Carrie Underwood

[HDRider]

Don't shoot the messenger. .

Didn't mean to do that. :wave:

I didn't think so.

This issue just irks the beejezzus out of me. It is another example of the wussyfication of America and an attempt to control people's lives by wack jobs and publicity seekers.

God bless America, again,, please God.

 

[HDRider]

I was disappointed to read Eliza Barclay's article, "How Your Love Of Burgers May Be Helping To Drive Wildlife Extinct," which appeared in NPR's The Salt recently. The article suggests that meat lovers are the real reason the environment is in such desperate shape.

"We need to see a drastic reduction in meat consumption to protect land, water and wildlife," Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director for the Center for Biological Diversity, is quoted as saying in the article.

http://beefmagazine.com/blog/npr-sugges ... rticle_1_1

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/0 ... m=facebook

 

[HDRider]

This is floating around Facebook. They say they are for raising veal.

 

[dun]

Look like vealer hutches to me

 

[regolith]

All the calf hutches I've seen are open-fronted. Calves need a lot of air space - I don't see those things providing it.

Oh... looking more closely, they are open-fronted, with a yard. The view is from the back, and as you'd expect, there is ventilation in the back wall also.

 

[HDRider]

All the calf hutches I've seen are open-fronted. Calves need a lot of air space - I don't see those things providing it.

Oh... looking more closely, they are open-fronted, with a yard. The view is from the back, and as you'd expect, there is ventilation in the back wall also.

I am amazed at the visceral reaction on FaceBook so many have to this method of production. I made the mistake of trying to explain that a lot of veal is from male dairy cattle and that the fronts of these containers are open to a fenced yard of about 200 square feet. I admit I improvised on that last part.

I am now the devil. Can someone with experience speak to this method of rearing veal?

 

[TexasBred]

This is floating around Facebook. They say they are for raising veal.

Look closely and you'll see the cattle panel bent aroundin front of each little house from side to side. This gives the calves room to roam a bit, get out in the sunshine and get inside in bad weather. This is exactly the way we raised dairy calves just not quite as close together as these. Moved them around every week to keep them on fresh ground and sanitized the area they were moved from.

 

[regolith]

I can't speak from experience, but I do know why it's done.
My calves are reared in groups, mainly outside, with the younger calves kept in a shed for the first few weeks - essentially until mid-spring when the weather is better. They are all born over the space of about two months, once a year.

Overseas - Britain and Europe - calving all year round is the norm for dairies and for at least the first few weeks, each calf would have its own individual pen. This is mainly for disease control, as well presumably for ease of management as they don't have a large group of same-age calves like I would. Disease control is a challenge in any housed system and especially so if the building is not disinfected and 'rested' between batches of calves - with AYR calving the only way you can rest a calf shed is if you've got two sheds and don't need one.

Outdoor hutches gives the best of both worlds. The calves are managed individually, have shelter plus full access to clean air and there is none of that dreaded mouth to dung contact between calves.
The biggest issue I have with rearing calves outdoors is shelter, I rotate the young calves through the most sheltered paddocks I've got and avoid exposed ones. Some farmers build a calf shelter or tow one from paddock to paddock but that gets you right back to the situation that pathogens will build up inside a group shelter just as much as if they were indoors.

 

[branguscowgirl]

This is floating around Facebook. They say they are for raising veal.

That is better than how they raised veal in the old days. I remember seeing them in wire hutches like they raised rabbits in! I still won't eat veal........just me. I am not against it because I know they have to do something with all those dairy steers.

 

[GMN]

she sure has a cute husband!

 

[HDRider]

Boycott Discover Card for its Support of HSUS


We've launched a new site: www.BoycottHSUS.com

And we have our first campaign. The credit card company Discover recently started a new affinity card to benefit the deceptively named Humane Society of the United States. For every $100 someone with one of these cards spends, Discover will donate between 1 and 20 cents to HSUS. That may not seem like much, but Discover expects it will add up to slightly over $1 million. In fact, according to the contract, Discover paid HSUS $150,000 up front in advance royalty payments. And HSUS gets $100 from Discover for every person that signs up for the program from an HSUS communication and spends $100 within the first three months.

But where will that money go? Discover may not like the answer, and the company's decision-makers should know the following:

The Oklahoma Attorney General has opened an investigation of HSUS, issuing subpoenas in July.
In May, HSUS paid up to $15.75 million to settle a federal RICO lawsuit alleging bribery and fraud.
Charity Navigator revoked its rating of HSUS in June, replacing it with a "Donor Advisory."
HSUS gets a "C-minus" grade from the well-respected CharityWatch.
HSUS has a radical agenda to put farmers out of business.
HSUS only gives 1% of the money it raises to local pet shelters, despite its name and its ads full of dogs and cats.Please visit BoycottHSUS.com and pledge to boycott Discover until it cancels its support for one of America's most deceptive charities. And please share on Discover's Facebook page to reach out to its 1.5 million followers. Until Discover affirms that it will either end (or not renew) its partnership with HSUS, it's time to find another credit card company.

http://www.humanewatch.org/

http://www.humanesociety.org/

 

[MO_cows]

I already boycott Discover! When they were new, they sent us a "pre approved" offer. We decided to try the card, liked the idea of getting something back. They turned us down, guess it wasn't pre approved after all. Never was able to learn why. We had good credit, could finance cars in a snap and so forth. Ticked me off. They didn't need us, we didn't need them either. Over the years they sent us a lot of other offers for a Discover card. I tried to wad everything they mailed us into their postage paid return envelope and let them pay the postage to get it back!

From the other side of the table, managing a merchant account, I always avoided taking Discover because their fees are higher. That's how they "cash back" their customers, they take it from the merchants! Until the most recent web site update, that is, Discover was "bundled" with Visa and Mastercard. Bummer.

Unfortunately, the animals rights extremists are a lot better at the propaganda war than the ag sector. They have no shame, they will distort things or out and out lie to suit their purpose. Just like those calf hutches, photographed from the most unflattering angle, to look like the calves live in darkness and isolation. And since humane treatment of animals has become part of political correctness, all these companies want that for their image, their brand.

It's an uphill battle. More producers need to blog and get their side of things out there for the media to find.

And, back to Carrie Underwood, I wonder how many pills and supplements she takes now, as a pregnant vegetarian, or is she vegan?