From: Oz <Oz@upthorpe.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Cattle feed now contains things like manure and dead cats
Date: Sep 04 1997
Newsgroups: alt.agriculture,alt.agriculture.beef,alt.agriculture.misc,
	sci.agriculture,alt.hamburger,alt.politics.usa.congress

In article <340dc763.1354638@news.mindspring.com>, doctor@feelgood.com
writes
>Recycling, Yes........ But, there's a big difference between vegetable
>peelings, corn husks, etc....vs


>Chicken Manure and dead animals/road
>kill fed to cattle just to cut costs and fatten bank accounts!!!!!
>
>Cement Dust???  Get Realistic!!!!!

Well, without the knowledge of the analysis of the 'cement dust' I
cannot really comment. However allowing for the poetic ignorance of many
outside agriculture this is most likely ground limestone. This is indeed
added to cattle feed and it's very important as a source of calcium to
build strong and healthy bones. For lactating ruminants which are
usually deficient in calcium (since they do not knaw bones very much) it
is critical to prevent (literally lethal) hypocalcaemia.

So Dr Feelgood merely exposes his ignorance of animal nutrition, one
should be thankful he is not looking after animals, they might be very
poorly fed and suffer unnecessary metabolic diseases.

I would like to point out, without making any value judgement, that
these feeds are not new, and have been used for some time. It is a fact
that some animals find the excreta of other animals very tasty, as
anyone who has taken very young children and dogs on a long walk in the
countryside will testify to their horror (if they are observant).

I can remember reports on feeding (usually sterilised and/or composted)
poultry manure to cattle from the 1970's and I believe it is not just a
good source of non-protein nitrogen (converted to protein by rumen
microflora) but also in fact contains significant quantities of
proteins.

I can assure you that my neighbour's most excellent organic free-range
hens do particularly well, and produce the tastiest eggs, when his hens
have access to cattle slurry heaving with maggots liberally coated with,
er, um, you know. Yes, the hens have always passed their salmonella
tests.

It is generally not fully appreciated by city born humans that
agriculture is inevitably a part of nature, and nature recycles
nutrients in ways that it finds effective (and efficient), but which is
not always in tune with the very recent and un-natural fastidiousness of
h. sapiens var. urbiensis.

Incidentally, anyone who has watched a herd of cows for extended periods
(slightly better than watching paint dry) will know that cows often
drink each other's urine if the flow is conveniently near. This is not
as daft as it sounds, they get valuable minerals and urea which their
rumen can convert into protein.

Perhaps I had better not give any more examples?


--
'Oz     "Is it better to seem ignorant and learn,
         - or seem wise and stay ignorant?"