selling excess animals -- I have a waiting list of people wanting beef. If I had twice as many animals out there, I still wouldn't fill the list.
Ann B
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