Cowboys and cows are soaking the American West dry

[HDRider]

We tend to blame the exurban sprawl dweller for water waste. The profligate of the cul-de-sac, he obsesses over car washes, floods the Kentucky bluegrass on his lawn, tops off his swimming pool, takes the kids to water parks, and tees off at green golf courses tended among cacti. He is the wrong object of our ire,

We'd do better to look at what we eat when casting about for villains of the water drama. Food production consumes more fresh water than any other activity in the United States. "Within agriculture in the West, the thirstiest commodity is the cow," :cowboy:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1209 ... k-industry

 

[Ouachita]

Good grief !

 

[lavacarancher]

It's really hard to tell when someone is serious or just poking fun. This is one of those instances. If you are serious then what the heII would you offer as an alternative to eating???? If you are poking fun then Ha Ha Ha!

 

[HDRider]

It's really hard to tell when someone is serious or just poking fun. This is one of those instances. If you are serious then what the heII would you offer as an alternative to eating???? If you are poking fun then Ha Ha Ha!

They are dead serious. That is why I post this crap. I want everyone to see how messed up some people are.

Not to belabor the issue, but bad things happen when we sit by and let them roll on with their BS agenda.

Between militant vegans, and self righteous organizations like PETA, Chipotle and Whole Foods, you better believe they are serious about tearing down American agriculture.

Don't know why they want to tear it down, but like you said, they sure aren't offering a better alternative.

 

[highgrit]

They have ADD, ADHD. They can't stay on task either. Starts out about cows, then global warming, then to varmint control. And a whole lot of other liberal BS. Lets not forget, liberals are terrorists too.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Add they keep adding parking lots and rooflines.

Look at Dallas. A 2 inch rain now caused flooding. All the water goes to the Trinity River. It never even gets a chance to soak in to the earth. Too much pavement with drains dumping it.

An old man lives is a house that's never flooded. A 300 acre subdivision goes in next door. 15,000 houses with roof lines right on top of one another. Street upon street. 3 inch rain comes, all that water goes to the streets and into his back pasture. Next thing you know the little creek is a raging river. Massive erosion. Damage.

But tree huggers blame it on cows?

 

[Brute 23]

I saw an article one time that said O&G used like 9% of the water Agriculture did. That includes fracing.

That article is just pushing trying to get ranchers off federal land. Just the media playing politics.

 

[greybeard]

Altho I don't buy into all of Allan Savory's holistic management theories, the article HDRider posted seems to be in exact opposition to what Savory says. Basically, Savory says we don't need fewer cows in order to save the water and grasslands--we need more.

http://www.dietdoctor.com/how-cows-coul ... ate-change

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LHoh-OKUfU

 

[john250]

These idiots have taken over the media. One very biased study, conducted by vegetarians. "Car and Driver" printed a screed on cattle, in the same issue they printed pics of smoking tires and breathless coverage of a 700 hp Mopar. This is "don't focus on me, focus on that guy over there" If they can get some traction with the water issue, they have the money to push that forward. Become familiar with your politicians, as distasteful as that may be. We have the facts on our side, but we better have the legislature in addition.

 

[MO_cows]

Pure propaganda. Nobody named with any credentials, no research cited, yet they throw out all these fantastic claims. Wonder how widely read this is?

Anybody's cows actually drink 23 gallons a day? Our water is metered and runs about 10 gallons per head per day.

 

[HDRider]

Pure propaganda. Nobody named with any credentials, no research cited, yet they throw out all these fantastic claims. Wonder how widely read this is?

Anybody's cows actually drink 23 gallons a day? Our water is metered and runs about 10 gallons per head per day.

New Republic is the official magazine of the Democrat party. Seriously..

I think the New Republic was just bought by one of the founders of Google..

 

[Nesikep]

Dairy cows would certainly drink a lot more water than 10 gallons, and that doesn't include the water needed to grow their food.

What I find disgusting is the idea that water is "destroyed" by being used.. somehow watering crops, cattle, etc makes the water disappear forever, and soon the oceans will be dry because of it. In cases like pumping large amounts of water from an aquifer (Oglala for example) without letting it replenish can have bad effects, but river water that flows into the ocean is a different story

 

[HOSS]

Every drop of water that has ever been on this earth is still on this earth. No more....no less. I get a kick out of the dirt people that are constantly screaming that we must conserve water. The earth is a sealed atmosphere. Water goes up in evaporation and it comes back down in rain. Maybe in a different area but nonetheless it comes back down. Sure we move it around via ditches, pipes, re-grading etc but we cannot conserve it. Actually by trying to conserve it we might just delay it for someone else somewhere else that would have benefited from that water that evaporated off of the lawns in say California that would have dropped as rain on Texas. No matter how smart we are we can never defeat mother nature. She is going to win every time.

 

[HDRider]

Every drop of water that has ever been on this earth is still on this earth. No more....no less. I get a kick out of the dirt people that are constantly screaming that we must conserve water. The earth is a sealed atmosphere. Water goes up in evaporation and it comes back down in rain. Maybe in a different area but nonetheless it comes back down. Sure we move it around via ditches, pipes, re-grading etc but we cannot conserve it. Actually by trying to conserve it we might just delay it for someone else somewhere else that would have benefited from that water that evaporated off of the lawns in say California that would have dropped as rain on Texas. No matter how smart we are we can never defeat mother nature. She is going to win every time.

And that simple fact seems to elude so many people.

 

[Brute 23]

This water topic just aggravates me to no end. A bunch of people try to go live where there isn't enough water and some how it becomes all OUR problem. :bang:

 

[TexasBred]

Pure propaganda. Nobody named with any credentials, no research cited, yet they throw out all these fantastic claims. Wonder how widely read this is?

Anybody's cows actually drink 23 gallons a day? Our water is metered and runs about 10 gallons per head per day.

Never checked beef cattle but dairy cattle will drink that much and more down here from June-September.

 

[bja105]

Every drop of water that has ever been on this earth is still on this earth. No more....no less.

This small part of your statement is entirely untrue. Its a pet peeve of mine. People say that bunk all the time,its stupid crap parroted back from some original ignorant guy who failed chemistry. Water is created and destroyed constantly. By plants and animals. By machines. On purpose and by accident. Water is hydrogen and oxygen, bonded. That bond can be created or destroyed. When you run a cold car engine, steam or liquid water are seen from the tailpipe. That water was not in the fuel, it was created in the engine by burning a hydrocarbon and oxygen, giving us water and carbon dioxide.

Trees take water and carbon dioxide and make wood and oxygen. Burn that wood and oxygen, you get carbon dioxide and steam.

Most of the hydrogen and oxygen we started with is still here, and will always be here, but not all. Hydrogen can be created and destroyed by fission and fusion, in the Sun and nuclear reactors, but I'm just getting picky, now.

The rest of your statement was dead on. I am glad we live in an area with much greater rainfall than 'out west.'

 

[cow pollinater]

Pure propaganda. Nobody named with any credentials, no research cited, yet they throw out all these fantastic claims. Wonder how widely read this is?

Anybody's cows actually drink 23 gallons a day? Our water is metered and runs about 10 gallons per head per day.

Never checked beef cattle but dairy cattle will drink that much and more down here from June-September.

Five weight calves in June here will drink on average six gallons starting on the third day post weaning and only two or three before that... I know because I hauled it to them and did the math. We calve in September/October so on a wet cow in early October if it's hot we probably use around 23 gallons per day but that's for a short period in the cycle... There is not a vegetable crop on the face of this planet that could produce the amount of human food on that 23 gallons of water a day that grows where my cows live. I farm here on the valley floor as well so trust me when I say that if I thought the ground where my cows live could be farmed, I'd do it. 23 gallons a day spread out over twelve acres(i run twelve acres per pair) is not even enough to germinate the seeds of most crops.

 

[bward]

Every drop of water that has ever been on this earth is still on this earth. No more....no less.

I agree that every drop of water a cow consumes is returned to the earth. What is NEVER returned to the atmospheric surface, is potable water being injected deep into the earth in order to release oil. Once its down there it never comes back out. Its gone...

 

[TexasBred]

Every drop of water that has ever been on this earth is still on this earth. No more....no less.

I agree that every drop of water a cow consumes is returned to the earth. What is NEVER returned to the atmospheric surface, is potable water being injected deep into the earth in order to release oil. Once its down there it never comes back out. Its gone...

You cut class a few times didn't you BWard. :mrgreen: