As Corn prices soar Farmers turn to feeding Cows with Gummie worms and Cookies

reply to post by collietta


Sadly the corn is also mostly GMO and no even for human consumption, so eating the meat from this animals is actually unhealthy for us.

Then people wonder what is going on with the American health decline in the last 30 yeas when we went from a nation of health freaks to a nation high on cancer, diabetes and heart diseases.

People have not clue that all that health food that they bought in the stores in the 80s that was manufactured was also made with GMOs ingredients.

Sad, but now we are a nation in health decline on pharmaceutical drugs to get by.

reply to post by davespanners


Hi Dave,
Great post!

While mainsteam news shys away from the GMO aspect of this,
it is indeed a big part of the problem, along with the water issue.

Dr. Bruce Potter, University of Minnesota professor and farmer Charlie Sandager concluded
that the primary corn pest rootworm has developed resistance to the proteins in the GMO
(genetically modified organisms) Bt Corn that was designed to kill the pests.

The EPA even warned us this was likely to happen.
www.rawstory.com...

Corn, one of the longest, and highly genetically modified grains,
looks sad to say all of our concerns were well founded.

Just a small bit. I believe the EPA is still requiring over 40% of this year's corn crop (such as it is) be turned into ethanol. At least, in August they were keeping to that plan.

Also the sweet corn is gonna be used for the ethanol since whatever happened to the corn that was ment for fuel in the first place. This might make sweet corn and fuel prices increases not to mention milk due to the feed problems.

whynot feed em some corn flakes, the generic brand lol

a few days expired even ^_^

In England they place the cattle's fence up against the berm of the highway. Since they are a small island they waste no land. Some peoples houses have the front door open up to a busy road two feet away. In America we have a lot of highway open grass places. Cows could eat the grasses from the berms and the highway median strip.Those special machines they have could round bale these areas. We also have grass in our yards. The cows could be technically turned loose in suburban areas. We are along way from there being no food.

If all the grain that was used to feed cows was used to feed humans instead, world hunger would disappear over night. Even with a smaller crop such as this year's.

I raise cattle for a living but Ive not had to feed my cattle sweets..

But i understand why the farmer are doing this the drought has killed off the pastures and the hay can not grow without any rain and the same for corn..

My hay crop was horrible this year and i didn't get enough to feed my cattle so I'm having to buy it and the cost is over the top with very little hay to go around i will spend close to 5 grand to keep my cattle feed..

I stoped feeding corn to my cattle 4 years back when the corn prices went nuts but corn is not the natural diet of cows i used it to fatten my cattle up is all..

farmers have been supplementing their cattle feed with seconds from food factories for along time around here seconds like apples,bread,and pasta the out dated stuff..

Cattle can eat all kinds of stuff the starchy nutrients provided by candy, for example, offer a viable substitute to corn...

Some Cattle are just dropping dead in the pastures from eating drought stressed grass....if there is anything to even graze in the first place.

I have not had to resort to feeding my cattle this junk food diet but i would if my cattle were dropping dead from lack of food so i understand why the farmers are doing this its a sad situation..peace,sugarcookie1

I whince at thinking of cows eating junk food like that!
Here in France we aren't having as much a problem with drought, but this years hay production was measely enough to be problematic. A lot of farmers started giving away cattle. I have some friends who weren't able to stock up enough for this winter, and I am not sure what they will do.

But there are other possibilities- grain pellets? These are easy to transport and stock, you can buy it from other countries.... though it might cost more, surely.
But like the turnips mentioned earlier....or if it is for fattening, why not beets??? Mollases??

I am naive about mass production farms though. We don't have those here in France. Everyone keeps their head down to the number their land can support- you don't get more livestock then you can give grazing area for. If the grass ever turns to dust, you've got too many!

Originally posted by davespanners
I'm not going to pretend I'm a Bovine nutrition expert but if I were going to put together a list of things that might be good for a Cow to eat then Marshmallows wouldn't be on it

I don't think these people care whether their cows are getting the nutrition they need. It's not exactly moral but they raise these cows for milk and meat; the cow's life and health is a non-issue.

Originally posted by randomname
how about the farmers try someone radically new, never done in the history of cattle rearing: natural healthy grass.

edit on 23-9-2012 by randomname because: (no reason given)

Maybe the drought has buggered the nice fields of grass, too.



Sounds simple enough to me.

Originally posted by jeramie
If all the grain that was used to feed cows was used to feed humans instead, world hunger would disappear over night. Even with a smaller crop such as this year's.

I think meat would sustain us better.


Just a thought.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by davespanners

 

I'd have to look it all up again, but I read a study last year suggesting that all corn animal diets were causing problems with people who ate the meat due to the sugar build up in the meat - or something akin to that.

On a side note.... gummy beef doesn't sound half bad... Mmmmmmm gummy beef.

~Heff

...or because all of the corn that they're eating is genetically modified.

Why do you think alfalfa is a GMO now?

Originally posted by collietta
I've done a lot of research on the food supply, even took a university class on the topic and this is awful.

Cows are designed to eat grass - grass takes less water than corn. Unfortunately, corn has priority in this country, and even when it dies, it still took what water that was left.
Cows don't normally eat corn, but because of their terrible living conditions and lack of options they will eat what is given to them.
A healthy cow's stomach of four chambers is neutral.The corn turn's their stomachs acidic, like ours. This can cause cow-to human or human-to cow diseases transmission. Because of how sick the animals are in the feed lot, veterinarians have to load them up with antibiotics and pull out chunks of gunk in their stomachs.

This is a Food Inc clip of a veterinarian cleaning out the first chamber of the cow's stomach. It explains how e-coli can be transmitted between cows and humans - something that wouldn't normally happen if the cow was healthy.
Food Inc clip youtube

Feeding these poor animals nothing but fake-sugar and chemicals will only aggravate their health problems and cause diseases through the human and cow populations to soar. If a person eats nothing but processed foods they will get very ill.
Now imagine eating a cow, who was never meant to eat these things, who is sick from these junk foods and suffered greatly from it's illness. I believe no amount of dye, ammonia, "natural flavors" and modern medicine will prevent disease or cover a meat that tastes of sickness or a milk that tastes of death.
I forsee a time in the near future where instead of people being scared of piggy-flu, we will have a pandemic of bovine-flu and other strange plagues.

Good Post. I saw this documentary last year and was horrified by it. Everyone needs to watch it. They are doing terrible things to chickens, too.

You know, this might be a good time to grow a garden and become a vegetarian. I can't afford red meat these days, anyway.

Originally posted by DestroyDestroyDestroy

Originally posted by davespanners
I'm not going to pretend I'm a Bovine nutrition expert but if I were going to put together a list of things that might be good for a Cow to eat then Marshmallows wouldn't be on it

I don't think these people care whether their cows are getting the nutrition they need. It's not exactly moral but they raise these cows for milk and meat; the cow's life and health is a non-issue.

Yeah, you're probably right. But it could come back and bite them in the *** if they eat meat, too.

I worked for several years in a Kraft Foods factory that made Jet-Puffed Marshmallows, Marshmallow Creme, and even the dried marshamllows used in cereal.

It is, and always has been, a common practice to use the waste and unsellable mix as feed for livestock. The farmers would pull up to the back of the factory and we would fill'em up with as much sticky goop as they could haul away.

I did, however, purchase a package of hamburger last night, and 3lbs. cost me $14.80. It's gonna be rough for those of you who don't like venison, rabbit, or squirrel.

~Rev

reply to post by davespanners


They probably wont be able to get away with it for very long. I knew a hog farmer (he died last year) who used to have a deal with his city's school district where the schools cafeterias put all their leftover food in barrels and he would go pick them up every few days to supplement his hogs' feed. He had a farm full of healthy, happy hogs. Then some well-intentioned state official made it his business to make it illegal for the schools to do that. Now the food just rots until the garbage truck picks it up.

Many hog farmers had similar agreements with their own school districts and this action was devastating to many farmers.

They had to cut their livestock numbers drastically because they couldn't afford to pay the cost of feed for large numbers of hogs. Because of the lesser availability the price of pork nearly doubled and many hog farmers got out of the business period.

Now in this situation it wasn't gummy bears or marshmallows- just regular lunch food. But the whole situation tells me that I'm sure there will be a government crackdown coming soon- and one is probably already in the works. If they won't allow farmers to feed their hogs food scraps I don't think they will allow farmers to feed their cattle candy and junk for long.

Originally posted by davespanners
This is one of those stories I literally could not believe when I read it, but I've checked my calendar and it isn't April fools so I'm going to guess it's true.

As the worst drought in half a century has ravaged this year's U.S. corn crop and driven corn prices sky high, the market for alternative feed rations for beef and dairy cows has also skyrocketed. Brokers are gathering up discarded food products and putting them out for the highest bid to feed lot operators and dairy producers, who are scrambling to keep their animals fed. In the mix are cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange peels, even dried cranberries. Cattlemen are feeding virtually anything they can get their hands on that will replace the starchy sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn

Link

This has to qualify as one of the most insane things I've read in a while, I'm not going to pretend I'm a Bovine nutrition expert but if I were going to put together a list of things that might be good for a Cow to eat then Marshmallows wouldn't be on it, I wonder if they have thought of trying something crazy like feeding the Cows Grass before resorting to cookies?

For anyone with any knowledge of farming I would like to know what exactly did Farmers feed cows before the massive subsidies on corn came about and why don't they go back to that now?

edit on 23-9-2012 by davespanners because: (no reason given)

edit on 23-9-2012 by davespanners because: (no reason given)

I only read the first page and didn't see this addressed.

Former farmer from Illinois here. We raised hogs when I was little and cattle, amongst other things, but those were the big two.

It has been common practice for at least 20 YEARS here in Illinois, for cookie and cereal factories, to sell their "waste" to local farmers for feed. Now this waste could be finished product such as "Fruit Loops" and the only thing wrong with it was, let's say, too many of one color Fruit Loop in the box. So quality control at the plant decides it doesn't meet standards(though it tastes perfectly fine) and it is thrown out.

Cattle and hogs that are "feeders", mostly eat a grain diet/high calorie. These animals are fattened up at an accelerated rate, so you folks can eat out everyday.

Other farmers do use grass, alfalfa,hay and/or a combination diet with some corn/soy products mixed it. Some use salt and mineral blocks

So OP, to answer your question, farmers(especially the large factory farms) have used these things for many years now, way before any ethanol subsidy.

Originally posted by charles1952
Just a small bit. I believe the EPA is still requiring over 40% of this year's corn crop (such as it is) be turned into ethanol. At least, in August they were keeping to that plan.

edit on 23-9-2012 by charles1952 because: missing words

Kind of makes you wonder why we pay farmers to not grow food huh? This year 3.9 million acres will not be used for growing food. So many farmers are showing up for this program they had to start turning them away. And people wonder why the price of food keeps going up.