Cows on pasture typically live through eight to ten lactations (or births) for a total of ten to 12 years. Cows in confinement, fed grain and soybeans, average 1.8 lactations. When they become unable to produce milk, or when their ankles can no longer hold up on the cement floors, they are shipped off to the butcher. About 25 percent of the meat consumed in America comes from these “downer” cows. The problem of downer cows in confinement dairies is increasing, even though antibiotics, drugs and nutrient supplements are routinely added to animal feed. We hear that in some confinement dairies, the typical cow is milked through one long lactation and then slaughtered. This eats into profits and has the vets throwing up heir hands in defeat.
Soil specialist Jerry Brunetti6 explains why the way cows are fed today causes them to suffer from a range of health problems. Dairy cows are fed grains and soybeans, which have high caloric and nitrogen values. Sometimes rations even include bakery waste, such as out-of-date donuts, candy and pastries. These foodstuffs upset the delicately balanced ecosystem in the cow’s rumen. As rumen microbes digest the foods eaten by the cow, they produce waste products which inhibit the growth of other microbes. One of these metabolic wastes, acetic acid (vinegar), is used as an energy source by cattle. But the waste from microbial digestion of starches—like corn and bakery waste—is lactic acid, which has no value to ruminant. It also lowers the pH in the rumen, causing acidosis. The colostrum (first milk) of such acidic cows has very few antibodies because they are immunosuppressed.
Another serious consequence of grain feeding is that cows on grain absorb lower amounts of fat-soluble vitamins A, D and E, even when these vitamins are added to feed; and, consequently, less of these vital nutrients show up in the milk.7
Of all the cull cows taken to slaughter today, only about 5 percent have livers that can be salvaged. Damage to the liver is attributed to high levels of protein in soy-based feed. Brunetti also faults the practice of spraying manure back onto fields, resulting in very high levels of free nitrogen in the hay grown on these pastures. He cites a large “progressive” dairy in a high rainfall area of western Washington state that could not get its cows to breed or produce much milk. They thought their hay was high in protein because analysis showed high nitrogen values. But much of the nitrogen was free nitrogen which had an adverse effect on both fertility and milk production. When the farm ran out of its own hay and fed apparently lesser quality hay grown in eastern Washington state, milk production improved.
When cows eat high quality forage in green pastures, the pH of the rumen returns to normal and the cows enjoy good health and produce superior quality milk.
I just don't want to look it in the eyes or pet it before I eat it.
