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Originally Posted by Riot
Not empty desert, but certainly not Iowa prairie. The US is a vast and varied place. And we have cattle in a whole lot of it, and yes, how cattle are raised sure varies in the various parts of the country.
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So, don't raise cattle in areas where it's not efficient.
Though, I'm curious as to what would be grown in those places, if anything at all.
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Originally Posted by Riot
Not at all, but that depends. We don't have enough land to raise all our cattle free range in the US. Period.
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You mean if you don't count the land that would be reclaimed for such beef production if we no longer 'needed' to grow the vast amounts of corn that feedlots use?
Cause, uhm, if you do count that land, then there would be plenty. Most of the total land that is used for beef production is indeed in the form of corn production to feed the beef. It's a pretty obvious and simple 2+2=4 sorta thing to figure out.
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Originally Posted by Riot
The losses on free range cattle from disease, predation, broken legs, dying during birth (varies of course by the type of herd one is running) can be significant out west when cattle are running on several square miles and are rounded up once a year for market.
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Right. I suppose routine use of antibiotics in feedlot beef because they live in their own **** is a much better way to go. I guess also that those animals in feedlots never break their legs, except for those that do.
Predation? You mean those packs of hungry grizzly bears that no longer exist?
I also didn't know that 'dying during birth' was something cured by being in a feedlot! What a miracle!
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Originally Posted by Riot
It's a very straightforward calculation process, if you want to grow beef, to look at your land, check out the nutritional value of what you have there, and see how many pounds of beef you can grow per year.
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And if not favorable? Don't grow there! What a concept.
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Originally Posted by Riot
Again, my point is, is that if someone wants to eliminate all "factory farming" - we as a country will absolutely not be able to grow enough beef to feed ourselves. We do not have the land to do so, nor would we be able to afford to do so.
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Again, my point is, if you take everything into account, there is plenty of space.
Not only do we have the space, but if you eliminate the non BLM subsidies (cash incentives, tax breaks, etc) from the cost of supermarket beef, only the rich would be eating beef.
Except for those people buying grassfed beef that costs next to nothing to raise.