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| This is the only picture I got of us working cattle. Still getting used to taking action pictures. I was pushing them through the chute and Henry and Matt were doing the vaccinations. |
I've researched and am using the Baldwin County Extension Report. You can find it at blog.al.com. On this (and several other websites back this up) it says that, when used correctly, "few cattle management practices are more cost effective or have a higher return on investment" than properly used growth implants. The amount of estrogen in beef produced with growth implants is 1.9 nano grams. Beef produced without is 1.3 nano grams. A nano gram is one billionth of a gram. So let us compare this amount of estrogen to other common foods and people. A female child before puberty produces 54,000 nano grams of estrogen per day, a male child before puberty produces 41,000 nano grams per day, an adult woman produces 513,000 nano grams per day, an adult male 146,000 nano grams per day. So what produces the most estrogen among people? Pregnant women! Melissa, one of Matt's sisters can relate to this since she is due in October, produce are you ready for this, 19,600,000 nano grams per day! Watch out Jason! That's not the first or last time Moe will be compared to cattle. We also got to see our niece on Matt's side, Sawyer, when they came up to tell us the news. So now we both have a sister pregnant and due in October! Hopefully harvest is done early this year, otherwise, they will both have to hold those children in until we're done! Okay Kristen and Moe?
So let's compare the 1.9 or 1.3 in beef to some of the other foods we eat since we've compared it to the amount of estrogen in our own bodies. 8 ounces of milk contain 35.5 nano grams, three ounces of peas have 336 nano grams, 1750 nano grams in two ounces of hen's eggs and the list goes on and on and on. The .6 increase in estrogen from the non-implanted beef to implanted beef is so negligable compared to the amount of estrogen in other foods and in our own bodies. Due to how the food is broken down in our stomach and intestines to base amino acids, it removes any effect those .6 nano grams of added hormones would have.
In conclusion of explaining growth hormones, each producers decides whether or not they want to use growth implants. These implants increase efficiency in the cattle so we can produce more beef on less ground for a growing middle-class population. The importance of the growing middle class is that the more your income increases the more protein (meat) you buy. With an enormous growing middle class in China and other places, these people will want to buy meat that they've never previously been able to buy. In order to make that happen, producers are trying to make raising beef as efficient as possible. Just because it's more efficient doesn't mean that your beef is any less healthful or safe.
About the shots now. We gave the calves two shots. The first is a blackleg shot. It's one of the most inexpensive medicines out there. It's silly not to give blackleg. I've never seen a calf with blackleg. It's a disease in cattle, but is rarely seen because everybody vaccinates for it because the vaccination is so inexpensive and very effective.
The second shot is very equivalent to the flu shots that we use to help protect our families. It helps prevent several different diseases in cattle including respiratory issues. They get two different shots of this. One is called a booster shot. You want to protect your family from anything you can protect them against and give vaccinations to your children, this is the same type of thing. We care about these animals and don't want them getting sick, so we vaccinate. When I asked my dear husband how I should explain this, he told me to explain it like giving your children their kindergarten shots. There are a bunch of cattle (your kids) turned together with a bunch of different things happening in their systems so because we want the best for our cattle (and our kids), we prevent the sickness we can. That's why we vaccinate our cattle. It doesn't have any lasting effects on the cattle, no contamination in the meat and helps keep the United States cattle herds safer because there isn't unnecessary diseases.
I hope I've explained these practices so that you can understand. A lot of people have questions about implants and giving vaccines. Hopefully, this blog has answered some of your questions. If you have more please, please, please let me know. I'd be happy to answer them or guide you to someone who can answer them.
Mom and Dad have just gotten a good start on calving their cows. They started around the middle of March. I helped walk one bunch of those cattle home to their calving pasture. My oldest sister, Kristen, also came back to help which mean that Autumn was there too! These are just some fun pictures I took while we were waiting on the cattle to get ready. Little Miss Autumn is definitely NOT afraid of cattle. She was having a talk with them about what needed to be done when I took this first picture and she has grass in her right hand to emphasize her point.
In conclusion of explaining growth hormones, each producers decides whether or not they want to use growth implants. These implants increase efficiency in the cattle so we can produce more beef on less ground for a growing middle-class population. The importance of the growing middle class is that the more your income increases the more protein (meat) you buy. With an enormous growing middle class in China and other places, these people will want to buy meat that they've never previously been able to buy. In order to make that happen, producers are trying to make raising beef as efficient as possible. Just because it's more efficient doesn't mean that your beef is any less healthful or safe.
About the shots now. We gave the calves two shots. The first is a blackleg shot. It's one of the most inexpensive medicines out there. It's silly not to give blackleg. I've never seen a calf with blackleg. It's a disease in cattle, but is rarely seen because everybody vaccinates for it because the vaccination is so inexpensive and very effective.
The second shot is very equivalent to the flu shots that we use to help protect our families. It helps prevent several different diseases in cattle including respiratory issues. They get two different shots of this. One is called a booster shot. You want to protect your family from anything you can protect them against and give vaccinations to your children, this is the same type of thing. We care about these animals and don't want them getting sick, so we vaccinate. When I asked my dear husband how I should explain this, he told me to explain it like giving your children their kindergarten shots. There are a bunch of cattle (your kids) turned together with a bunch of different things happening in their systems so because we want the best for our cattle (and our kids), we prevent the sickness we can. That's why we vaccinate our cattle. It doesn't have any lasting effects on the cattle, no contamination in the meat and helps keep the United States cattle herds safer because there isn't unnecessary diseases.
I hope I've explained these practices so that you can understand. A lot of people have questions about implants and giving vaccines. Hopefully, this blog has answered some of your questions. If you have more please, please, please let me know. I'd be happy to answer them or guide you to someone who can answer them.
Mom and Dad have just gotten a good start on calving their cows. They started around the middle of March. I helped walk one bunch of those cattle home to their calving pasture. My oldest sister, Kristen, also came back to help which mean that Autumn was there too! These are just some fun pictures I took while we were waiting on the cattle to get ready. Little Miss Autumn is definitely NOT afraid of cattle. She was having a talk with them about what needed to be done when I took this first picture and she has grass in her right hand to emphasize her point.
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| Has to have her pink on. |
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| Then she wanted to smile with her cows after their pep talk. I think she's going to be a farmer model someday. |
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| Safety issues out the wazoo here, I know. A side note on safety issues. ALWAYS be careful when you're on an ATV or anything. Know who and want is around you and be mindful of how fast you are going for the terrain you're on. This is the girl that made me an aunt for the first time. She will always hold a special place in my heart, especially since I'm her favorite aunt! She has it figured out that her favorite aunt is the one she's with right then so she can have us all wrapped out her little finger. |
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| We moved some grain bunks around so the calves could get to grain. This is how Autumn helped me pull the grain bunk. She may only be 25-30 pounds or whatever she is, but goodness she gets heavy after dragging a bunk for a long ways. But did I ask her to get out? No, of course not. She was having too much fun. I needed the workout anyway I guess. |
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| I know it's far away, but that's when I thought about taking the picture. This a picture of the cattle coming out of the gate to start the walk home to Mom and Dad's house. |
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| I ended up behind them and walked around 3 out of the 4 1/2 miles with them. Good week for my exercising. |
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| We, as in my husband and his family, got some new cattle this week. They are due to start calving the middle of April so just about the time we get wrapped up with calving, we're going to start all over. They are Herefords so Margaret and I are hoping they are really calm like Herefords tend to be. |
My recipe for the week is Cherry Surprise. Mom made it while us girls were growing up. It's super easy to make and really great. (Catching a trend in my recipes...super easy to make and really good. I'm not a great cook and don't have a lot of time so I like easy and good). I didn't actually make this one, my oldest sister Kristen did. I was told I couldn't claim credit for making it.
Cherry Surprise
1 can cherry pie filling (the big size-32 oz? maybe)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 package yellow cake mix
Cinnamon
Pour cherry pie filling into 8x8 pan or 9x9 pan. Pour yellow cake mix over the top. Melt butter and pour over the top of it and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until top is browned a little.
Super easy and super delicious. Put some ice cream on top and you've got a little slice of heaven. Hope you all have a great week and get a lot accomplished! Thanks for reading!
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