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More
on beef cattle farming in the USA
By
Marjorie Henry, Contributor
THE
TOPIC under review was started in
the last lesson. Aspects of it already
done are:
*
Locating the Great Plains of the USA
*
Identifying the states where beef
is the main product
*
An awareness of the farm size
*
Specialised breeds of animals reared
for beef
I
do trust that you have been doing
some reading on the topic, as well
as using your atlas to identify the
areas, as I had suggested. We will
now move on to other aspects of this
farming system.
Information
on the activities on the typical cattle
ranch, is given to us in the text,
'The Caribbean Environment' written
by Mark Wilson. I quote for you the
relevant section: -
Calves
are born in the spring. They spend
the first six months of their lives
with their mothers on large areas
of pasture. After 8-10 months, the
calves are weaned. They are rounded
up, dehorned, castrated, vaccinated,
and branded. Some calves are sold
at this stage, but most ranches keep
them for another year. During the
winter, they are pastured for much
of the time in most areas; but they
are also given feed, such as silage
of alfalfa.
During
the summer, the young cattle are pastured
again; but before the cold weather
starts, the animals which are not
required for breeding are sold to
feedlots.
The
animals are reared specifically for
beef. As a result, it becomes necessary
for them to be of a particular size
before they are slaughtered. The cattle
ranchers aim at ensuring that the
animals gain a significant amount
of weight in the shortest time possible.
This is achieved by moving them to
feedlots. Most feedlots are located
in the Corn Belt States of Illinois,
Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio. The animals
remain in the feedlots for approximately
one year.
The
text already mentioned, informs us
about the feedlots: -
'...feedlots
are intensive operations where large
numbers of cattle are kept on a small
area of land. Cattle do not graze
on a feedlot; they are fed according
to a carefully planned programme which
is designed for maximum weight gain
in as short a time as possible. The
aim is for each animal:
*
To eat 2-3% of its body weight per
day.
*
Include 0.6 1.4 kg of protein
in its intake.
*
Achieve a weight gain of 1 1.4
kg per day.
A
large feedlot may contain as many
as 20,000 cattle in small pens. They
are given concentrates, grain, and
vitamin supplements, and hormones
to encourage weight gain. Some protein
feed is derived from animal carcasses,
including cattle. Urea is also fed
to cattle as a source of nitrogen.'
Just
in case you may be wondering why so
many animals are kept in a small area,
the response to this is that this
minimises the movements of the animals
so avoiding weight loss. In addition,
rather than allowing the animals to
graze, they are fed by automatic feeders.
When
the desired weight is realised, the
animals are later slaughtered, the
meat processed and packaged for the
consumer. The major meat packing centres
have been identified as St. Louis
and Kansas City in Missouri; Omaha
in Nebraska; Sioux City in Iowa; St.
Paul in Minnesota and Fort Worth in
Texas.
*
Marjorie Henry is Geography
teacher at Glenmuir High School in
Clarendon. Send your questions and
comments to the CXC Study Guide, the
Gleaner Company Ltd., 7 North Street,
Kingston; or email us at jcampbell@gleanerjm.com
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