[lbo-talk] from a Missouri farmer

Colin Brace cb at lim.nl
Tue Jul 18 06:09:48 PDT 2006


[bon appetit...]

[...]

Our neighbor is the son of the man who runs a very large cattle auction house here in midwest Missouri. Being right on Hwy 70 in the center of the state makes the auction lucrative because of its strategic location. Our neighbor purchases cattle that come through the ring in poor shape, or cattle needing a few more pounds of weight. The farmers selling those cattle take a loss. Our neighbor buys them cheaper, and speculates that he can put enough weight on the cattle to turn them over in a few months and make a profit. I guess you could call it cattle speculation.

The fermenting big bales create a gigantic horrible stench as they ferment. I guess the field where they perform this operation holds about 500 to 800 big bales. Each big bale weighs between 900 to 1200 pounds or more. Imagine wrapping all of that in plastic. To say that this method of farming is unsustainable is an understatement. Now they have added insult to injury be utilizing another method of adding cheap fast pounds to their cattle.

We began to notice a new stench as we drove by the operation. This new odor put the smell of fermenting rotting hay to shame.

We found out shortly after that they are now purchasing chicken litter from poultry operations and they are feeding the chicken manure in wood shavings to the cattle. Yep, that's right. They are feeding chicken shit to the cattle. Makes you want to run right out and get a Big Mac. Now they are building a pit silo. A pit silo is kind of like a berm house, or what they call an earth contact house. Only instead of filling the house with people, they will fill it with wood shavings and chicken shit, or alfalfa hay.
>From our point of view this seems so unsustainable. Also, in light of our
recent cutbacks and efforts at conservation, it makes it seem like we are not making much of a difference. I am just guessing, but I would say that for every farmer cutting down like we are, there are 50 who are doing bagged silage and feeding chicken shit to cattle.

Every instinct in my body tells me that feeding manure of any type, to any animal, is wrong. Earthworm farming may be the exception. Jim, when we pasture our cattle there are always clumps of grass that remain untouched. These clumps are where cattle have defecated. Cattle instinctively know not to eat that grass. A cow will have to be starving to death before they will eat grass tainted with dung. By what lunacy do humans think they can undo nature without drastic consequences. I don't know, maybe it is just me. But feeding chicken manure to cattle just sends chills down my spine. It feels like an act of desparate insanity.

[...]

full: http://www.kunstler.com/Grunt_farmer%20letter.html

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Colin Brace

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