No, cows do not need alfalfa or corn. They evolved to eat grass. They need grass. The rest is from intensive farming practices, partly because the USA has a culture where beef is better if the cow was so overfed that the muscle tissue is riddled with fat (it’s called marbling) and partly because you can raise cattle’s weight and therefore selling price more quickly if they’re overfed. This drives more profits at the expense of the cows’ health from eating food that they struggle with, giving them recurrent stomach issues and bacterial infections. They then solve that problem by routinely giving them low dose antibiotics, which is the perfect breeding ground for antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, causing serious problems for human health - we’re rapidly running out of antibiotics of last resort.
There are plenty of countries that raise their cows in large fields instead of in barns, eating natural grass that grows purely from rain that falls from the sky, but it’s less profitable and needs protecting from American imported beef which is cheaper and more fatty.
The methane is a global problem with beef and dairy, though. Cows release a lot of greenhouse gasses however healthily or naturally they’re fed.
Yes, they do, it’s for PROTEIN so the cow can make enough fatty milk that it’s good for the calf and for butter, and so the cow stays healthy in the process. Do you have any idea how much extra protein and fat a pregnant and nursing female of any mammalian species needs in order to stay healthy?
Even the local dairy farms around me, that keep their cows on grass as much as they can, supplement feed.
You clearly have no idea that grass contains protein.
You’re wrong, and instead of finding out whether cows are typically fed on grass alone, yes alone, in the uk and Ireland (but not America where they do it the cow-hurting fat and bacteria ridden way), your source is some American blogger?!
It does, just not enough to keep a pregnant cow healthy. And he blogs, yes, but he’s also a farmer, in case you missed that part. My source is also the farmers around me who keep their cows on grass as much as possible.
Why do you think farmers can’t blog, just curious?
You clearly have no idea that grass contains protein.
It does, just not enough to keep a pregnant cow healthy.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. You’re spouting such a bunch of crap. Cows don’t need anything except grass, and that’s how they’ve been in the UK for centuries and centuries. They evolved eating grass. Grass is their natural diet.
Maize isn’t even indigenous to the UK, only really got going in the 20th century and yet cows have been living in the UK and cultivated for dairy and meat since before the industrial revolution! You didn’t even bother to look anything up, you just have the american perverse cow-damaging position as explained to you by what authoritative source? One blogger!
Why do you think farmers can’t blog, just curious?
Holy straw man, batman!
One US blogger’s ignorance can’t wipe out thousands and thousands of years of happy grass-eating cows without intestinal problems. Even when they’re pregnant! Duh.
Milk cows need corn, alfalfa, and grass, because they need the extra nutrients, since they’re, y’know, raising a baby.
And before anyone goes off on me about how we shouldn’t have dairy cows, y’all can pry cheese and ice cream out of my cold, dead fingers.
No, cows do not need alfalfa or corn. They evolved to eat grass. They need grass. The rest is from intensive farming practices, partly because the USA has a culture where beef is better if the cow was so overfed that the muscle tissue is riddled with fat (it’s called marbling) and partly because you can raise cattle’s weight and therefore selling price more quickly if they’re overfed. This drives more profits at the expense of the cows’ health from eating food that they struggle with, giving them recurrent stomach issues and bacterial infections. They then solve that problem by routinely giving them low dose antibiotics, which is the perfect breeding ground for antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, causing serious problems for human health - we’re rapidly running out of antibiotics of last resort.
There are plenty of countries that raise their cows in large fields instead of in barns, eating natural grass that grows purely from rain that falls from the sky, but it’s less profitable and needs protecting from American imported beef which is cheaper and more fatty.
The methane is a global problem with beef and dairy, though. Cows release a lot of greenhouse gasses however healthily or naturally they’re fed.
Yes, they do, it’s for PROTEIN so the cow can make enough fatty milk that it’s good for the calf and for butter, and so the cow stays healthy in the process. Do you have any idea how much extra protein and fat a pregnant and nursing female of any mammalian species needs in order to stay healthy?
Even the local dairy farms around me, that keep their cows on grass as much as they can, supplement feed.
Here’s an actual farmer talking about it if you want to hear from someone in the industry.
For more cow related content, here’s him on how the beef cattle industry are largely a bunch of whiny bastards who want to have their cake and eat it too, if you want to have something that is actually worth getting mad about.
An addendum, just for funsies: him talking about the silliest chicken myth he’s ever heard (and he’s heard a lot).
You clearly have no idea that grass contains protein.
You’re wrong, and instead of finding out whether cows are typically fed on grass alone, yes alone, in the uk and Ireland (but not America where they do it the cow-hurting fat and bacteria ridden way), your source is some American blogger?!
It does, just not enough to keep a pregnant cow healthy. And he blogs, yes, but he’s also a farmer, in case you missed that part. My source is also the farmers around me who keep their cows on grass as much as possible.
Why do you think farmers can’t blog, just curious?
Wrong, wrong, wrong. You’re spouting such a bunch of crap. Cows don’t need anything except grass, and that’s how they’ve been in the UK for centuries and centuries. They evolved eating grass. Grass is their natural diet.
Maize isn’t even indigenous to the UK, only really got going in the 20th century and yet cows have been living in the UK and cultivated for dairy and meat since before the industrial revolution! You didn’t even bother to look anything up, you just have the american perverse cow-damaging position as explained to you by what authoritative source? One blogger!
Holy straw man, batman!
One US blogger’s ignorance can’t wipe out thousands and thousands of years of happy grass-eating cows without intestinal problems. Even when they’re pregnant! Duh.