The Feedlot

1. Describe a CAFO
CAFO stands for concentrated Animal feeding operation, which is the new animal and
human landscapes that were both the product of government policy. Animals are raised
in a confinement where there are over 1000 ‘ animal unit’ confined for 45 days a year.

2. Describe the evolutionary relationship between cow and grass.

The coevolutionary relationship between cows and grass is one of nature’s
underappreciated wonders; it also happens to be the key to understanding just about
everything about modern meat. Grasses have evolved to withstand the grazing of
ruminants, the cow maintains and expands their habitat by preventing trees and shrubs
from gaining foothold and hogging the sunlight; the animal also spreads grass seeds,
plants it with his hooves, and then fertilize it with his manure. In exchange for these
services the grasses offer ruminants a plentiful and exclusive supply of lunch. Coes have
evolved the special ability to convert grass which single-stomached creatures like us
can’t digest into high quality protein.

3. Describe the diet on the feedlot.

One thin rivulet of the great corn river out of the middle west begins to flow, dropping
down a chute into the bowels of the mill.on the other side of the building the truck pumps
thousands of gallons of liquefied fat and protein supplement. In a shed attached to the
mill sit vats of liquid vitamins and synthetic estrogen beside pallets stacked with fifty-
pound sacks of antibiotics-Rumensin and TYlosin. Along with alfalfa hay and silage, all
these ingredients will be automatically blended and then piped into the parade of dump
trucks that three times a day would be fed to 37 thousand animals

4. Compare and contrast the feedlot to a factory or a machine.

A factory farm is a large, industrial operation that raises large numbers of animals for
food. Over 95% of farm animals in the U.S. are raised in factory farms, which focus on
profit and efficiency at the expense of animal welfare.The basic principle of the feedlot is
to increase the amount of meat each animal produces as quickly as possible; if animals
are kept in confined quarters rather than being allowed to range freely over grassland,
they will put on weight more quickly. 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.

5. Draw a systems diagram (a flow chart) showing the flow of energy through the feedlot.