To sum up what I've learned....there's a LOT of flippin' paperwork involved in farming! Did you know that if there is a cow infected with mad cow disease, they can trace it back to the processing plant, which can trace it back to the feed lot, which can trace it back to the rancher, which can trace it back to the exact stall that the cow was fed in. (But we're not sure of the amount of illegal aliens in our country...hmmm...)
My favorite part was actually learning about Estate Planning-it talked about land trusts, property titles, wills, powers of attorney, contracts, etc. I liked it the most, because I understood most of it. I enjoy learning about different laws and how they apply to different situations.
My second favorite part was about what else....beef.
(BTW, this is Tex...the steer we just butchered)
I picked out some of the statistics the other day to share with my aunt, so I thought I'd share them with you too:
-2% of ranches (35,000) have sales of over $1,000,000 per year, and produce 48% of the beef in the US
-92% of ranches have sales of less then $250,000 per year, and produce 23% of the beef in the US (that's where ours would fit in)
-There are about 200 feedlots in the US that hold over 16,000 head of cattle. Most of them are located in the Midwest in the states of Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and northern Texas.
-720,000 ranches have fewer than 100 cows (50% of the total US beef cows)
-45,000 ranches have between 100-200 cows (17% of the total US beef cows)
-23,000 ranches have over 200 cows (33% of the total US beef cows)
-1,775 feed yards marketed 85-90% of all fed cattle
-The largest 240 yards marketed 65% of the total
-The largest 25 feeding companies marketed 38% of the total
-Overall, the number of cattle has decreased. The current (2008) beef cow inventory in the US is 32,894,000.With the use of hormones, they have been able to produce more beef with less cows. In 1982 they would have had 115 million cows produce 23.5 billion pounds of beef. Now with 96 million cows, you can produce 26.5 billion pounds of beef.
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One way you can get around eating hormone-treated beef is to buy from a 4H kid at your county fair. You buy the beef, and have it butchered at the local butcher shop. It's much cheaper than buying beef from the grocery store. Either that or look up eatwild.com, where you can look up a local farmer to buy grass-fed beef. Either way, support your local rancher!
Tomorrow I'll go over my LEAST favorite part of my farm class...it has to do with economics...YUCK!
I didn't think about buying the beef from a 4-H kid. Do you have to buy the whole cow when you do that?
ReplyDeleteOur neighbors tried to get us to go in with them for a whole cow. I thought about it, but we seriously don't eat that much beef, so I passed.
That's unreal about how much hormones have affected the amount of beef that is able to be produced from a smaller population of cows. Super interesting!
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