Video: A morning at Calhoun Cattle Co.

[AgrivilleAdmin]

[kato]

That's cool. My son has a drone with a camera. I should get him to fire it up here.

[blackjack]

Good on you guys...in the heart of Swalwell AB.Thanks for sharing.

[grassfarmer]

Its a nice little video and something I enjoy watching - reminds me of my childhood and playing with toy tractors and animals on the carpet.
There is another side to it too though I'd like you to consider and in doing so I target no offence or criticism to the family involved - just using this as a representation of a typical western Canadian feedlot.

Watch it again and see how totally hydrocarbon dependant the system is - it's used in:

Machinery - manufacture and operation

Grain - the rolling or processing
the trucking in
the grain growing field operations
the fertilizer production and shipping
the agrochemicals

Silage - the field operations to grow and harvest
the fertilizer production and shipping
agrochemicals
silage pit covers

Bedding - the trucking in
the net wrap
the baling
the manure hauling and incorporation

The cattle - trucking in - trucking out.

It's a hydrocarbon burning system we have build - these fossil fuels are FINITE resources and we are by most accounts beyond "PEAK OIL" already.

Do you want to talk sustainability Mc Donalds?

[Happytrails]

GF you hit the nail on the head. All we need to do to be sustainable is to get the same results as the feedlots using less inputs of fuel and drugs, etc. In my experience it isn't real hard to do up to long yearling cattle. Especially in the need for transportation and the use of antibiotics.

I have no experience with fattening to finish but it might work for some operators. The feedlots have economies of scale working for them.

Nice video by the way. I would like to get one of a roundup and a branding. Any volunteers??

[blackjack]

Grassfarmer, you just listed why agriculture producers are so important to the economy. Can you imagine within this outfit alone how many people they employ directly or indirectly? Whether their business is sustainable or not is not for anybody else but themselves to decide.

[grassfarmer]

I'm not talking financial sustainability, i'm talking absolute sustainability with regard to world resources. If we generate a million dollars but use two million dollars of finite resources to produce that it clearly isn't sustainable. These in my mind are the big questions we have to face as a civilization if we are to continue. The rate at which we are burning through resources now is hugely beyond what can be supported - and is escalating!! We have got to start addressing these issues and reviewing our use of unnecessarily hydro-carbon fuelled animal protein sources would be a start.

[blackjack]

I understand where your coming from and I don't have any answer.It's pretty obvious the Prentices'of the world are not worried about conserving the resources...plus the majority of people here in AB that think oil is God. So I'm not sure who would listen to you Grassfarmer cause I think the choir would be deaf.

[DGoodrich]

GF knows I share his sentiments, as does Kaiser, which makes 3 of us at least. LOL

I feel that by the time the majority of people realize how badly our system is ruining ecosystems and depleting soil and water, it will be too late to turn things around. I may be wrong, just my opinion.

[smcgrath76]

The issue is really externalities or lack thereof. The system works well, because the true costs get pushed onto the public, the environment, other countries, etc. I think it is almost impossible for most human beings to associate the small picture and the big picture and see the ties between personal choice and larger ecosystem or global effects, and also how large global effects (climate change as an example) might affect personal choice going forward. Our governments are great at defraying true costs to future generations who can't yet cast a ballot.

[ProFarmer]

Beautiful video! That is the way good beef is produced. If this world had to survive on organic beef we would all be starving to death. There is not enough area or manpower to raise beef the way grass farmer says. Here in Manitoba they would freeze to death picking grass in the winter.

[ProFarmer]

If you want to see a hydrocarbon burning system go visit a airport , freeway or even an amusing airshow tractor pull or racetrack some day and see how your average consumer burns millions of gallons of fuel to travel and be entertained.Even too pull fresh produce from florida or California for 10 months of the year. The little hydrocarbon that feedlot uses to produce a food product should NEVER be criticised !!

[smcgrath76]

PF - I think everything should always be constructively criticized. That is the only way to improve it.
We are not organic, but I am pretty sure that the organic producers I know do not just leave their cows out to pick scraps of grass (in fact most are very good stockmen). I am aware of both organic and conventional producers that use large amounts of hydrocarbons to produce the same amount of product as other conventional and organic producers that do not. I don't think it should be one system versus the other. Each provides beef to an important market that specific consumers want.
In my mind the use of hydrocarbons represent a big business risk (as do a lot of other things) and finding ways to reduce the use of such is just good risk management. At $50 a barrel for oil things may be fine and dandy, but at $200 costs can accelerate at an out of control and unmanageable pace. Any time you can get to the same end goal with less input, there should be more $ left over for your own pocket.

[grassfarmer]

If we go with Michael Pollans figures from "Power Steer" 284 gallons to produce a fat steer you bet we should be concerned about how much finite fossil fuel we are using in beef production.
Talking about possibilities I think in western Canada we could produce the equivalent of our entire kill for 5 for months of the year and do it for about a third - to a half of the current hydrocarbon consumption per head.
Of course it's easier to keep on doing the same old, then when the oil runs out you are royally screwed. Yes, lets do that - it about mirrors the "vision" of cattle industry leadership and most western politicians.

[smcgrath76]

GF - my estimate (conservative) is that we could run 2.5 times more cows without even planting another blade of grass, simply through improved management of the pastures we already have. That would instantly slash the fossil fuel use per pound of beef produced. It is usually easier to apply a prescription solution to symptoms, rather than acknowledge and figure out a solution to the actual problem.