To Cows with Love

There is, in my opinion, a widespread misconception in the general public that mistreatment of animals is a commonplace occurrence.  Although we would argue that our farm is the best place to raise an animal anywhere, period, it’s about time someone set the record straight on this whole subject.

First let’s clear something up.  As I see it, the proper terminology to be used in discussing this topic is animal well-being, and not animal welfare.  Anyone truly concerned about the subject and truly concerned about animals should become familiar with this fact.  Well-being is something that we as producers manage every single day on our farms for our animals. Welfare is something promoted by government as an answer to society’s problems at large. I view these as two totally different concepts. Now that we have that corrected let’s talk about the facts and dispel a few of the myths perpetuated by society and it’s henchmen, the popular media.  (Don’t you wish they would report on positive stories at least in the same proportion that they report on negative stories?)

First, from an emotional perspective and as a starting point to dispel myths, promoting and living good animal well-being practices is simply the right thing to do.  No person, no matter how much money they have, how big their operation is, or whom it is that they know, could ever look me in the eye and convince me otherwise.  How is it possible that one could be charged with the care of another live creature and not want to treat it in a manner that felt like the right thing to do?  As a general rule, people want to do the right thing.  This situation is no different, and I would argue that farmers generally live this desire quite sincerely.  This seems like common sense but alas common sense, in a society so far away from the land, is not common.

On top of being the right thing to do, there are several practical reasons that good animal well-being  is the preferred path for animal agriculture.  First, it is very clear, and there are thousands of scientific studies that prove this, that good animal well-being  results in the healthiest livestock.  Healthy livestock result in animals that don’t get sick.  When animals don’t get sick they do not need to be treated with antibiotics which drives the cost to produce the product higher.  Secondly, the resulting healthier livestock tend to gain weight faster and generally perform better than sick livestock.  Again, a clear profit signal to practice good animal well-being .  Thirdly, well cared for animals produce a much, much, better eating experience than animals that were abused or mistreated.  Farmers get paid more for better tasting meat.  Dark cutting beef, tough chicken breasts, watery pork, bruises, broken wings and broken legs are all a direct result of poor animal handling and poor well-being, and as a result create a bad eating experience.  In contrast, tenderness, juiciness, and great color are all a result of being good stewards of our animals.

No doubt, as in every industry, there are bad apples in the ranks of farmers and ranchers.  One needs to look no further than General Motors, AIG, Enron, and the federal government to see stark examples of bad seeds.  This will always be true no matter the industry.  While most folks are good, there will always be bad people and not even the all-knowing government can change that.  Thankfully, like in most industries, most farmers and ranchers are good people.  In the case of animal well-being , most folks are gonna do well by their animals as it is the right thing to do.  And if that’s not enough reason there is always this little thing called profit, which is always, let me repeat, always better, when we practice good animal well-being .

At the end of the day, the best way to learn is to do it yourself.  Here at our farm you can come see good animal well-being  for yourself.  Don’t assume it was done right.  

Leslie and Mark Hulsebus