Is It Ethical To Raise Animals For Food

Rachel worked as a subcontract director for three years in Pennsylvania and now has her own farmstead in Minnesota.

A Moral and Upstanding Dilemma?

Raising animals for the purpose of human consumption appears to be something of a moral and ethical dilemma, and here's why:

• Animals including cattle, sheep, chickens, hogs, geese, ducks, goats, and all others are living, thinking, feeling beings
• About people similar most animals - some animals nosotros fifty-fifty invite into our homes and keep as pets, a special designation non so very different from a family member
• People, in general, eat meat - meat comes from animals
• In order to obtain the meat that we eat, we must kill some of those living, thinking, feeling beings that nosotros similar

I call up that nearly sums it up. And then what is one to do with faced with such an effect; especially, what'due south a farmer to exercise?

Farmer Rachel

A Contradiction?

I have a confession to make: I'm an brute-loving farmer.

I butcher my own chickens for food; I've also been known to become out of my way to isolate a sick chicken in an attempt to restore her adept wellness, against my better judgment, and with full knowledge that I'g probably wasting my time.

I permit my dog to "go rid of" small, furry, garden-destroying animals such as rabbits and groundhogs; when my pet rabbit died, I cried off and on for a couple of days.

I sell lambs and sheep to other farmers and the livestock auction; I was devastated, in a composed mode, the first time I had to remove a dead lamb from an ewe that had a difficult centre-of-the-night commitment – I proceeded to "beat myself upwardly" about the fault until my next successful commitment of a live lamb.

I eat eggs, even if I suspect that the hen who laid them was bred past i of my roosters the twenty-four hour period before; watching and playing with infant chickens is one of my keenest joys.

I have my hogs butchered and I eat the meat, I sell piglets to other farmers and to sale, and I sell pork to others; I attempted to nurse a little newborn boar-sus scrofa from a baby canteen when his mother rejected him – he lived in my bathroom for a mean solar day and died well-nigh a day later.

Am I insane? Exercise I audio crazy or confused to y'all?

Despite what may appear to be a set of contradictory practices – eating meat, caring for animals – I can clinch yous that I am perfectly sane and of sound mind. Then how does someone eat meat if they intendance then much near animals?

Furthermore, how tin someone heighten food animals if they like them so much? It's one thing to buy packaged, reformed, mechanically separated meat products in the grocery shop, and an entirely different matter to first off the day feeding breakfast to a chicken and end the day making that chicken dinner… your dinner, that is.

Then what gives?

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Answers and Solutions

Nosotros like animals, only nosotros like eating them, besides, and you tin't eat an animal unless information technology's killed. So maybe we're wrong to eat meat at all -- ever. Maybe we should surrender the whole practice, pass up it every bit a cultural norm, and simply say "no" to the human diet as it's been throughout our history.

This would be Vegetarianism: Mayhap the almost popular answer to the event is to simply abstain from eating any meat or fauna products.

Assuming that vegetarianism was adopted past every single person on the planet, hither are some possible solutions for the obvious next problem... What to practice with all the livestock animals?

• Set all of the livestock animals free. Turn them into the woods, into the state and national parks, into the wild places, and let nature take its course with them.
• Make livestock animals into pets and zoo animals, and preserve them for posterity'south sake, and for the sake of the animals.
• Cease breeding livestock animals altogether. Let them basically go extinct, because we don't need them anymore and humans have made them unnatural through selective breeding, anyway.

Honestly, none of those answers make much sense to me. I certainly don't hateful to offend anyone who makes the choice to become a vegetarian, but I volition say this: If you want to exist a vegetarian simply because you think that all food animals are desperately abused, neglected, and tortured before being brutally murdered, delight read on.

The Livestock Farmer's Code of Ethics

This lawmaking is similar an unwritten agreement between livestock farmers (those who heighten animals for food) and the animals themselves.

While a food creature is in my possession, it is under my care. I will provide the animal with a healthy, safe, comfortable, peaceful life. In commutation, the animal volition be butchered for the production of meat for homo consumption, and the slaughtering will be done in a humane and respectful mode.

Whatever class of meat product that differs from or breaks this code is not upstanding or humane, and I would even go as far as to say that information technology is besides not farming. Meat producers who do not respect this ethical code should not be supported, and the all-time way to withhold support is to withhold buy of their products.

Let me give you some examples of what it might hateful when the livestock farmer's code of ethics is broken.

Example: Chickens living their unabridged lives in dark or dimly-lit buildings, without admission to fresh air and sunshine. Chickens are birds, and birds were non meant to live in the dark indoors. This life is not comfortable or good for you for the chickens, and the practise is therefore unethical.

Example: Calves (young cattle) chained to small huts, milk-fed, with express or no power to motion about, for the purpose of producing veal. Cattle, like all grass-eaters, need to be able to develop their muscles and graze. They likewise need to develop their digestive system, and they cannot practice that if they are fed only milk. This life is uncomfortable and unhealthy, as well as unnatural, and the practice is therefore unethical.

Instance: Geese are restrained and force-fed corn for the purpose of producing "foie gras," a dish made from the fat liver of a goose. Geese are naturally perfectly capable of regulating for themselves how much food they demand; in other words, they will not willingly overeat. This life is non comfortable, salubrious, safe, or peaceful, and the practice is therefore unethical. For this reason, thankfully, many people choose to avoid the "delicacy."

Unethical: A feedlot - a pretty nice one, too, believe it or not. Doesn't look much like a farm though, does it!

USDA

Unethical: An overcrowded chicken house, meant to raise a large number of chickens at ane time for a BigAg craven producer, one that I bet you're familiar with.

By Larry Rana (USDA) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Eatables

Purchasing humanely-raised meat from a small farmer is the all-time style to stand up against the large companies that produce meat using unethical and inhumane methods.

A Audio Solution

The truth is that not anybody who raises animals for nutrient neglects or abuses those animals. And equally we've seen, any farmer who doesn't follow the lawmaking of ideals shouldn't exist supported. The only manner to know whether the meat you are purchasing came from a situation in which the code of ethics was adherred to is to know the farmer.

I repeat, you've got to know the farmer that raised your meat in guild to know what kind of life the brute had. There'due south no fashion around this.

It's just as important to back up farmers who are doing it correct as it is to pass up to support whatsoever meat product that is unethical. Vegetarianism is only one-half of a solution, because unfortunately information technology won't hurt those BigAg companies to lose the support of a minor per centum of the population.

The best way to speak out against unethical meat production practices isn't to adopt vegetarianism; instead, the best manner to injure BigAg is to back up the modest farmer who follows the code of ethics.

Only refusing to purchase meat is kind of like not voting in the election at all; instead, cast your vote for the good guy, because that's the all-time style to hurt the bad guy.

Take this poll, please.

Questions & Answers

Question: My neighbour is raising three immature goats for their meat. Is this legal? Can I report this to the Humane Society?

Reply: It is legal to raise goats for their meat.

Elsie Hagley from New Zealand on Oct eleven, 2015:

Congratulations for HOTD. I have been a farmers wife for 55 years, lived on a farm all my life, most of it was milking cows but the last 14 years take been on a beefiness farmer.

I could say a lot nigh this subject, but everyone has to earn a living and that'south the way nosotros do it, by farming, we dear our animals and yep, sometimes it hurts to see your animals going to the sale yards, simply that's our life and the years go by and they are replaced by more off-spring every year.

Yep, I eat meat and savor a nicely cooked steak from our own animals.

Happy days on the farm.

Liz Elias from Oakley, CA on Oct 11, 2015:

Congrats on HOTD!!

Your article pinpoints exactly why I became a vegetarian back in the early 1980'due south! I realized that I did not accept it in me to impale any animal myself, and the philosophical / ethical dilemma that raised for me was that I decided it was a cop-out to have the process "sanitized" for me, as it were, by purchasing packaged meat from the store.

I take always loved animals, and have been a vegetarian at eye since age eight, when I fabricated the connexion between the ambrosial picayune lambs out in the fields nosotros'd see on trips, and the 'leg of lamb' female parent served for dinner. I refused to eat lamb over again after that.

Information technology progressed to other things as I got older, and past the fourth dimension I had kids of my own, I was doing active research into a healthier and (for me) more ethical lifestyle in which I did not have to feel like a hypocrite.

I learned that humans are not actually designed to process meat. (I accept a hub, myself, most that attribute).

Merely, as a child, I did not even know there was such a thing every bit a vegetarian; it was not a word I'd e'er heard. So I uncomfortably continued to consume what was served, not liking whatever of it.

Well-done article.

Chantelle Porter from Ann Arbor on October 11, 2015:

Congratulations on HOTD! You really made me stop and remember. "Not eating meat is like not voting". I never actually thought of it that style. I think you accept gotten a lot of people to stop and think with this ane. Not bad chore.

Kristen Howe from Northeast Ohio on October 11, 2015:

Rachel, congrats on HOTD! This was another fascinating and interesting hub on livestock concerns for brute food.

Venkatachari Chiliad from Hyderabad, India on October eleven, 2015:

Very important consequence that is being faced by most who have concern for such feelings. I, particularly, am a vegetarian and support vegetarian nutrient. But your reasoning seems logical to much extent. Thank you for your nice feelings.

Bob Bamberg on Oct 11, 2015:

Great hub, Rachel. I owned a feed and grain store in an urban/suburban area of MA so I was witness to ii mindsets...the pet mindset, which holds that animals should basically live under the same weather and have the same rights as people because they provide u.s. with companionship...and the livestock mindset, which holds that some animals are utilitarian in that they provide us with labor or food. And the livestock mindset recognizes that we owe animals humane treatment, but that an animal'due south needs are much more primitive than ours.

If pet owners read the regime'due south husbandry standards for subcontract animals, they would blench. I call back the main difference is that the pet mentality is grounded in emotion, where the livestock mentality is grounded in science.

If I'm non mistaken, nosotros used to converse a lot on Bubblews, where I was Petguy. I haven't been on that site for over a year. I don't fifty-fifty know if information technology's still running.

Mel Stewart from Western Australia on October 11, 2015:

First-class and informative article by someone with more than a rock in their heart, air betwixt their ears, and eyes that cannot see! Rachel Koski, yous have made my soul go "awwwww", my spirit become "Man! I wish the house would sell then we could buy that farm with the stables, koi pond, paddocks, orchards and Marron damns" and my listen become "bing bing bing" with some ideas for my own articles I had been planning which volition involve elements of farming vs farming; hunting vs hunting; violence vs violence; God [or the mind of the universe] vs gods; practiced vs evil; police vs justice vs crime vs reality; enlightenment vs awakeness; religion vs spirituality; aliens vs aliens, science vs science; the conspiracy theory conspiracy; the need for a major correctional shift in global paradigms! Thank yous, and permit me evidence you my dead pan surprise that you won "hub of the day" oh it won't let me, here'due south a flash instead ;)

Larry Rankin from Oklahoma on June 04, 2015:

Very adept assay of a relavent upshot.

Genevieve Nicole from Providence, RI on Baronial 29, 2014:

You've inspired me to try ownership chicken exclusively from the farmers market every weekend...as well I love the voting analogy! Very informative and well thought out.

RTalloni on April 02, 2014:

Salute! This has me looking forward to reading more of your work.

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on Feb 24, 2013:

Hi Bill! Thanks for your comment, and deplorable for my lond delay in getting back to y'all!

Sgbrown- give thanks you for commenting! I take to say I'm envious of you for all the venison you get to enjoy. A ameliorate culling to beefiness in so many ways, for so many reasons. Glad y'all enjoyed the hub:)

B - I'm honored that y'all included my hub in your serial on writing. When I was a teenager, before anyone let me in on the hugger-mugger that farming is an option every bit a career, I idea I wanted to be a writer. It means a lot to me to exist recognized as such here on Hubpages.

Brian Leekley from Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA on January 27, 2013:

Farmer Rachel, at the cease of my recent hub vii Creative Writing Rules _ Rule 7 I take a Links sheathing of writing examples by hubbers who I think are good writers, and I included this hub. It takes a farmer who's a writer or a author who's a farmer to turn town folks like me into armchair farmers, following with involvement and admiration your trials, joys, successes, and dillemmas of farming.

Sheila Brown from Southern Oklahoma on October 24, 2012:

You have done a wonderful job on this hub. You covered both views excellently! I hate the way that many animals are treated in feed lots and cages. It is terribly vicious and sickens me. I rarely buy beef, we eat mainly deer venison. Living out in the country, married man takes 2 or 3 deer a year and nosotros never accept more than than we will swallow. We do raise chickens, merely only for the eggs. I exercise buy chicken at the shop, I but tin't eat something that I have raised. You are a stronger person than I. I can't go hunting with my husband, I tin't lookout man him shoot the deer. Nosotros likewise eat a lot of fish and some wild turkey. I have to say again that you did a wonderful job on this hub! Voted up and awesome!!!

Bill Holland from Olympia, WA on October 24, 2012:

Rachel, I never saw this hub; if I had I would have certainly weighed in on this issue. As it is, being late, I encounter this has been covered quite nicely past these great comments.

This is a marvelous hub my friend! You lot handled information technology perfectly and covered both sides of the argument. Equally for me, I have few moral dilemmas regarding eating meat. Yes, I dear animals, and I would exist right at that place with you crying over the loss of an animal to predators or natural causes. Having said that, I have no problem raising them for meat.

I have washed the butchering and prepared the carcasses; some mode, some how, I separate the 2 sides of the argument and have no problem doing and then.

Great commodity!

Rachel Koski Nielsen (writer) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 22, 2012:

Nadene - Sounds similar the woman you lot purchase your meat from is a great source for purchasing healthy food :) I wish more than people had access to real food like that! Cipher wrong with you or your parents keeping the birds past "product age" - that sort of terminology really but applies to commercial agronomics. If they're laying, no blitz. When they kickoff looking elderly, they'll still make good stew if that's what you decided is best. I worked with some geriatric sheep for a piffling while, and also some very old and extremely obese hogs. Both were pretty sad experiences, so I wouldn't recommend keeping those types of animals into their old age. Birds, however, probably do ameliorate when they're old, and fifty-fifty if they don't, they tend to go ill and dice in such short club that you won't know much about it and they don't seem to suffer much, either.

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on Oct 22, 2012:

whowas - Wow, what do I say to a annotate similar that? I found your hubs a few weeks ago and was actually impressed. Thank you - your sentiments are vindicating, and some others hither have shared similar thoughts on this hub. I guess this is why I bother to write on Hubpages at all. Thanks again, and take care :)

whowas on Oct 22, 2012:

Farmer Rachel,

I'd dear to add something to this but I tin't equally I am only in total agreement with every single discussion - and that's pretty rare! Very refreshing for me to read the words of someone absolutely on the same wavelength.

You write with calm logic and exquisite clarity, while the foundation of your ideas in practical experience shines through and lends real authority to what you say.

I'one thousand then impressed that I but followed you and left fanmail. I don't frequently exercise that. :)

Nadene Seiters from Elverson, PA on Oct 18, 2012:

I'1000 a dice-hard creature lover and I consume meat. So it is a weird contradiction, simply I purchase my meat from a pocket-size farmer about five miles from my home. She raises her animals on only organic foods, for the cows that means grazing, no feed, and her chickens roam the entire farm. Sometimes I take to slam on my breaks while pulling around the corner of her barn considering in that location are chickens everywhere! She's a very nice woman who adores her animals, but ends up butchering them in the cease. Me, I know that I would probably keep my chickens way by product stage and allow them die old, but that'southward but how I am. I don't look downward upon people who enhance their own food with care and respect.

I have another curt story for you, my parents decided they were going to raise chickens and then butcher them, all past themselves! They now have three hens and a rooster, and they only eat the eggs. I don't see the chickens being butchered in the well-nigh future, since my mother named all of them when they were babies.

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 17, 2012:

midget - Thanks for your comment :) Information technology's only dicey when it comes to what to eat, only pretty straightforward regarding how to treat animals

bd - Cheers for commenting :) I'chiliad with you there! The squirrels are kind of sad to run into on the roadside, and the bunnies. The racoons, foxes and opossums don't carp me very much, though ;)

Bill De Giulio from Massachusetts on Oct 17, 2012:

Rachel. This is a wonderful hub. I struggle with this dilemma all the time. I eat meat, however I love animals and cringe when I come across a dead squirrel in the road. When I recollect well-nigh this too much, I drive myself crazy. I really promise that all the farmers out in that location are equally dedicated to doing the right thing as you. Great task. VU, sharing ,etc...

Michelle Liew from Singapore on October 17, 2012:

I recall the outcome can be a dicey one. No, y'all're non confused at all and I can sympathize why it must be tough to brand ethical decisions regarding livestock. Dearest the suggestions! Sharing!

WildRoseBeef from Alberta, Canada on October 13, 2012:

I believe yous are right....I may terminate up being one to follow y'all and your hubs anyway. ;)

Enjoy the talks too, I may take upwards the offering to continue the discussion via email. :)

-WRB

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on Oct 13, 2012:

Angela - Thank you so much for your comment :) It'due south great to hear from those who have had similar experiences, and who were "in the biz" so to speak. I sometimes even experience bad butchering cockerels and roosters if their feathers are particularly pretty, or they seemed to have a "personality" - how lightheaded is that? Take care!

Angela Blair from Central Texas on October xiii, 2012:

Excellent, excellent and so splendid again. This is a Hub that should be read past all and every 1 of us make our ain decision. There are those that don't care at all nigh humane animal treatment whether the animals are raised for nutrient or kept as pets. I had a huge dilemma during my ranching days as like y'all I nursed many a baby calf back to health only to see him eventually wind up in the freezer (I couldn't eat meat for a year in one case)! Superb article and writing. All-time/Sis

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on Oct xiii, 2012:

WRB - Sorry, your straight address gave me the impression that you felt it necessary to make sure that I empathise that feeding a cow something other than grass isn't evil. Yes, animals that don't perform need to be culled. Yes, in that location are lots of factors that influence an animate being's productivity and full general health. Yes, it's up to the farmer to know these things - the consumer, however, needn't be bothered with any of information technology except to know that an ethical person produced their food in a respectful manner - unless, of course, said consumer has an "armchair" involvement in the subject, so by all means they should brainwash themselves about livestock production and animal husbandry.

I'm enjoying our conversation, however I think at this betoken we've strayed far off the original topic of the hub, which was meant to exist a full general overview of upstanding vs. unethical meat production practices. I'd be happy to go on speaking with you, and yous can email me through the thingy in the "fan mail" department of my profile if you'd similar. :) Have intendance!

WildRoseBeef from Alberta, Canada on Oct 13, 2012:

PS: That issue about dairy cows lacking genetics to thrive on grass isn't merely limited to dairy cows, it's also a common affair with beef cows too, specially when a producer wants to produce a calf that will do well in the feedlot.

WildRoseBeef from Alberta, Canada on Oct 13, 2012:

I really didn't mean for it to exist directed at you lot and your practices; I'm sure that y'all are responsible enough to have care of your animals in the best way you see fit. :) It's just that there are people out at that place that lack such noesis that could put their animals at more impairment than those people intend, and that'south why it'southward worth bringing upwards such issues.

I have simply a couple scant minutes remaining to reply to this, and then I'll accept to go out the balance of the reply when I get back from work this night, simply I have to say that genetics of the creature itself, soil quality and plant type/cultivar/species and nutrient quality of such plants do play a office in the nutritional level of an animate being. I hate dolling out money to supplement a cow that's not doing well on pasture lone (still being provided with loose mineral + h2o); if she'south not pulling her weight and producing a good calf on simply grass, she's gone.

I'll talk more later. :)

-WRB

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 12, 2012:

WRB - How-do-you-do again! Don't become me wrong about US feedlots - they accept their share of the beefiness types, too, forth with the dairy culls. Of course, where else could we perhaps raise enough beef for every American to feel that their right to 3 meaty meals per day has been satisfied?

"Supplementation shouldn't really exist considered an evil exercise, Rachel. "

I call back you seriously misunderstand my position on supplemental feeding with grain. I am absolutely not apposed to it - never said I was - I practice information technology myself. The indicate that I made in the hub (and the point that I tried to make in my comment, but perhaps didn't) is that grain should not make upwardly the entirety, or fifty-fifty the bulk of an animal's diet if that beast is past nature a grass-eater. Like cattle :) So I promise you won't think that I have no noesis of trunk condition score, or that I inadvertently practice unethical farming myself by starving my animals through the winter because the grass has stopped growing. They're all certainly entitled to hay, grain, and believe information technology or not I even allow mineral blocks and salt blocks, besides ;)

I call up yous underestimate the value of skilful pasture, though you lot're right in saying that some grasses and legumes will fail ane brute, while they let another to thrive. Overcrowding a pasture is certainly not going to help in growing whatsoever animal on it. And I wasn't suggesting that an animate being be allowed to lose weight for the sake of withholding grain; only that graining when unnecessary is, well, unnecessary! Perhaps nosotros have very dissimilar growing seasons? Anyway, I was once told that a expert livestock farmer is really a grass farmer. BCS is to be monitored and the creature moved and the feed supplemented when needed.

I stand opposed but to overcrowded feedlots and mill farms, including many of the dairy variety, that make a grass-based diet impossible for the cattle unfortunate enough to be there; I don't oppose graining animals.

Your point near dairy cows that literally lack the genetics to be able to thrive on grass is an interesting one. Perhaps I should add to my hub that any selective breeding process which would return a grass-eating fauna unable to survive on grass alone every bit unethical in the farthermost. And to think, merely a couple hundred years ago our animals, likewise as our food crops, looked very different than they practise today. What an interesting earth we're creating for ourselves, and specially for our posterity, where our cattle volition starve to death without corn, soy, oats, wheat, and/or barley to sustain them!

WildRoseBeef from Alberta, Canada on October 12, 2012:

With the dairy beef calf lengthy paragraph, I think you tin take that equally me admitting that you may be right that not all bull calves are raised for veal. :)

-WRB

WildRoseBeef from Alberta, Canada on Oct 12, 2012:

Upward here many of the cattle that are raised on the feedlot are your typical beef steers: Angus, Hereford, Simmental, Charolais, Gelbvieh, Limousin, etc., etc. I know that many Holsteins (don't forget Jerseys and Chocolate-brown Swiss either) are also raised for beefiness, heck I totally understand that especially with where cull dairy cows have to go when they are no longer productive in the dairy herd. Same thing with choose beef cows, bulls, and heifers. Simply the thing I call up I didn't mention with the dairy bull calves was that since they have no value in the dairy herd they are sold for veal, or at least that's what most people recollect. But basically they are sold off the dairy herd, as well as freemartins and the occasional heifer, and at a very young age (definitely non at the age when beefiness feeders are sold, which is at around 6 months of age [actually, information technology's ranging from 3 mo. to ten mo.], but more around 2 days to a few weeks of age, depending on the size of the functioning and how many bull calves are born during a two or three-week period). Certainly you won't go a whole pod-full of balderdash calves off the dairy subcontract: like, from a 250 dairy cow herd, you lot won't go ~100 or 150 balderdash calves at one time like y'all would with a beefiness herd, because all dairy operations are year-round breeding operations, with the possibilities of getting peradventure four or five bull calves--without using sexed semen, mind--from the few cows (say, a dozen at a time) that are calving that week or whatever. The one dairy farm that I had gone to for a task interview (which fell through) had dissimilar pods (or groups) of bull calves that were on the canteen, and so being weaned, then near set to be sold. The ones that were ready to exist sold (they were Holstein, Fleckvieh, Holstein-Fleckvieh cross), looked to be only a few months one-time. The beefiness steers that we get to background are around 6 months one-time.

Now with the grass part of raising dairy steers. Yes you can raise them on grass only, but the concerns I have is that is the grass good plenty to fifty-fifty be able to fatten a dairy steer (and I'm not talking dual-purpose similar Scarlet Poll or Dexter either ;) )? Your grass must be of Excellent quality (and the soil at its top-notch nutritional levels too) in social club to be even remotely appropriate to stop a dairy animal on. If it's not going to be splendid quality, that'due south when supplementation with grain is necessary. You tin get grass that will fifty-fifty make a choose dairy cow lose weight too as condition on; trust me, I've seen it first hand and it ain't pretty. Aforementioned with dairy calves; if y'all don't have the quality, you're going to cease up with some very thin and even dead animals. Ironically, that same grass that will kill almost dairy cows will provide dandy diet for fattening some proficient beefiness steers on.

That's why I stress the fact that you lot tin't just throw some cows on a pasture full of grass and await them to practice well on it without whatsoever other sort of supplementation, if necessary. At that place are cows out at that place that will do worse on grass than if they are on grain (or, rather grass supplemented with grain) and that's because they don't have either the gut capacity, microflora species, and/or even hereditary "feed convertibility" to get fat on grass that's even of moderate quality. Majority of dairy cows in CAFO operations or whatever other conventional operation that is not a massive and then-called "factory farm" lack such genetics to be able to literally practise well on grass. Indeed there are dairy cows out there that are selected to be successfully raised on grass solitary, only that's because they have been selected to practise well on grass: cows that are not good producers on grass alone are culled. This works the same way in beef operations: if yous get a cow that looses condition and produces less milk (and raises an boilerplate to poor calf) on grass alone than the other cows that are producing soggier calves and are able to maintain weight on grass lone while existence able to lactate at the same time, that cow will be culled.

Thus while your idea for those choose dairy cows is a skilful one, in most cases it is non applied, peculiarly when yous come across culls that are terribly thin and have been raised on TMR rations of silage, hay and grain most of their lives. Unless you can proceed up with costs of fertilizing your pastures or supplementing them all the fourth dimension with loose mineral and grain and be able to rotational graze your pastures (leaving the fertilizing up to the cows, not the machines and your wallet), this thought will really non be feasible.

Supplementation shouldn't really be considered an evil practise, Rachel. Feeding animals on grain alone can. Supplementation is and should be considered necessary if you lot have animals that are losing status on grass alone or wait to start lose body condition. It's not an unhealthy practice because that y'all're not going to be preventing them from grazing or living as natural a life as you can requite them. It's especially of import up here in Canada if at that place's a moo-cow (allow's switch gears and become from dairy to beefiness) that has a BCS of 2 (on a scale of ane to 5, one beingness the well-nigh emaciated) going into winter (which is what is happening right now as I write this). Despite the fact that we're still able to graze cows on fall pasture up here, a cow that thin needs to be supplemented so that she gains weight when the snow decides to stay and temps drib below -20 C. She may need supplementation into winter besides, since I can't expect a moo-cow that thin to go to a BCS of iii or even 3.5 from now (middle of October) to the end of November. If I did , that means, for a cow to go from one score to the other, she would have to gain 100 lbs (at least) of body weight in i entire calendar month. A mature cow can't expect to accept an average daily gain of ~3.3 lbs or more than; maybe a growing show steer fed on grain alone (and the average there is an ADG of ii lbs, even for a Charolais), only not a mature beef cow on grass, and not even if she were put on grain alone. Grass plus grain supplementation means expecting that moo-cow to have an ADG of around 1 to i.five lbs, unless some sort of compensatory proceeds can exist achieved or taken reward of to become her to proceeds that 100 lbs or so within a month. But realistically, it can't be washed within that brusque of time menses. (And I haven't even covered the potential for changes in conditions to bear upon weight gain either...)

That'southward me rambling away lol. I tend to write lengthy responses, especially if in that location's lots that needs to be said. :)

-WRB

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 12, 2012:

Radcliff - I really expect forward to reading your comment when I meet that you've posted i of my hubs :) Thanks for your support. I think that what Joel Salatin said was very wise; I hadn't connected accountability with modest-scale farming, but of course it's there in front of my face up! And I agree with you, I think nosotros are gradually dorsum-tracking to better eating and better, healthier farming practices. I hope the wheel tin get turning fast enough, while nosotros all the same have good seed and good stock left in the globe! Accept intendance :)

Liz Davis from Hudson, FL on October 12, 2012:

Great job, Rachel.

I saw a video recently with Joel Salatin where he said the supermarket removed us from dealing with farmers, which in turn dissolved accountability. I would keep to say that it has acquired a lot of confusion every bit far as our relationship with animals is concerned. On the brilliant side, information technology seems we are slowly steering this ship in the right direction considering of "slow food" motility people like you. You give the rest of us a glimpse into the reality of raising animals for food, illustrating the contrast between a truthful subcontract and a factory farm. Keep it upward, Farmer Rachel!

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on Oct 12, 2012:

WRB - Thanks for your lengthy and thoughtful comment! I think it'southward actually important for a hub like this i to take the benefit of every bit much word every bit possible.

Y'all may be right almost the veal calves being fed a grain or calf starter pelletized-type feed along with the milk. The few operations that I've seen immediate that featured veal calves had them on milk just. I'thou nether the impression that the all-milk nutrition is what distinguishes the meat - it'south paler than "regular" beef and tender and delicate. But yous may be right about the add-on of grain to the nutrition. I guess my point is that the animal's living atmospheric condition and quality of life leave much to be desired, and is therefore an unethical practise. I focus on corn because it's specially pop, featured in most all livestock feed, and y'all can exist pretty certain that in the US it's GMO corn. Not cool by my standards :)

To annotate on your concern near what to practice with the bull calves... first, non all dairy balderdash calves are raised for veal. Nigh are Holsteins and Holstein crosses, and are sold and often end upwards in the feedlots (which yep, I consider feedlots to be an unethical manner of raising cattle). A expert bargain of the beef in the U.s. comes from Holstein steers raised in feed lots.

However, Holsteins and other dairy breeds, including the Guernsey, will grow rather large and can be finished on grass lonely. Does the mere fact that a "dairy" steer not getting to the same weight as a "beef" steer disqualify it from existence butchered? Before 1800 there wasn't much stardom at all betwixt "breeds" and "types" of livestock. IN the case of cattle especially, all the cattle were basically what nosotros would today consider "dual purpose breeds" - good for milk and meat and labor, also. Plain, there is null wrong with the meat of a "dairy" breed steer - the animal but doesn't weigh equally much at slaughter time as a well-fed "beef" steer. I would recommend pasturing all dairy culls and selling them before the grass is gone for the year - the less you invest in feeding the animal grain, the ameliorate your profits. Sell them direct to customers who don't desire 800 pounds of beef in their freezer at in one case; sell them in whatsoever way is all-time for you lot. Unfortunately, livestock auctions are somewhat of a necessary evil, but I estimate that's another topic for another 24-hour interval!

My point is that a grassfed steer of a "dairy" breed is no less valuable PER POUND than a grassfed steer of a "beef" breed, and so a Holstein balderdash calf needs neither to be euthanized or made a veal calf, in my apprehensive stance.

I had the pleasure of eating some ground beef from a Holstein steer that a friend kept from spring 'til Dec - it was succulent, and he had more than plenty to fill his freezer.

I remember that you lot and I tin can both concord that to euthanize is by no ways inhumane or unethical, particularly not by the definition of the farmer's code of ethics that I take given in this hub. Information technology'southward unfortunate that there might be people who are dislocated about that, even if it is a "baby fauna" that's in question. Euthanasia comes from the Greek for "good decease" - and it is. Merely euthanasia and slaughter are not the same matter, and shouldn't be confused.

I don't raise dairy cows then I'm not certain about the price of sexed semen. I've had relations with a handful of dairy farmers who apply it, and then it must as least exist cost effective, especially considering the other financial challenges that dairy farmers confront in this country. At that place would be no market for sexed semen if it was too expensive. I'd say 95% is pretty expert.

It's squeamish to talk with someone else who knows the difference between the animate being on the hoof and the animal on the plate! I've been there, not with a ill steer and a .22 merely with an old, ill ewe that I was very fond of. It's a hard affair, but everything dies eventually.

I'll check out your wikiQ&A - thanks for the link.

Accept care :)

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 12, 2012:

Michael - Cheers for your comment, and for all the votes :) It'south nice to hear from someone with experience raising food animals.

Dirt Farmer - Hi Jill :) Aye, morally awkward is a good style to put information technology, particularly when you consider the living weather of food animals in large scale product.

Jill Spencer from U.s. on Oct 12, 2012:

Being a meat-eating creature lover is emotionally and morally awkward, isn't it? I became a vegetarian while living on a farm for that very reason. I think I was more honest then. Later ... out of sight, out of mind, I drifted back into eating meat. It was easier, especially socially, at the time. Now, every bit the food buyer and cook for the family, I'd similar to go back to a vegan lifestyle, but ... too much opposition! Thanks for a thought-provoking hub, Rachel. Shared and voted up.

WildRoseBeef from Alberta, Canada on October 12, 2012:

Farmer Rachel - Not bad hub, thanks for posting.

I just want to note a couple things virtually your hub that I noticed may have been a little incorrect. From my understanding, veal calves are not fed just milk-replacer; though they are kept in stalls or calf huts with limited space to move around in, from what I've been reading they are besides fed grain forth with the milk. Heifer dairy calves that are replacements for the dairy herd are not only fed milk-replacer; they are fed grain and hay, hay existence fed ad libitum. Bull calves (which are obviously culls and the ones being raised for veal, since they add together no value to the dairy operation) would exist fattened up on grain (and not only corn either; tin exist barley too) every bit well.

So the question arises, as far equally ideals are concerned and I think what Carol was referring to, was the fact of if veal was banned from anybody ever eating it, what would happen to the balderdash calves that are born on dairy operations? Castrate them all and raise them every bit beef steers, or euthanize them as soon as they striking the basis? The onetime would be "unethical" because in order to raise a dairy steer to the aforementioned age (not really weight) as a beef steer that gets slaughtered, that steer would accept to be fed vast amounts of grain in order to fifty-fifty have some level of fatness that would consider it possible to be slaughtered equally a beef beast--this, of course, will never happen because dairy animals have been selected to produce milk, not meat. A dairy animal will never get equally bulky or fattened as an Angus or Charolais steer is capable of getting, no matter if those steers are finished in the feedlot or on grass. Besides, even if that dairy steer was finished on grass, it couldn't really be done, logically, without supplementing with grain (and I'm non referring to specifically corn as "grain" here either).

The second delimma is likewise considered unethical because many people are strongly against the "murder" of a babe animate being via humane euthanasia. Can't slaughter a newborn calf either because in that location'due south literally no muscle mass or much, anyway, to be considered worth eating.

Sexed semen may work equally far equally AIing is concerned, but my hunch is that that is more than expensive than "normal" semen used for AIing cows. Also, there'due south likely a 95% chance that the calf will be a heifer, not 100% chance.

Other than that, I accept to agree with everything else that yous have written in this hub. I too am an animal lover and like to consume meat, and I know what it'due south similar when you're trying your damnedest to save a sick fauna'due south life and even so I tin so easily plough effectually and have roast beefiness for supper. I've hated it when there's an animal that is ill and dying and no corporeality of handling will bring it back; I've seen people say that there's no such thing as humane slaughter or humane killing of an brute. I tell you, I don't recollect they've always had to go through having a steer of theirs dying of late-phase viral pneumonia and the only option was to put it out of its misery with a .22 burglarize. I take to challenge them that if they think euthanasia is roughshod and inhumane, would they let their precious Fido die a ho-hum and painful death of cancer? If they found a stray that was and so ill and injured that no amount of health intendance could ever cure it, would they just leave it alive (and dice a slow, painful decease) for their ain do good, or exercise the correct thing and put the poor animal downwards, giving information technology a quick and painless death?

I wrote an Answers.com respond to a question that I found to be highly controversial, and I believe the reply I wrote may be of interest to you. It's hither: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_cows_happy_to_be_kil... Information technology covers the concerns about upstanding handling of animals and their concept of Death, as well as how much different it is from ours. It also is a niggling on the topic that you wrote about.

And no, vegetarianism/veganism certainly isn't the reply to everything. :)

Once again, corking hub, voted up.

-WRB

Michael Tully on October 12, 2012:

For years, my wife and I raised our ain poultry, goats, and freezer beef on a very small scale (simply three acres) and considered ourselves spring by conscience to be very careful in our stewardship of the birds and animals in our care. The food we produced far exceeded the grocery-store products in taste and nutritional value, and I'm proud to say that nosotros produced it in the upstanding way you describe. Thanks for another thoughtful, clearly written and well-illustrated article which spoke straight to my heart. Voted up, useful, awesome, beautiful, interesting.

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 12, 2012:

ignugent - Cheers for the comment and votes and your kind words :)

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 12, 2012:

Hi Carol - What "moo-cow issue"? Lamentable I feel stupid asking, haha, I must accept missed something. :) Cheers for the comment!

Rachel Koski Nielsen (writer) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 12, 2012:

Salubrious meals - It'southward nice to hear from someone who can validate my claims with personal experience! I think that a good farmer probably loves animals more than the average person. How tin can you really love what you don't totally sympathize?

I'm very glad to hear that the cows where you alive are ranging about in the sunshine and eating grass instead of just corn :)

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 12, 2012:

Homesteadpatch - Thank you :) Glad y'all enjoyed the hub, and thanks for the votes.

Rachel Koski Nielsen (author) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on Oct 12, 2012:

DrMark, thanks for your comment and for sharing the hub :) I'd love the tackle the consequence of labels on meat that are not only confusing, but oftentimes outright false. I think we have many of the aforementioned views and opinions regarding farm animals and animals in general. Accept care :)

Rachel Koski Nielsen (writer) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on Oct 12, 2012:

Hi Isibi, thanks for your comment. I appreciate your intelligent question, and I've got a response for you. First, I would have to argue against inexpensive meat actually existence meat in the get-go place - if beef comes from a cow that didn't live the way a moo-cow should (i.eastward., eating grass, non cornmeal) then is information technology really a cow, and can information technology really produce beef? Is pork really pork if it'due south been cut with corn and soy fillers? So I guess I have to assert my belief that when y'all buy inexpensive, inexpensive meat to feed yourself or your family with, you're actually merely buying the Idea of Meat. The thought of meat volition certainly be cheaper than real meat, simply is it worth spending any money on at all? That's for every individual to decide.

I as well believe that if more people supported pocket-sized ethical farming operations, the products wouldn't be so expensive in the first place. But consider that if you buy a whole or one-half of a hog from a modest subcontract operation that the 1 I work in, you'll be paying nearly $3.00/pound. That includes the price of the sus scrofa itself, and the butcher. When you cut out the grocery store, the thousands of miles of hauling the meat, and the various other workers that would take to handle information technology otherwise, what y'all end up with is a relatively inexpensive quality product. That's why I recommend buying straight from a farmer whenever possible.

And I take to agree with DrMark's statement that we shouldn't expect meat on our plate 3 times a day. Chicken and fish should be most common, followed past pork and lastly beef. If yous consider the number of chickens you tin can raise on i acre of grass versus the number of hogs or the number of cattle, information technology becomes obvious which types of meat should toll more than and less, and which should be easier to obtain.

I promise that addressed your question. In the end, brute abuse of any kind for whatsoever reason really shouldn't be tolerated past civilized society, no matter what we go out of it.

Rachel Koski Nielsen (writer) from Pennsylvania to Minnesota on October 12, 2012:

Gordon, that'due south praise indeed! I'yard really truly flattered by your comment -- give thanks y'all. I look forrad to hearing from you again, take care :)

ignugent17 on October 12, 2012:

Your hub is very honest and truthful. All humans do that you are sane I recall. We all love to look at the chicks and and then nosotros consume fried chicken. Bully explanation.

Thank you for sharing.

Voted upwardly and more. :-)

carol stanley from Arizona on Oct 12, 2012:

I had a feeling that you would be writing after the "cow outcome" ...You are obviously a caring person with strong conscience. Taking care of these critters ...they deserve the best you can give. Cheers for sharing this and I will also share and vote UP.

healthy meals from Europe on October 12, 2012:

Astonishing hub, you lot managed to put in words exactly what I take been seeing in the past few years living in the countryside. At commencement I though farmers were "weird" bottle feeling a calf or crying considering ane of them died during delivery. Waking upwardly several times during the night to attend a sick cow (that was going to exist sold for food a few months afterward) seemed crazy to me. Slowly I started to sympathize that one Tin can be an beast lover and at the same time a meat eater. Now I understand what you call the farmers lawmaking: "While a food animal is in my possession, it is under my care. I will provide the animal with a healthy, safety, comfy, peaceful life. In exchange, the brute will exist butchered for the product of meat for human consumption, and the slaughtering will be done in a humane and respectful fashion."

I must add that I am proud to run into that the cows in our farm are raised freely feeding on the fields, having a peaceful and what I might even dare to say, a happy life.

homesteadpatch from Michigan on October 11, 2012:

Awesome discussion of a topic more than people need to be aware of. Voted fashion upwardly.

Dr Marker from The Atlantic Pelting Forest, Brazil on October 11, 2012:

Someone here on Hubpages commented that I mutilated my chickens when I recommended removing the tip of the beak, a process like to clipping your nails. The truthful mutilation occurs when chickens are debeaked and kept in cages to produce eggs, and every person out there who buys an Egg McMuffin or stops at Dennys for breakfast is perpetuating this exercise. "Free range" labelled birds are no meliorate, since the animals can be kept in the same conditions with a small door so that they tin access a tiny pen exterior their house. Gratuitous range means nothing more than than that. The only fashion to stop these sort of practices are the ones you recommend, which is ownership direct from a farmer who raises the meat in an ethical manner. That is non always possible , however, and the merely solution for people without access to farm raised meat is to stop eating meat. I but swallow beefiness every few months now, as information technology is nearly impossible to buy it from the source.

Equally far every bit the comment from Isibi, yeah, these factories practice produce meat cheaper. The question is whether it is worth it. Protein can be produced with a vegetarian diet; eating meat should exist a luxury and not something people expect on their plate every single day of their life. I know plenty of people who can alive without information technology. A financial crisis is no excuse to abuse.

Thanks for this commodity. It is a well presented argument and one more people should be enlightened of.Voted upward and shared on twitter.

Isibi on October xi, 2012:

An ideal solution to a moral dilemma. That existence said what this doesn't address is the financial side to this issue. I am non going to say coin should be a acme priority by whatsoever means, just in a time of financial crunch for many people, farmers included, finances need to exist entered into the equation. The sad reality is that these cramped quarters provide cheap meat for families that might non otherwise afford information technology.

It pains me as much as anyone else to put money ahead of animal health, but how would yous tackle this side of the consequence?

Gordon Hamilton from Wishaw, Lanarkshire, U.k. on October 11, 2012:

Rachel - I take to tell you something: I don't accept my lucky fishing lid off and salute many people but you take just earned that accolade! What a magnificent Hub, detailing the facts, as opposed to the "ifs, buts, and maybes" but addressing concerns nonetheless. I am sorry my comment cannot exist more in depth just the only reason for that is because I am and then astounded to find and so much sense spoken in ane pocket-sized Hub. This is probably the best Hub I take ever read in five years on Hub Pages. Thanks!! (I will probably return to comment again when I decide how I can promote your Hub and help brainwash at the aforementioned time! :) )

Source: https://owlcation.com/agriculture/Ethical-Concerns-Raising-Livestock-Animals-Food

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