Hello Greg What's the difference between, say, eating a boiled potato in its jacket along with a bunch of freshly picked salads, and scarfing a supersize of the chips Ed was talking about? 'Had the same comment from someone who went asking at a potato chip factory "oh, we don't change it [the oil]....we just add some more when it gets low!"'
Free-range pastured cattle will eat seeds, and not only grain seeds, but that's not all they'll eat. At other times you'll see them fighting to get at all that twiggy stuff on the other side of the hedge. Actually they know exactly what they're eating. A cow can tell a 0.1% Brix difference (sugar content) between two loads of hay - Brix levels are a quality indicator, not just a sugar content measure. "Cows are competent chemists" said William Albrecht of Missouri. More competent than the chemists who formulate the feed for confinement operations it would seem. Anyway, let them eat what they want and arrange that for them, and, sure, they'll eat seeds. Feeding them no choice but grain concentrates is another matter entirely. It does do bad things to the consumable item, which happens to be the cow - that's not how a cow's digestion is made to work. Interesting that it's the grain-fed confinement cattle that cause the E. coli H157:O7 infections, for instance. Etc etc etc. Jo Robinson's "EatWild" site has good information on grass-fed beef: http://eatwild.com/index.html Best Keith >You know, this is an issue, that I have a problem dealing with. > >Some people say that cattle ( meat & dairy ) were not meant to be >fed grain because it does bad things to the consumable item, but, >they were meant to eat grasses and similar plants. > >Could someone please tell me the difference between grain and the >ripe seed heads of grasses, that cattle will eat, and have eaten for >thousands of years?!? > >Granted, the ripe seed is available in the summer and fall, but, >historically that is just before the meat was harvested. Yet I have >people telling me that it's unhealthy and unnatural to feed the >cattle the seed of plants, before slaughter. > >The way I see it, the cattle eating the seeds of plants, is >something that is natural, no one can say other wise, I have watched >free range cattle, ignore everything around them except the seed >pods of various plants, and they were eating every last one they >could reach, even ignoring thorns and the stiff sharp yucca leaves, >to get to them. > >I will admit, they will eat other things if the seed pods is not >available, but, there is a distinct tendency to go for the seed if >they have a chance. > >Greg H. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: robert luis rabello > To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 20:35 > Subject: Re: [biofuel] The Oil we eat (Harper's) > > > > > > I've spoken to several local farmers who insist that cows produce > low volumes of poor quality milk if they aren't fed grain, and I've > wondered what milk was like in the days before grain feeding became > common. Also, if grain grasses are not climax vegetation, how can our > animals be adapted to consume them? If we HAVE to feed grain to our > cattle, swine and poultry in order for their products to be fit for > human consumption, and if the grains we're feeding them destroy our > soil, what other options do we have? > > Or, perhaps, are the conclusions about soil depletion and cereal > grains argued by Richard Manning are inaccurate? > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
