Cows eating junk food

[RosieTR]

http://news.yahoo.com/sweet-times-cows-gummy-worms-replace-costly-corn-121437982.html

I have been buying grass-fed/finished beef more and more, and went in with another friend for a share of a local cow to fill the freezer for winter. Reading this I think, money well-spent! Those sorts of sugars are not good for humans to eat in any quantity, and scientific evidence abounds for health reasons. I shudder to think what it's doing to cattle, and then what it's doing to the people who eat the meat, esp on a heavy basis. Adkins/South Beach/low carb+high meat diets come especially to mind.

[BayouGirl]

This summer and the last summer have been very rough on farmers as far as grass and hay. There were widespread droughts all over the country. The cost of hay skyrocketed and was scarce in some places. We have many acres that we mow to make hay for our cattle and we had people coming from Missouri and Texas (we are in Louisiana) to buy our hay. We had just finished doing a big harvest of hay when hurricane Isaac hit and drenched our newly harvested hay bales. Luckily we were able to mostly salvage them.

Friends of our lost their hay and also had all of their growing grass and hay killed off because of the flooding and the water that stood on their land for over a week. Right now, we have taken in some friends cattle so that they can eat on our abundant fields of grass. Luckily we live in an area where our community pulls together and helps each other, rather than get together to complain and wait for the government to come and bail us out. There have been hay collecting efforts to send hay to those who have been adversely affected by the drought and the hurricane.

Many cattle also died in towns south of us and many more were stranded and would have died if not rescued by dedicated rescuers. I feel thankful to live in a place where people pull together. I admit I am not crazy about raising cows to be butchered later to feed our family but it is much healthier that store bought meat. I actually kinda keep my distance from the cattle because i don't wish to become emotionally involved with an animal that may someday end up on my plate. I am not much of a meat eater anyway.

[Jilly]

I either read about this, or maybe saw it in a documentary a couple of years ago, or maybe last year sometime, cannot remember exactly. I mentioned it to friends and they thought it was made up because it sounds so outrageous.

I hate to say it, but holy cow!

[sweetana3]

Feedlot meat/dairy animals have been fed an artificial diet for decades. Whatever is cheap and keeps them growing. The only way to know what you are eating is to grow it yourself or know the farmer and his methods.

[goldensmom]

With the drought, ‘cow food’ is down here too. Hay did not grow well so less hay, farmers are trying to get the most by doing a 4th cutting of short hay and corn is doing poorly. What hay that is for sale is going for $12/ small square bale. Overall, things are better here than elsewhere as I’ve seen semis from far parts of the country in the area buying hay. The wheat fields that usually lay fallow until the following season are being planted in sorghum to feed as fodder. Cattle are usually fed pumpkins left over from the Halloween harvest (or they are let loose in the pumpkin patch) but no junk food.

[Rosemary]

Very sad. They've given up all pretenses that cattle are living creatures that need sustenance.