Feedlot
Encyclopedia
Factory farming
Factory farming is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption...
for finishing livestock, notably beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). They may contain thousands of animals in an array of pens
Pen (enclosure)
A pen is an enclosure for holding livestock. The term describes multiple types of enclosures that may confine one or many animals. Construction and terminology varies depending on region of the world, purpose, animal species to be confined, local materials used, and cultural tradition...
. Most feedlots require some type of governmental permit and must have plans in place to deal with the large amount of waste that is generated. The Environmental Protection Agency has authority under the Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
to regulate all animal feeding operations in the United States. This authority is delegated to individual states in some cases.
Scheduling and diet
Prior to entering a feedlot, cattle spend most of their life grazing on rangelandRangeland
Rangelands are vast natural landscapes in the form of grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals, steppes, and tundras...
or on immature fields of grain
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
such as green wheat pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
. Once cattle obtain an entry-level weight, about 650 pounds (300 kg), they are transferred to a feedlot to be fed a specialized diet
Diet (nutrition)
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...
which consists of corn byproducts (derived from ethanol production), barley, and other grains as well as alfalfa. Feeds sometimes contain animal byproducts
Meat and bone meal
Meat and bone meal is a product of the rendering industry. It is typically about 48 - 52% protein, 33-...
or cottonseed meal
Cottonseed meal
Cottonseed meal is the byproduct remaining after cotton is ginned and the seeds crushed and the oil extracted. The remaining meal is usually used for animal feed and in organic fertilizers. However, the meal can be fed only to adult ruminants because it contains a compound called gossypol...
, and minerals. In the American northwest and Canada, barley, low grade durum wheat, chick peas (garbanzo beans), oats and occasionally potatoes are used as feed.
In a typical feedlot, a cow's diet is roughly 95% grain. High-grain diets lower the pH in the animals' rumen
Rumen
The rumen, also known as a paunch, forms the larger part of the reticulorumen, which is the first chamber in the alimentary canal of ruminant animals. It serves as the primary site for microbial fermentation of ingested feed...
. Due to the stressors of these conditions, antibiotics become necessary to be given to the animal.
Feedlot diets are usually very dense in food energy
Food energy
Food energy is the amount of energy obtained from food that is available through cellular respiration.Food energy is expressed in food calories or kilojoules...
, to encourage the deposition of fat (known as marbling in butchered meat) in the animal's muscles. This fat is desirable to some consumers, as it contributes to flavor and tenderness. The animal may gain an additional 400 pounds (180 kg) during its 3–4 months in the feedlot. Once cattle are fattened up to their finished weight, the fed cattle
Fed cattle
Fed cattle refers to animals leaving a feedlot, after fattening on a concentrated ration, that are ready to be sold to a packing plant for slaughter. Beef cattle are typically sold to packers at about 1,100 pounds, which yields a carcass weight of about 660 pounds.-References:...
are transported to a slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
.
Waste recycling
Increasing numbers of cattle feedlots are utilizing out-wintering padsOut-wintering pads
Out-wintering pads allow livestock to be housed outdoors over winter on pads covered with timber residue. This facility is a low capital-cost cattle-housing system in which a layer of timber residue is placed over an artificially drained surface to control solid and liquid excreta from animal...
made of timber residue bedding in their operations. Nutrients are retained in the waste timber and livestock effluent and can be recycled within the farm system after use.
History
The beef industry today is highly dependent upon technology, but this has not always been true. In the early 20th century, feeder operations were separate from all other related operations and feedlots were non-existent. They appeared in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of hybrid grains and irrigation techniques; the ensuing larger grain crops led to abundant grain harvests. It was suddenly possible to feed large amounts of heads of cattle in one location and so, to cut transportation costs, grain farm and feedlot locations merged. Cattle were no longer sent from all across the southern states to places like California, where large slaughter houses were located. In the 1980s, meat packers followed the path of feedlots and are now located close by them as well.Marketing
There are many methods used to sell cattle to meat packers. Spot, or cash, marketing is the traditional and most commonly used method. Prices are influenced by current demand and are determined by live weight or per head. Similar to this is forward contractForward contract
In finance, a forward contract or simply a forward is a non-standardized contract between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a specified future time at a price agreed today. This is in contrast to a spot contract, which is an agreement to buy or sell an asset today. It costs nothing to enter a...
ing, in which prices are determined the same way but are not directly influenced by market demand fluctuations. Forward contracts determine the selling price between the two parties negotiating for a set amount of time. However, this method is the least used because it requires some knowledge of production costs and the willingness of both sides to take a risk in the futures market. Another method, formula pricing, is becoming the most popular process, as it more accurately represents the value of meat received by the packer. This requires trust between the packers and feedlots though, and is under criticism from the feedlots because the amount paid to the feedlots is determined by the packers’ assessment of the meat received. Finally, live- or carcass-weight based formula pricing is most common. Other types include grid pricing and boxed beef pricing. The most controversial marketing method stems from the vertical integration of packer-owned feedlots, which still represents less than 10% of all methods, but has been growing over the years.
External links
- Texas Cattle Feeders Association
- Panhandle Feeders Gage, Oklahoma
- Clean Water and Factory Farms - Inhumane Treatment of Farm Animals
- Australian Lot Feeders Association
- "Power Steer", Michael Pollan, New York Times, March 31, 2002
- Broken Bow South Lot, possibly the world's largest capacity
- Feedlot Problems within Nanango Shire Queensland Australia
- Environmental update: Public Concern Grows with Feedlot Size