Meat, Meat, Meat we must eat
Hello Everyone! a television show that we viewed yesterday made us start to think of our opinions of some matters. We think that as people who are involved with agriculture and feeding Americans and the world we are responsible to give the best care to animals and produce that will consumed everyday by you.
We respect and appreciate the lives of the animals and to show that we use every part of the animal possible to produce products that are consumed that people might not think of here are just a few:
Pharmaceuticals, baseballs, tennis balls, footwear, shaving cream, makeup, marshmallows, wallpaper, toothbrushes, combs, buttons, candles, carpet, crayons, dog food, fabric, gum, fertilizer, insulation, paint, shampoo, soap, medical equipment, tires, and yarn.
We use each part of the animal that we can to show the animal respect by not wasting anything.
We need to pay more attention and become conscious eaters for the fact that we need to be aware of the animals we eat, where it comes from, and how it is produced. If you eat meat you need to know how it is processed.
We also support the fact that we need to support the family farms and support growers close to home but we also need to realize that animals need to be raised in large numbers to meet the demand of consumption. Now we don't have the resources: range ground, and farming ground to support the amount of small family farms that it would take to produce free range animals and eggs as well as organic foods.
We need to realize that meat is an essential part to a healthy diet. It gives us many vitamins, protein, and niacin among other vitamins and minerals that are not found in as large of quantities in other foods.
We need to realize that the purpose of animals is not to sit in a pen out back and get pampered so the feel "Happy". They are given to us to use as a resource to use and benefit us. They know no difference. The life they lead is led by instincts bred so deep in their genetics they just do what they do. We have just educated ourselves in how to utilize their behaviors. If we weren't eating them the bears and wolves would. (Well they are anyway, but that's a subject that can wait till another day.) What We are trying to say is they will be utilized whether it's humans or not.
It is silly to think that animals feel emotions in the same manner that humans do. If they are well taken care of and fed properly is all they care about and animal producers, being experts in animal husbandry, that is what the majority of us realize. It's not like the laying hen feels depressed when it's a gloomy day and does not lay an egg. It's not her worry if the hen next to her is receiving more ration of food than she it does not make her sad. A milking cow does not get jealous if the cow before her produced more milk. A sheep does not feel betrayed if her wool was used to make carpet when another ewe's went to make a beautiful coat.
We need to support farmers and ranchers and the use of private and public lands that are used to produce the high quality products that we consume. We need to fight the Forest Service and BLM to keep grazing permits on their lands. If we cannot utilize our land then we cannot produce products. If we cannot produce products made in America by Americans then America will have to resort to food made and produced in other countries under their regulations which may not have as high of a standard as our own. It is a problem no one can not know about. The future of American Entrepreneurship and agriculture in America depends on people realizing the problems facing it and supporting American farmers and ranchers who live everyday taking pride in producing products for Americans to utilize.
We need to thank these amazing beautiful creatures for doing what they do, giving us a better life and creating a better environment for all.
Take a look and where our animals live during the different seasons!
This is where our sheep are at in the winter. We put them in areas of thick sagebrush growth to reduce the amount of brush and increase other plants such as grass. We also supplement them with feed and mineral to increase their uptake of the sage brush.
In the fall the sheep are in the local hay fields cleaning off the left over growth. This helps to make the plant put what nutrients it has or is gaining at the time into the roots for next years growth. It also helps to clean up ditch banks and fence lines in the fields. This also adds organic matter (fertilizer) to the fields.
This is a picture of the sheep grazing in Nephi canyon. This is where they spend the summertime. During this time of year they focus mainly on forbs (weeds). This has greatly increased the grass production in the area while keeping weeds in check.
I raise the bummer lambs.(In this top picture Matt is helping).Usually a bummer comes to me when the mother has triplets and cannot raise the third lamb, but a ewe can also not claim her lamb and not take care of it, so I get to! Another reason could be that the mother for some reason has died but that doesn't happen very often. We try to graft the lambs on to another ewe if it is possible so we don't have to raise them as bummers. When the bummers come to me I usually start out bottle feeding them so they can get used to the rubber nipples and keep track of them better and make sure they are doing good. Usually after a couple of days the lamb will watch the others and figure the bucket out itself because it wants to do what the other lambs are doing. After that my job is pretty easy I just mix the milk and put it into the buckets so the lambs have food whenever they want it. Raising them that way helps them grow better so they don't get a pot belly like if you feed them with a bottle.
