it's always amusing to me how each person thinks their environment is the harshest and that their cattle are the roughest. how can all of us have the roughest cattle and the harshest environment?
shooting cattle is a problem to our industry. those of you who deny that it is a problem or deny that shot can penetrate the hides are only showing your ignorance. this article from way back in 2002 proves that:
http://beefmagazine.com/mag/beef_gut_shot/
we are not just stewards of our land and cattle. we are also stewards of the consumer's trust in our product. some of our practices threaten that trust. declining demand is a real cost that will impact all of us. additionally, some of our practices take money out of the industry. money spent by processors on metal detectors and x-ray equipment is money that is not available to spend on cattle.
there are cowboys and then there are cattlemen. many cattlemen are becoming aware of the changes that we need to make to survive into the future. others still need some work. cowboys, as evidenced here, are the most resistant to those changes. cowboys are like cowdogs and cowhorses in that they are a necessity to our business. none of us with larger operations could make it without our cowboys. but some of the responses here demonstrate the reasons that they don't get to make the management decisions. it's time for us to separate ourselves from the poor management practices of the past.