HSUS Targets Wyoming Pig Farm

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is at it again with another undercover video allegedly shot at a Wheatland, Wyoming pig farm. I just watched it, and there were instances were handling the hogs wasn't done appropriately. I am saying this as a person who just watched an extreme video, not someone who was actually present at the facilities and was involved in the entire situation the video shows quick blurbs of. I'm also not condoning or defending the people and actions shown in the video as they were mistreating the animals in some of the scenes.
I did also notice a few things that I'm guessing are in the animal's best interest. One example is they showed a sow with an iron ring holding her mouth still, and she was naturally squealing. The video then showed her feet being roped, and her being laid on her side while a voice talked about hurrying to pull the piglets (or something like that). It appeared the workers were trying to help that sow deliver her babies, and had her mouth controlled because a sow weighing several hundred pounds knows how to use her head and teeth on humans. Especially when she's in labor, I'm guessing. That wasn't to hurt her, it was to prevent injury to the people who were helping her deliver her litter of piglets, and to keep her piglets alive and her from suffering any health related issues that would arise if she didn't deliver them (like death...)
Furthermore, I noticed several situations that likely occurred despite any management efforts, like a prolapsed sow. Prolapses just happen, and nobody purposely makes them happen, or can do anything in advance to prevent an animal from prolapsing. The video says she was allowed to live like that for several days, but do we really know if that's the case based on a 3 second blip - no.
It also showed a dead baby piglet in the aisle, with the placenta over his head. This means he died at birth because he couldn't get oxygen, not that someone killed him or beat him. Unfortunately that happens within seconds following birth, and can occur even when you're watching things super close.
Then there was the mother pig eating the dead piglet, which is a perfect example of why sows who are about to farrow (have their piglets) are put in small pens (farrowing crates) where they cannot move around a lot. Some sows will kill their young intentionally, and others will accidentally lay on and accidentally suffocate them. As can also be seen in the video, when a sow is in farrowing crate, there are bars on the back and at least one side that are spaced so the piglets can walk under them. They are a certain length so the piglets are born out the back of the pen, and therefore as the sow continues to deliver her young and move about, she doesn't squish those who have already arrived. Through the bars on one side will be a heatlamp and some straw to keep the piglets warm and safe. Then they can move back under the bars to drink their mother's milk. Farrowing crates are carefully designed for the comfort and safety of both mother sow and baby piglets, and are a temporary pen for the sows during late pregnancy and labor.
One blaring question continues to burn in my mind whenever I watch one of these undercover videos: If the person shooting the video truly cares about animals, how can they simply allow mismanagement or neglect to continue while they film? The HSUS folks are all about attacking animal agriculture, not actually helping the few animals and situations they are able to find where everything is not taken care of in a top notch fashion. To me there is no better example of this than the videos they shoot, edit extensively, add music too, then release in dramatic fashion days, weeks, months (does anyone know the turnaround time?) while the same animals may be in need of help. That puts them at the same level as the person doing the actual abuse.

Here is what the attacked farm had to say in response to the video, and the undercover spy:

The video of a Wyoming Premium Farms sow barn posted online this morning by HSUS shows some practices that are not and will not be tolerated. The owners and managers of the farm are investigating the incidents shown in the video and wish to assure everyone we will take action to correct all problems and to deal appropriately with any employees that were involved.

I was first made aware of the situation when I was contacted on Friday by the Wyoming Livestock Board regarding a video the board had received. On Monday, I drove to Cheyenne to meet with the board and to view a video from the HSUS. Evidently, HSUS had placed an undercover spy in our workforce.

I was told that the undercover spy had pointed out certain items that she had noticed while working there to different people at the farm. However, never once did she express any concerns to me, the general manager and the person responsible for hiring her.

The video I saw at the Wyoming Livestock Board yesterday was troubling, but it did not contain some of the disturbing scenes shown in the video HSUS put online this morning. While still sitting at the Livestock Board’s conference table on Monday, I called the farm manager and asked him if he was made aware of comments from the employee we knew as Whitney Warrington. He said because she was new she always seemed to have new-person type of questions. He said he could not recall everything she said, but added he definitely would have remembered if anything about animal abuse had come out of her mouth.

After my meeting in Cheyenne, I contacted the farm managers and instructed them to conduct a meeting immediately to once again stress with our workers the importance of animal welfare. I then contacted our consulting veterinarian and asked him to join me for an unannounced herd visit. That visit occurred this morning. Our veterinarian also suggested we retain an independent 3rd party to review everything we do on our farm to give us comments and recommendations. We are doing that.

I take these allegations seriously. I am disappointed I did not hear them directly from Whitney Warrington while she was working on our farm so we could have addressed any concerns immediately. We take the pork industry’s We Care initiative seriously and are committed to the well-being of all our animals and to the safety of our workers.

Once again, we will swiftly address any problems that are identified.

Doug DeRouchey

Hopefully Mr. DeRouchey takes care of the problems present in his operation immediately and the final result of this is improved handling and management of the hogs, and hopefully HSUS's delight in releasing a shocking video instead of taking immediate action didn't result in any more hogs being mistreated during the interim.

Here is a link where the video can be watched, and additional statements found. 

For those not familiar with HSUS, you can read about how they spend the dollars raised from videos like this one and through other extreme fundraising efforts here

A Rough Start

It's been busy around here lately, and I just haven't had any time to keep things updated on here. I apologize for my lack of posts over the last week. Today I am sharing one of the events that combined with numerous others to keep me so busy.
Last Saturday night my parents were up from 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m., waiting on a heifer to calve. She finally did, without help, and they headed back to bed. On their way, Parent A told Parent B (names withheld for my protection, lol) to just leave the gate open between the calving lot and our yard area.
Later, Sunday morning, my dad left to feed, and found a heifer laying behind our horse trailers, were no one would see her or think to look, in the yard area. She had been trying to calve for several hours based on how things looked, which wasn't good. He and I immediately pulled the calf right there, and were thankful to find him alive.
We went on about our feeding and left mother and baby alone to do their thing. When we returned a while later, the cow still hadn't gotten up, and wouldn't. This was due to a nerve being pinched during birth - my dad compared it to a human getting a spinal tap. We managed to get her up, and my dad helped her balance by pulling on her tail, but she just staggered around the yard and went down again.
A cow will also be unable to get up if a calf gets hip locked during birth, but fortunately that is not what happened in our case.
The cow needed to get up to get blood flowing back into her rear legs to help her regain control of her back half. The calf also needed to eat, and a calf's first meal of colostrum is especially important in life. Here is what we did to help the cow and her calf on Sunday:

We fabricated a strap in the shop from old hay straps and chains.

Then we got the tractor, and prepared to pick her up and help her stand until she got blood flowing and regained control of her rear end. There was no guarantee our efforts would work, but this is a case where you do everything you can to give the animal the best chance of recovery possible. Sometimes, you have to do this over and over for several days until the cow regains enough strength and coordination to stand by herself. Sometimes they don't ever regain that strength.

Thank goodness she was a nice, gentle heifer, and we worked slow and gently around her so she wouldn't get excited. My dad eased the chain and strap partway under her.
My mother thought she might like a drink, which is why the water is there. My mother was also kind enough to take these photos, so I could share this with you. As you can see, photo taking wasn't very high on my list when this was going on.

Then he pulled her hips over and I grabbed the chain and pulled the strap the rest of the way under her.

We positioned the strap under her flank. We used a strap because it is wide, and less likely to hurt the cow when supporting her compared to a narrow chain or rope.

Then we hooked the chains on the tractor...

and began to slowly lift her back end up.

We worked with the heifer until she was standing..sort of.

We tried to get her back legs positioned so she could, and would, stand on them.

When it became apparent that she wasn't going to be able to stand on her own right then, and we would have to continue working with her, we milked her as much as we could so we could feed her calf the colostrum she produced.

Then we gently laid her back down on the ground when her back legs gave out, and unhooked the chains from the tractor. We just left the strap under her for the next time we lifted her.

Meanwhile, we had moved her calf into our calving shed, because naturally this event occurred on a cold and very windy day. He was never dried off properly and we didn't want him to get chilled. I fed him the colostrum we had milked from his mother, which is far superior to any milk replacer product we had on hand and could have mixed up for him.

Then, since he was still wet and it was so cold and windy, we put one of our calf coats (dog coats) on the big guy...

And packed him back outside to this mother so they could be together and not forget about each other.

Which wasn't a problem. This is how they stayed most of the day. He was worn out from being born, and one of those big and slower moving calves anyway. But, as the day progressed she kept trying to get up, which was encouraging to us.

That evening I took a bottle of milk replacer out to feed her calf. We had decided to let her rest until the following morning, then lift her up again. About halfway through feeding him, she got up! Though very wobbly, she managed to stay up. Here she is in a photo I grabbed from the house. Her calf is laying behind that pile of hay we fed her.
I am happy to report that after another couple days in the corral, where we could feed her and ensure she didn't have to travel a lot for food or water, she and her calf were turned out, and are doing great! That's the kind of ending we always hope for and work toward when situations like this occur.

Issues in Agriculture

As everyone gets ready to start the work week, I would like to highlight a couple ag-related issues. I don't have time to cover everything I would like on here, and always find it refreshing when I find a great source of information on relevant topics written by others.
Up first is South Dakota being ranked the least humane state in the country by HSUS (Humane Society of the United States). I am firmly opposed to the HSUS, because they are not the same group as your local humane society. There primary goal is to end animal agriculture, and they conveniently use the assumption that they are similar in nature to your local humane society to garner funds to support their objectives, which really don't include helping pets. I live about 25 miles from the South Dakota border, and know several great farmers and ranchers that take exceptional care of their livestock every day by a standard that is self-created and unprecedented. Stories of a First Generation Farm Wife lives right in South Dakota, and has an excellent post on this topic. She also includes the link to an article printed in the Rapid City paper on this subject, which quotes another ag producer.
Second is the topic of using false information advertising, especially when that false information makes the agriculture producers in our country look bad. We deal with this a lot right now in agriculture, and it's very frustrating to have to combat and rectify false statements that are stated as fact. Crystal Cattle tackles this topic on her latest post, which highlights several of the misleading angles used in Chipotles Grammy winning commercial.
Just a couple of the important issues currently  faced by farmers and ranchers. Hope everyone's week is off to a great start!

Factoring Farming

I had never heard of factoring farming until I saw it toted by an extreme anti-agriculture group a few years ago. I wasn't buying it as being anything a person would believe, and I was reminded of this initial response again today.

Here are our yearling and two-year-old's on the feedground today. Certainly not in a closed in, dirty, confined space.


And that's them again, over on the left. The little black circle. You can see why I had neither heard of this concept of all animals being housed in cramped, dirty, overpopulated environments, or bought into it. This is how livestock are "housed" where I live, and what you see is just the pasture they are living in for the winter. This isn't their year-round home, but rather one part of the total acres they live, roam and eat on over the course of a year.

Would you Work Differently?

Ryan Goodman, at Agriculture Proud, asked the question, How would you work differently if a non-farmer/rancher followed you around for a day?

My answer is nothing would change. Our success in the ranching business isn't based on what we do when someone is looking or watching. Our success is based on how we treat and care for our animals and land day in and day out, and we all know that.

This question was exciting to me because in recent months we have had the opportunity to have several people on our place. We had a good friend of mine from college who was here to record us and get pictures for her work with the Wyoming Stockgrowers (she was "the media"!). She happened to pick a day of preg-checking, and our cows were miserable that day (naturally). She saw that no one lost their temper, regardless of the cows being less than willing to work with anyone. She may have even got a couple choice words on her camera. But, it was interesting to see how a day of working frustrating cows highlighted so many positive things about ranching when you're there to see the entire picture.

We also give a talk on ranching to every single hunter that sets foot on our place, prior to releasing them to hunt. One group of dinosaur bone (that's a topic all its own) hunters happened to show up on a day when we were working our yearlings earlier this fall. I stood with the group at the fence and spent over half an hour answering questions, debunking myths, and reinforcing truths they had all heard. These people were from New York to Florida, and it was their first glimpse into real ranch life. The rest of family continued on with their tasks, and these people were fascinated with what they were watching.

As a media person, I have had the opportunity to be in the "following someone around on their operation" shoes many times. Several of these people had no idea I knew what end of a cow ate, and the vast majority of them were exactly as I've described my family. They put me right in the middle of whatever was going on, explained the hows and whys to each task, and were genuinely happy to have me around and explain things to me. They were also not about to put off preg-checking, shipping, weaning, etc.. (the animals always come first) just to visit with me.

These families would almost always invite me in for lunch, offer a place to stay if I needed one, tell me to please come back if I was ever in the area, and thank me for being there that day. The people in agriculture are amazingly hospitable, open and hardworking people, and that is another thing that doesn't change from day to day.

The only thing that is slightly different is the task at hand can take longer because we will take the time to answer any questions people have. We also always invite people in for lunch and conversation after the task. It has been my personal experience that when people outside agriculture actually do spend a day around farmers and ranchers, it's a very positive, eye-opening experience that goes a long way in showing them the truth about our industry!

Lets Take Note America

Talk of how to inform and accurately educate the public about agriculture and it's positive impacts on American society is a discussion that occurs at a multitude of ag-related meetings, conferences and forums. Well, let's take a look at what our neighbors to the north are doing...

Hello giant tent in the center of Calgary Stampede grounds, which is filled with live animals, a grain bin, computer programs about growing healthy crops, people in the industry to visit with you, posters, interactive activities and more, all with the intention of educating and showing people what Alberta agriculture is all about, why it's important, what they do to produce a safe food source, and countless other facts, figures and examples of ags importance to the country.
One sheep producers that was working in the tent informed us there is a people counter at the entrances, and at or over 35,000 people a day go through this during the Calgary Stampede.
That's over half of Wyoming's population that walks through this educational tent over the course of the Stampede.
Wow! That's a lot of people not tied to agriculture getting a realistic, positive look at what ag is all about, and what the people involved in ag do to put food on their tables. I'm thinking we Americans should take a look at what they're doing, so I took pictures of some of the things in the tent to show you.

There were educational charts that explained the value of agriculture produced foods, like beef, in a health diet. We use this same ZIP acronym here in America. There were also drawings for beef related prizes.

Interactive activities taught people about their food, like this one that showed where different cuts of meat were located on the animal.

The live animals were a huge hit with people of all ages. Here is the milk cow exhibit, which featured cows of different breeds, history of milk cows, differences between breeds, and other general information. At each animal station were producers to answer questions.

Right next to the milk cows was a dairy area, fittingly enough. More positive facts and figures about milk and dairy in a healthy diet.

Everything you can see had a purpose, and made a point about milk and dairy products. The tent was bursting with positive, truthful information, backed by facts, and made interesting to see and read about.

You could also participate in interactive activities, like milking Bluebell. Based on the line, Bluebell got milked A LOT over the course of the Stampede, and was a huge hit!

There were computer stations for kids, where they could learn about what it takes to grow healthy plants, and what Alberta farmers do to grow the food they eat.

A grain bin was set up to show people how grains were harvested and stored.

Lots of stuff for both kids and adults!

Agriculture doesn't just feed you, and the Canadians covered other ways it benefits their country, like showing how oilseed crops are used to produce biodiesel.

You could spin this plate around, and read different facts about Alberta lamb in the cut-out window.

As I mentioned earlier, the animals were by far the biggest hit. Here is the sheep exhibit.

No opportunity to share information was missed, and people were stopping to read it.

We visited with this man for quite a while - he's who told us about the numbers of people that go through each day. He was there to tell people about sheep, and was happy to do so.

This is what surprised Adam and I the most, and isn't something you would likely see anywhere in an "educate the public" related event.

A gilt and her piglets, in a farrowing crate. This display was packed with people, and clearly showed the pigs were all content in their crate. The mother had access to food and water, and her babies weren't getting squished. It showed hog farmers in a great light, as they should be represented.

People swarmed to get a glimpse of the momma and baby pigs, and as a result were exposed to what a farrowing crate really looks like, and how and why farmer's use them. See that man siting on the far side of the picture, he was the hog farmer, and man was he popular with these people, who had questions and comments to discuss with him. Loved this!

Also in the pig area were some weaner pigs, and a young boy (on the right) to tell people about them.

I was so impressed by this tent, and the huge impact it has in a just few days each year! I think it's an ingenious idea. As someone who lives in Wyoming, where another of the largest outdoor shows on earth (Cheyenne Frontier Days) occurs, and in one of the most agriculture-oriented states in our nation, I can't help but think of the potential to do something similar for tourists that attend our event. Great work Canadian agriculture!

Animal Abuse

I just finished watching the Mercy For Animals video depicting animal abuse on a Texas dairy farm, and was disgusted. This is by no means the norm in animal agriculture, and several questions were raised as the three minute video progressed.
First, if Mercy for Animals truly cared for animal welfare, why did they wait weeks, then release a video? Why didn't they immediately report the abuse to the proper officials, and end the abuse their undercover person/people witnessed? I know if I had seen some of those actions firsthand my immediate thought would have been making a positive change for those cattle, not producing a sensational video.
Second, as I just mentioned, what kind of Mercy for Animals person can stand there and participate in those actions? The one man with a video on him was speaking Spanish, and I wonder if he was paid off, or truly a member of this organization? Either way, if they were truly interested in the animal's welfare, there are a number of different actions that would have been far more beneficial to the actual animals than a video.
Third, the video ends with a solution - to practice vegetarianism, which will in no way end animal abuse. I would suggest a different solution - get to know farmers and ranchers and ask them questions. Learn about where your food comes from and the actual practices that are used by the vast majority of producers in the U.S. Go see them and their crops and livestock, I'm sure they would be happy to meet with you.
As a livestock producer it is extremely frustrating and sad to see these videos that are toted as common practices on farms and ranches. My family and every family I know put their animals first, regardless of weather, plans, events and other work. I encourage you to look at the entire picture and not take one sensational videos word for something - especially one where the so-called "merciful" people stood by, and possibly even participated in animal abuse simply to get footage.

You can find a number of ag-related links in this post that tell the true story of animal agriculture, and discuss the use of videos by animals welfare groups tell a false story about animal agriculture.

Crystal Cattle also did a post on this subject, and provided a number of links as well, you can check that out here.

Working through it

It's been a challenging couple of weeks for my family.
First their house water broke. Which, to understand this you need to know that we have hauled all of the water we used for over a year, on two separate occasions. We also put in the pipeline that supplies water to our house. Water issues, especially those involving our house, cause anxiety levels to spike on our operation. You don't truly appreciate water until you've hauled every drop you use.
Then, yesterday, our calves water broke. Now, while not having water for our personal consumption causes anxiety, our cattle not having water is much, much worse. My mom was home alone, and she handled it well and got it fixed, but it stressed her out.
There has also been an over-abundance of mud this winter, with several inches to over a foot present on the back roads I live on in the past few weeks. This makes feeding take twice as much time some days, and made it impossible to haul water.
Some mornings this mud will be covered in a thin layer of extremely slick ice, which has resulted in the semi's and hay trailers my dad and brother drive sliding off the road and/or getting stuck on more than one occasion. It's also set their schedule way back, and they're behind by a couple weeks now.
This means they won't be caught up until well into calving season. While we calve our cows out on the range, we do bring our heifers in, and watch them. My mother's single request during calving season is to not be left alone with the heifers. While we have very few problems, she doesn't want to be solely responsible if there is an issue. We work very hard to accommodate this - she doesn't make many special requests, and it's looking like this year that will require a little strategic planning.
My mom called last night to vent a little. The first thing she said was, "I'm not complaining, I just had a bad day. I know those are what make you appreciate the good days so much."
Complaining won't get you far where I'm from, and isn't tolerated, and she knows that. But we all also understand the frustrations that come with weather-related setbacks, the stress that comes with having water problems, the feeling you have after a day of everything you touch breaking, and knowing you won't be caught up for weeks.
We're gearing up as a family to deal with these scheduling setbacks, potentially bad weather extending into calving season, and other ranch-related issues.
My role in all of this is to sit in Casper all week, doing my job and worrying (as useless as that is) about not being able to help. I'll probably be home every weekend for the next couple months, minus one in mid-March when I dedicated my time to building ads for the newspaper, which won't happen again. I'll also likely miss a couple Fridays or Mondays to help out as much as possible.
One benefit to me being town all week and home most weekends is I can bring home extra eartags, medicine, salt or anything else needed without them having to make a special trip to town, the closest being an hour (one way) from the ranch.
There are stories like this one happening on farms and ranches all over the country. The weather this winter is making things more difficult than normal in many areas of the country. Things break, and must be fixed. Regardless of any setbacks, we are still working to ensure our animals are taken care of first, and we are doing it together as a family. This is another commonality in agriculture - resilient families working together to care and provide for their animals regardless of things going smoothly, or not.
I called my parents this morning to work out some scheduling things, and they were laughing and my dad was joking (kind of) that since my mom wanted to get away for the day he was going to send her to Chadron to get a 4-wheeler fixed. It's another day and they're ready to go again.

Love and Economics

There is all this talk about how farmers and ranchers squeeze as much production out of our land and livestock as possible. Well, of course we do, and I'm proud of that fact.
There is nothing wrong with making cattle, in my case, perform better. To get more out of your available resources without sacrificing health and well being is called being progressive, not mean or awful or cruel.
There is this misconception that ranchers are heart-less, cruel factory producers of beef today who care about nothing but the buck. That's not true. We care about our livestock more than most people understand. However, raising beef is also our job, and it has to be economical.
It's impossible for me to explain the combination that is involved in making ranching profitable and loving what you do. People tend to not understand how you can love something that has to make you money. How you can love an animal you will send to slaughter to feed the world. Well, you can, and maybe you can't understand it if you don't live it, but it's the truth. We care beyond measurable means for our livestock, and we also understand and accept what their purpose is.
It's like the concept of loving your job, finding it fulfilling, and feeling like you make a difference in your day to day tasks. That's something a lot of people are looking for, or are grateful they've found. Now, what if you make money at this fulfilling job, is that okay? It's your job, so if you work hard and make money at your work, is that ethically acceptable to you?
If you think it is, then good. We have a job of feeding people, and we love our job. We realize it isn't for everyone, and we're fine with that. But, if we also work to make it economically viable (which it isn't always), what makes that so wrong?
Nothing.
We're all about the health, and continued improvement of our animals. If we don't take care of our land and animals, it will result in our demise. Not only are we responsible for this, we enjoy this aspect of our jobs. It's a rewarding challenge to make cattle gain more, to improve grass quality, or implement a better water system, without any negative impacts on any aspect of the ranch.
It's like having one boss who takes care of his employees, and provides them with what they need to succeed at their job. If he expects a great online presence, he provides up to date computers and software. He moves good employees up in his business, has initiatives to keep people with him and is an honest and good person to work for. He expects his people to work hard, but he takes care of them too. Then there's the boss who expects you to outperform all your competitors with decade-old computers, without enough help, and who never gives raises. Who has a mediocre at best, benefit plan, and who really doesn't know or care about individual employees. He doesn't know people's names, and his employee turnover rate is high.
Both are in the same area of business, and both want their companies to be the best in their given area, and enjoy what they do. Who would you rather work for? Who do you think will have the more successful company in the long run?
It's like this in ranching too. Our cows are like our employees, and our resources (grass, feed, health plans, water) are like the computers, raises, and benefits in this scenario. If we don't take care of our employees, and provide them with the resources they need to succeed, we will ultimately be our own demise. It's not that our cows would choose to not work for us as people can, it's that they physically wouldn't be able to do their job without the necessary things for success.
So, I'm like the boss who gives his employees everything they need to succeed, then expects them to perform. I want my cattle to be the best, and I expect it. But, I also care, and make sure they have all the tools. I have a health plan for them to keep them healthy, I provide grass and hay and cake and fresh water at all times, every day of the year, and I use genetics that will result in cattle that thrive in my environment. I'm available on nights, weekends and holidays, and I know almost every individual animal at a glance.
I'm tough, but fair. I move the good animals up in my company, and they become cows or bulls that are used to produce calves. Animals that don't meet the requirements for this line of work are used in other other ways. We feed these animals, or sell them to someone who has a need for them within their operation (business). Just like in any business, different companies have different needs, and some cattle may work great for one rancher, and not at all for another.
So, this increased performance in cattle you hear about is the economics side. We want to produce the most with what we have, just as any business owner wants to. But, also as with good business owners, we aren't willing to sacrifice the integrity of our quality employees to accomplish this. We realize our cattle are the key to our success. We care and provide for them in every way possible. Just as the good boss expects great things and continued performance out of his employees, but also genuinely cares about their individual needs and takes care of them.
It is possible to do both, and I am certainly not the only rancher like this. Almost all are - they love their animals, lifestyle and job, and make it an economical business too. If they don't they run the certain risk of losing everything they love, just like the boss who doesn't care for his business and employees does.
You have to care to be successful at ranching.

It must be so...

If you're a person who doesn't know about animal agriculture, you may search the Internet for information. That search may lead to places like the Humane Society of the United States, PETA, or other "pro-animal" (I use the term very loosely), a.k.a. anti-agriculture sites.
One of their most effective promotional tools are videos they post that show the alleged mistreatment of animals by farmers and ranchers. Well, I'm here to tell you those videos hit so far away from reality, you can't even see reality from them.
I've seen them. I couldn't finish a couple of them.
Let me put this in perspective for you.
Thinking that all farmers and ranchers treat their animals the way some videos portray things is like me searching for videos of dog owners, and coming across a vicious video of dog fighting, then assuming all dog owners must treat their "pets" in such a fashion. I mean, I saw the video, and this website told me that's what all dog owners in such and such location do. It must be true, right?
Wrong!
Does that make sense?
Those videos, and other information presented by those sites, is way off base, and represents such a small percentage of people with animals it would never show up statistically. If anyone in agriculture that I know saw treatment similar to that seen in those videos, they would put a stop to it on the spot.
I've also noticed in the ones I've watched that they're usually very old, and I have no idea where they got the footage, but it wasn't in America any time in recent history.
Whats more, those of us in production agriculture are possibly even more angered, upset, and hurt by those videos than people who don't own animals. We have animals ourselves, and we work hard every single day to prevent them from suffering any harm. The acts portrayed in those pieces of footage make us out to be something we're not, and that's a big concern to us.
Most dog owners are caring, compassionate people toward their pets. The same is true for people in agriculture. We also have to make a living off our animals, and that combined with our genuine care for them results in treatment that would never purposely cause harm or discomfort. Instead, we care for them in a way designed to make them happy, because happy animals perform better, and happy, high performing animals make for happy producers.

If you want to know more about animal agriculture, feel free to comment or email me at doublehphoto@live.com.
You can also check out a few accurate websites, including:

Real Ranchers

National Institute for Animal Agriculture

Life on a Kansas Cattle Ranch

Agriculture Proud

Extension Services

Feeding more hay

As mentioned before, feeding is a daily, or every other day chore in the winter months. Feed accounts for the largest single expense on most ranching operations.
Hay like this costs about $65 dollars a ton (a ton is 2,000 pounds). Then you have to pay to have it delivered, which costs about $5 a mile right now. We have our own trucking operation, so that is a little more than we pay, but the offset of paying less in mileage is that we have the time invested in getting it home.
Each of the bales you see in this picture weighs between 1,200 and 1,300 pounds. So, with a little math, you can figure out there is a lot of money sitting in this pen, known as a stack corral.
Stack corrals typically have much higher fences than the average fence to keep out animals like deer, who also love high quality hay.

I am not involved in the hauling of hay aspect very often. However, next time I am you better believe I will have my camera along, so I can share with you the entire process of getting hay from the field to the cow.



I am more involved in the feeding of the hay to the cows. I stop at the stack corral seen above and pick up one bale of last years hay.
If hay is put up (as in cut, and baled) correctly, and stored correctly, it can last for several years. If it isn't put up or stored properly, it can get moldy, and livestock won't eat it, and it becomes useless.
Then I drive about 5 miles to the pasture our cows are in. They know when feed day is, and on my way I turn on a siren briefly to alert them I'm on my way, with breakfast.
They start down the road to meet me, and this is what it looks like.



So I pull off road to a fairly flat location, and wait for all the cows to get to me.



Then I unload my bale, until its a few inches off the ground.




The net wrapping is cut...




and pulled off. You want the bale off the ground so you can pull the net wrapping off, and not drag it through a lot of cactus.





Then you drive along, using hydraulic controls to lower the bale as it unrolls on the ground.




But this bale was one that I picked up backwards, so in order to get it unrolled I had to back up instead of drive forward. The cows know the drill, and fall in front of the pickup, instead of behind, as their feed is unrolled.



Once you get out of the way, they all converge on the bale and fill up.




But these cows get two bales. Their second bale is waiting in another stack corral, in the same pasture as the cows. These bales are second cutting alfalfa, and basically taste like candy to cows. That's why they're set so far away from the fence - to keep the cows from leaning over the fence, and breaking it down, to get a taste.



I load one of the tasty bales on the feed pickup...



and head back to the feed grounds, just down the road. We feed in a different location most days so the cows don't tromp down the grass too much. Where we live the soil is highly erosive, and proper soil and plant management is critical in keeping land healthy and in production. If you overuse the land, it shows really fast where I'm from.
A lot of thought goes into even the most seemingly simple task on a ranch.



I unroll the second bale just like the first. If you ever want to know which of the two, or three, or four bales you just fed is the best, all you have to do is watch which one the cows eat first. You can see that no one is choosing to finish off the first bale I fed with the second one sitting right beside it. This is a pretty obvious example, as the second (green) bale is really really good stuff, and the first one is just kind of average. Sometimes you will have hay you think is very similar, but when you feed two bales, the cows all eat one first, just like what is seen here.





As I've mentioned before, we feed our livestock to keep them at a certain level of condition. We don't want them too skinny, but it's just as bad, or even worse, to have them too fat. A cow with the right amount of fat will stay healthy, and be strong enough to calve without issues (usually). She also needs to have enough energy stored for when she starts milking, because producing milk takes a lot of energy. Cows that are too fat are much like obese people, they have trouble getting around, and fat deposits in a cows bag can reduce her milking ability.
We want our cows to work for us, and instead of getting really fat, we want her to convert that energy to milk for her calf. While there are some parts of the country with so much feed that cows just stay fat, it isn't like that where I'm from. It takes a large area (30-50 acres) to feed one cow for one year where I'm from. People often say that those really big, really fat cows couldn't walk fast enough to get to enough grass to keep them from shriveling up, and it's true.
If a cow does get too skinny after calving, and has used up too much of her energy reserves producing milk, it significantly reduces her chances of re-breeding. Keeping cows near their ideal body condition is a year-round aspect of ranch management, and a critical component of any operation.
All of these cows are in good shape for us, and if the temperature hadn't dropped in the last week we probably would have reduced how much they were getting fed.



Here are all the cows enjoying their bales of hay. Once they finish off the really good bale, they'll go back and clean up the other bale too. They don't waste feed at our place.



Then there is always the second half of any feed day, checking the water to make sure it isn't iced over.
Another benefit of these re-cycled tire tanks is they're black, and absorb more heat due to their color.
One issue we've had with them in the past is that if we installed them prior to getting our sheep (like this one), they're too tall for a sheep to drink out of. When our sheep were in this pasture we would hook up a much smaller tank to the float on this one for the sheep to drink out of.