POLITICS The Necessity of Hatred

I think Limbaugh popularized the cow farts thing. the original analysis just state "release methane"

 

maybe not solve, but it would be an improvement in the right direction.

 

It was one of the dumbass talking heads

 

I’m a member of stockmen grass journal and some other I guess hippie farming stuff.


I it’s crazy the transformation that the practice has on these old farms that have been ran down into nothing.

 

How much cattle in the USA is fed by grass grazing vs corn fed in barns? Can we sustain enough cattle to feed the populace on grazing?

 

I bet you even wear wool socks with your Birkenstock farming sandals, don't ya?

Don't get me wrong. My Jericho Wall Jumper sandals are one of the most comfortable things I've ever put on my feet. I just can't abide the hippie wool sock/Jumpers combo.

 

I would think so.

The corn silage/sweet feed combo is a quick way to put lots of weight on cattle.

Also, corn takes a lot out of the ground, but silage produces more tonnage/acre than pature/hay fields which is another reason folks feed corn.

 

All cattle start on pasture mostly in this country and once sold as a feeder then go to a feed lot.

It’d be a total change in system but totally doable.

Most cattle just have a free go at their pasture.
This is poor management and only utilizes between 25 and 30 percent on the pasture.

By going to rotanional we can get more like 75 to 80 percent out of the pasture, while more evenly spreading the manure.

Then you have to factor in almost all of the corn raised in America goes to livestock grain you’d either get that crop land back as well. Plus reducing the fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, and water run off.


Get on YouTube and watch some Joel salatin and Greg Judy videos.

These aren’t crazy California hippies. These are cattle farmers like Jay that was going broke the conventional way and started doing these because they were going to lose their farms doing it the “right way”

 

I do like wool socks.

 

*shudders*

 

soil is undervalued. the benefits there alone makes it worth it.

 

I remember the days of scattering 'baccer stalks in the pasture to rot after stripping the leaves & grading along with spreading manure from mucked out stalls on hayfields.

Small time farmers can't afford all that fancy fertilizer. We use nature as often as possible. It's the right price.

 

commercial fertilizer is often over applied and kills fish and hurts water quality, anyway. the true costs of many things are socialized.

 

You're speaking my language. Given my proclivities to fishing, I tend to get pissed off when fish are killed.

 

I thought the EPA was wanting to hit farmers hard for manure runoff into streams a few years ago

 

I have no data or info to back this up, but I would think that manure is less harmful than chemical fertilizers.

Having said that, I think the EPA was after the huge corporate farms with tons of runoff, not smaller farms. I mean, shit actually does happen.

The river behind my house has seen increased contamination from chemical discharge from a military explosives plant. It's done real damage. It's getting almost impossible to navigate certain areas due to out of control river grass growth not to mention how it's effecting wildlife. Add in discharge from Eastman Chemical resulting in multiple fish kills, a breaking point fast approaches.

I have no issues with companies making a buck. I do have issues when companies make a buck at the expense of the destruction of the environment which has real impacts in regards to monetary & health damages to everyone around them. My property value lessens the more the river is polluted. One can make a buck and be good stewards to things and people around them. It's those few extra bucks resulting from greed, imo, that causes them to cut corners & skirt regulations that does harm to other things & folks that pisses me off.

 

I wasn't trying to insinuate one is better than the other. Only that there could be pollution issues on both sides. I would agree that on its face, manure would seem to be a smaller concern.

 

I might also add that my area is still paying the price from the Olin Corporation, a chlorine production plant that operated in Saltville, VA from 1895-1972 that has long been an EPA Superfund site. Their holding ponds leaked mercury into the North Fork of the Holston River and has spread into the Holston River and the lakes they empty into. There is a fish consumption limit due to the elevated mercury levels over 100 miles downstream. As evidenced, mercury doesn't just go away & has proven impossible to clean up. There can only be an attempt to mitigate the damage.

The actions of this one company has had significant negative health & economic impacts on an inordinately large number of people over an extremely large area. That's just pure bullshit and should never be tolerated, a company's bottom line be damned.

 

Apologies if I insinuated otherwise. Not intended. I know I can get all soap boxy and whatnot. I don't mean to sound accusatory.

 

that is still bad. but spreading it on a field isn't the same as having livestock in the stream, or feedlot drainage, etc.