Guidelines

So far, we've had four guidelines/requirements put forth by our members:

1) A happy cow herd
2) Pesticide free
3) No hormones
4) Know your farmer

These are not set in stone, nor are they all inclusive. However, we will proceed using these four unless we hear any good reasons to do otherwise.

Happy Cows

Post your ideas about what makes a happy cow; for our part, we have three main areas plus some miscellany that contribute to a healthy (happy) cow.

Living Area

It’s hard to tell the size of the pens from the posted pictures, but suffice it to say all of our animals have room to roam and even run short distances. (If you'd like exact dimensions, let us know). During the winter months, all of our animals are confined to their pens. This changes in the summer when the herd has access to pasture, usually three acres at a time.

Mud is always an issue, especially during winter and spring thaws. To combat this ongoing problem, we have raised areas within the pens that dry out quickly, concrete around stock tanks, feed bunks, and hay rows for cattle to stand on, and in the spring, we try to turn the cattle out to pasture as quickly as conditions will allow.

Food and Water

We try to raise the best quality alfalfa that we can since this is where our herd will get the majority of their protein, roughage, and nutrients. With good quality hay, the need for supplements is minimal if even necessary. We test our hay for nutrients at Midwest Laboratories to ensure nutritional quality. All animals have access to this hay free choice, every day, all year long.

We feed corn according to conditions and the purpose of each animal. Calves get the most corn per pound since they need energy to grow. Cows tend to get less, since they are only maintaining, though their requirements soar during the last months of pregnancy. All animals require more energy during the winter, so our fed corn volume increases substantially during the winter months.

Fresh well water is available in stock tanks for each pen all year long. During the winter, we use propane heaters to keep the tanks thawed.

General Treatment

All of the food, water, and space are available here on the farm, so we do not have to move our animals during the year. Moving animals is inherently stressful, though once they get used to any kind of routine, their stress levels decrease. The main times of stress during the year are birth and tagging, weaning, vaccination, and loading. We do not use cattle prods, and to the extent that we can, we move animals slowly and deliberately. If we plan far enough ahead, sometimes we can even trick the animals into moving themselves.

We do use electric fence. While this may seem cruel, one of the surest ways to stress an animal is to chase it around. One of the keys to avoiding this kind of chasing is to prevent animals from escaping in the first place. After one or two shocks, the animals know where their boundaries are and generally stay put. As many of you know, these shocks are not terribly painful; the surprise is mainly what keeps animals (including humans) in line. An electric fence also prevents cows from rubbing, reaching through, and generally beating up our fences, reducing fence maintenance and labor costs.

Herd temperament is also a major issue, not only for the health of our cows, but also for our own health and safety. You can read about the benefits of herd temperament here.

The article focuses more on profitability, but it highlights the need to treat your animals well.

Temple Grandin (thanks, Val) has pages of ideas on the proper treatment of animals. We already employ some of her ideas, but we have started referencing her work for better ideas and more improvements.

Miscellaneous

The most stressful part of a steer’s life will probably be the transport to the butcher and subsequent slaughter. We should be able to transport a single animal with relatively little stress, and I am currently looking into methods of slaughter. Please keep your ideas for slaughter coming.

Pesticide Free

Here again is an area where we’d like to hear some input from our members. The main pesticides we currently use are for fly control. Aside from the biting, annoying nature of flies, they can also spread pink eye.

During peak fly season, we spray malathion to help control flies and increase the comfort of our cattle. We use a hand held, 2.5 gallon sprayer to spray the premises as well as the cattle themselves. When we separate our steer, we can omit this process for him and his environment. Again, I would like to see some formal statements on why we should or should not use these practices.

Pollan describes how Polyface Farms uses chickens to control their fly population. Ironically, over the last two years, a gaggle of geese flies in during July and August around sundown to pick corn out of cow pies. They spend the night and then fly out early the next day. We have not noticed any direct influence on our fly population, probably because the geese fly in intermittently at best, but I can’t help but think it helps a little bit.

We could raise chickens to execute this job more consistently, but it will require more manual labor. Keep in mind there are only two employees directly carrying out the manual labor for our beef herd. We would be most interested to hear about alternative means of fly control.

While not a pesticide, we do include 1.4gr/lb of Chlortetracycline in our mineral supplement during the summer. On the most basic level, Chlortetracycline is an antibiotic that helps keep our animals healthy, especially during dusty conditions that can cause respiratory problems.

We do not usually use mineral supplements during the winter months since our hay provides all of the necessary nutrients. We will have non-medicated mineral on hand for our beef steer, however, if the need for supplements arises.

No Hormones

Traditionally, we implant our calves with Ralgro. You can find information on this hormone here. We will exclude implanting for our beef steer, but in the meantime, please post your reasons why we should or should not employ this practice.

For our part, the little quote at the beginning of Ralgro’s website sums up our reasons for using it: “Few…practices are more cost effective or have a higher return on investment than…growth promoting implants.”

Visit the Utah Beef Council's page here to read their presentation, "Myths and Facts About Beef."

Here is an excerpt of Myth #7:

"Growth-promoting hormones have been used in recent years to improve the animal's ability to more efficiently utilize the nutrients that it consumes in order to produce more muscle and less fat. The hormones are administered by placing an implant (about the size of a pencil eraser) under the skin in the middle of the animals ear. This location is used because the ears are not offered for human consumption.

Animals that are implanted with these hormones grow as much as 15 to 20 percent faster than untreated animal. In addition, the cattle produce more lean meat and less fat than cattle raised without hormones. But is the beef safe for human consumption? The scientific evidence worldwide overwhelmingly indicates there is no hazard to human health resulting from the consumption of beef from animals implanted with growth-promoting hormones."

This snippet just begins to scratch the surface of growth hormones. We do implant most of our animals, but Chuck will NOT be implanted. As he ages, we can measure his weight gain against his fellow implanted herd mates, though comparing and contrasting the quality of his beef will be up to the eaters to determine.

Know Your Farmer

http://www.beefsteer.blogspot.com/

Pictures of the Herd and their Environment

If you want a picture

that you don't see here,

let me know.

A view of the farmyard from the south, Dec '07.

A few members of the main herd (bull in back)...

...eating hay......along with the dog.

This year's group of calves...

...up close.

The herd on pasture, April '08.

Background

Val posted the following in our book club forum:

"...we'll need to know the details of how Maple Edge's steers are raised just as general practice."

Our main cow herd of roughly 25 resides here at Maple Edge Farm near Hastings, Iowa. Our herd is closed, meaning we raise our own replacement heifers instead of buying them. We mainly do this to avoid importing health problems, but it serves a dual purpose here of knowing exactly where our cows (food) comes from. The only animal that we buy is our bull, which we have recently been buying from Nichols Bulls. Excluding our bull purchases over the years, I can personally vouch that our herd has been closed for over 10 years. Our older employees could probably vouch for many more decades.

Since our herd is closed, we have genetics from several different breeds: Hereford, Charolais, and Angus, to name a few. Our last three bulls have been Angus.

June & July

We turn the bull out with the heifers around Father’s Day—not intentionally; it’s just easier to remember—then with the cows around July Fourth. This means our heifers begin calving in late March and early April, with the rest of the herd following shortly thereafter. Our birth weights vary from 65 lbs (~30 kg) to 100 lbs (~45 kg), the former being a runt and the latter being a bruiser.

Two days after a calf is born, we castrate the males and tag all calves. After that, they live with their mothers and the rest of the herd, nursing (which provides the best source of nutrients) and eventually grazing on pasture. We are mainly a corn and bean operation, so we do not have enough pasture acres to support our herd full time. Therefore, we plant, raise, cut, and bale our own hay to feed to our herd.

July & August

When the pastures start to give out, we set up a creep feeding system for the calves. This basically means they have access to a pen that the cows can’t get into. In this pen they have free-choice hay, corn, water, and access to a smaller pasture. The reason for this becomes clear in early September.

September

We wean the calves from their mothers in early September. This is a particularly stressful time for the calves, which is why we try to prepare them with the creep feeding. We separate the pairs with panel fencing, so they can see, hear, and smell each other, theoretically reducing stress. Both the calves and cows put up a racket for a few days, but after the fourth, the cows have gone back out to pasture, largely forgetting about their pesky kids. This is the moment in time when NPOV’s beef steer will probably diverge from his herd mates.

At weaning time, our calves typically weigh an average of 400 lbs (~181 kg). Their main purpose in life is now to gain about 2 lbs (.91 kg) every day. This requires an enormous amount of calories, which is where corn comes in. Of all feedstuffs, corn provides the most at about 900 calories for every pound. Calorie demand rises as the calves gain weight, so you start to get an idea of how much food they require. Pollan generally pans the use and excessive use of corn in feeding out cattle, so this might be a point of contention.

A few weeks after weaning, our veterinarian comes out for her annual visit to vaccinate, implant, and perform a general checkup.

January

Our calves now hopefully weigh an average of 600 lbs (~272 kg). At this time, we take them to the sale barn. Pollan helps us imagine what might happen to them after that.

A Multi-Part Purpose

Primary, Secondary, & Philosphical

The primary purpose behind NPOV's Beef Steer is to give members an opportunity to establish guidelines for how their food is raised. Quality meat is readily available to all of our members, but after reading "The Omnivores Dilemma," it is clear that how animals are raised, fed, and slaughtered might be cause for concern.

The employees here at Maple Edge Farm are heading up the Novel Point of View Beef Steer project to address these concerns and to provide details of the life of a beef steer from birth to slaughter.

The secondary purpose is education, both for consumers and farmers. We all know how much a pound of hamburger and a pound of New York strip costs at the grocery store, but how much would it cost directly from the farmer? If consumers buy directly from the farmer, what assurances do they have that they are getting what they paid for?

From a farmer’s perspective, how much are we really gaining by implanting calves with hormones? Is the idea of sustainable beef really that unattainable? What kind of liability are we assuming when we exclude the very processes that are meant to keep our food safe?

On a more philosophical level, this beef project is an effort to provide its members an opportunity to tend the resources that sustain them. We encourage everyone to pose, discuss, and answer questions about the food on our plate; we also encourage people to stop by to see their beef steer, to participate in its care, and to share in the ownership of the land.

In his essay The Unsettling of America, Wendell Berry writes about the idea that "as many as possible should share in the ownership of the land and thus be bound to it by economic interest, by the investment of love and work, by family loyalty, by memory and tradition. How much land this should be is a question, and the answer will vary with geogrphy." We hope to provide a portion of this land to our members.

Long Term

Pollan addresses many problems with our current food-supply system, but one that stands out in particular is the problem of sustainability. The idea of sustainability is nothing new, but it is definitely an obscured concept.

The main purpose of this project is to illustrate what exactly goes into providing food for people nation- and world-wide. We have so many people to feed that it is impossible to raise enough food locally to meet this demand, and that demand is rising so rapidly that all of the emphasis has been put on raising lots of cheap food. This begs the questions, "how long can we keep this up, and at what point will this system implode?"

Ultimately, any supply of food needs to be sustainable, so the longer term purpose of this project is to examine ways to meet this goal for just one beef steer. As this blog and our process progresses, we'll try to evaluate processes and practices for sustainability.

One final note: nothing about this process claims to be or is aimed toward organic. As we learned in Pollan's book, organic can be a misleading label. We are simply providing information about how your food is raised which, conveniently, is one of the guidelines set forth by our club members.

Maiden Voyage and the Weather

Hello and welcome to the maiden voyage of both NPOV's custom raised beef steer and our feeble attempt at some sort of web presence. We thought a blog might be a convenient place for our members to access information about our steer as well as what is happening here close to its home. Before we get too crazy with details, though, I'll keep this first posting short to see how things go.

Weather will be one of the major factors contributing to our steer's health; try this link to get current weather conditions. You can also investigate Weather Underground to get more information as well as peruse other personal weather stations in the area. We are station MC9229 on the right sidebar.

This is data from a weather station we have set up right across the road, so it's about as local as you can get. You can judge from the comfort of your heated and cooled home how comfortable our steer might be.

As a point of reference, the thermo-netural zone for healthy cattle is between 23 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 and 25 degrees Celsius). Any temperatures outside of that range require more inputs (food energy, supplements, water), and extreme variations can physically hurt our steer. This will probably become more of an issue as we approach slaughter weight during the heat of summer.

Let me know what you think of this format. It seems redundant in light of our NPOV method of posting comments for our books, but perhaps others will want to read about our journey.