Home Sweet Home! When I came home for Thanksgiving, it was like I never left. However, when I left Manhattan this time, it was 35 degrees, when I arrived in South Dakota, there was over a foot of snow on the ground and it was approximately 3 degrees! This time, I knew I had been gone a long time! The snow is something I do enjoy though! I just don't like it when I have to travel anywhere, like I did today! Thank God for my cousin who lives up the road from me and the fact that he had to travel through the snow drift to get to his dad's place. If he wouldn't have driven through that with his pickup, I would never have gotten my car through! The road I live on is rarely plowed soon after it snows, so we deal with driving through snow drifts for quite some time before they finally clear it! Oh well I guess, makes us either learn to be a better driver, or we stay home!
This time coming home, I finally got back into the show barn! It is going to be a pretty crazy month for me! My brother and I have 8 bulls and 2 heifers to get ready for shows this winter! Plus, we just got 2 steers dropped off at his place! Like I said, it's going to be a busy month! But it was so great to be back in the barn! I have defidently missed that! It's nice to have heaters in there too so we don't freeze! Only downside is, there is a heater to keep the wash rack warm, but the water is still ice cold! :( Oh well, Small price to pay I guess! At least there is a heater at all or my Kansas-adjusted body would be frozen!
We will be headed to the small show in Brookings on December 28th, and then off to Mitchell on the 29th. I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it all goes and post pictures if we get any taken! :) Thanks to all of you who have been following my blog! Hope you all stay warm in this cold weather(unless you are fortunate enough to be in a warm climate) and have a safe and very Merry Christmas! God Bless!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Survivor!
Well, my first dead week of college (known as hell week to some) has come and gone, and I am still here! My first finals week will start bright and early at 7:30 on Monday morning with my speech final! Then I have my Algebra final Wednesday night, and Ag Economics and Animal Science both Thursday afternoon! Then I head home Friday morning! I am so excited to get to go home for a whole month! Thanksgiving break was like a little teaser to drive me nuts before this one! It will be good to go home and not have to spend all my time running around trying to see everyone before I leave again! Classes start again on January 18th, which will come sooner than I think!
We had an interesting conversation on our floor the other night. I had just gotten my swine exam back from my ASI 105 class (which I got a 100% on!) and I was showing this girl this funny picture that they used for a pig(they had taken Porky the Pig and put really big ears on him). And she asked why I had drawn triangles in the ears, and I told her that we had to know how to read ear notching and so that's how we got tested on it. She then asked me how you ear notch and what exactly that meant. And I explained to her that ear notching was like putting in an ear tag. They take a little punch and notch out part of the pigs ear. She got this horrified look on her face and was telling me how that was just abuse and mean to hurt the pig like that and why would you need to do that! And I explained that it is so you can identify the pigs and that it is similar to putting an ear tag in cattle (which she also thought was mean) except that you can't put an ear tag in pigs because they are very curious creatures and will chew it up. She was not impressed and was talking about how that was abuse and you shouldn't hurt the animal like that. And we tried explaining that it was like a person getting their ears pierced. And she goes, but I wanted my ears pierced, they didn't have a choice! And then we said, but what about babies that have their ears pierced, the mom just did that without asking them!
It was a long and interesting conversation to say the least! We were trying to explain to her that this is a needed thing for livestock management because you have to be able to identify the animal. But she is not from a farm and didn't quite understand where we were coming from! But it was a good conversation! :)
If you've never seen ear notching in pigs or never learned to read it, it is actually kind of tricky and confusing at first. We had to learn how to read it for ASI 105, my Animal Science Lab. Once you have it down, and if you can add quickly in your head, it is a very efficient way of identification. The pig's right ear is it's litter number(so you can tell if any pigs were litter mates) and the pigs left ear is it's identification number! So, for example, this pig's number would be 19-8(litter number 19, pig number 8)! If you are totally confused on how the numbers are figured out, take a look at this chart below, it is actually kinda cool! :)
We had an interesting conversation on our floor the other night. I had just gotten my swine exam back from my ASI 105 class (which I got a 100% on!) and I was showing this girl this funny picture that they used for a pig(they had taken Porky the Pig and put really big ears on him). And she asked why I had drawn triangles in the ears, and I told her that we had to know how to read ear notching and so that's how we got tested on it. She then asked me how you ear notch and what exactly that meant. And I explained to her that ear notching was like putting in an ear tag. They take a little punch and notch out part of the pigs ear. She got this horrified look on her face and was telling me how that was just abuse and mean to hurt the pig like that and why would you need to do that! And I explained that it is so you can identify the pigs and that it is similar to putting an ear tag in cattle (which she also thought was mean) except that you can't put an ear tag in pigs because they are very curious creatures and will chew it up. She was not impressed and was talking about how that was abuse and you shouldn't hurt the animal like that. And we tried explaining that it was like a person getting their ears pierced. And she goes, but I wanted my ears pierced, they didn't have a choice! And then we said, but what about babies that have their ears pierced, the mom just did that without asking them!
It was a long and interesting conversation to say the least! We were trying to explain to her that this is a needed thing for livestock management because you have to be able to identify the animal. But she is not from a farm and didn't quite understand where we were coming from! But it was a good conversation! :)
If you've never seen ear notching in pigs or never learned to read it, it is actually kind of tricky and confusing at first. We had to learn how to read it for ASI 105, my Animal Science Lab. Once you have it down, and if you can add quickly in your head, it is a very efficient way of identification. The pig's right ear is it's litter number(so you can tell if any pigs were litter mates) and the pigs left ear is it's identification number! So, for example, this pig's number would be 19-8(litter number 19, pig number 8)! If you are totally confused on how the numbers are figured out, take a look at this chart below, it is actually kinda cool! :)Thursday, December 2, 2010
‘you truly are what you eat’
Alright, so many of you have probably already read the article that was published in the collegian at South Dakota State University. If you have not, here is a link to do so! I encourage you all to read it, as the rest of this blog will make more sense if you do so!
http://www.sdsucollegian.com/opinion/healthy-eating-leads-to-a-healthy-person-you-truly-are-what-you-eat-1.1814581
OK, so onto my opinions of this article.
First off, I love the title! I really do want to be filled with what I eat, which is why I eat beef! Who doesn't want to be filled with Zinc, Iron, Protein, and B12 Vitamins?
So, just as Mr. Kranz did, I am going to get right to the meat issue! He states that "Nearly everyone knows that cruelty almost beyond measure is happening at factory farms where the animals are excluded from many state animal cruelty laws." Alright, I understand his concern for animal cruelty mainly because it is the same concerns I have! I do not approve of unlawful and inappropriate behaviors in meat packing plants. Which is frankly why there are laws and regulations to begin with! The meat sold has to be regulated by the USDA and without that stamp of approval of the treatment and cleanliness of the meat, it can't be sold! The laws of these plants require you to meet regulations, not only of the meat, but of the plant treatments. If the animal can't walk, the animal can't be slaughtered!
I also completely agree with his comment "It's easy to be negative and easy to not think about it. But it takes effort to CARE. You may have heard the quote, 'nothing worth doing is ever easy'." The agricultural community is struggling to get the truth out! We are trying to promote our industry and articles and stories like this that make us all sound like monsters do not help the cause! And I would argue with his statement that there is no such thing as a happy cow! If you've ever been in my show cattle barn, I would say those heifers are pretty darn happy in the summertime when it's 100 degrees outside and they are in a 60-65 degree barn all day long! They get fed all the food they want, get pampered, brushed and washed everyday, and they get turned loose at night to run around and munch on hay all night long! If I were a cow in that situation, I would be pretty darn happy! Also, if you go out to the Dairy Unit here at K-State, those cows are treated extremely well! The purpose of livestock is to reproduce. They are made to carry a calf and their bodies are made to handle it! If a dairy cow didn't have a calf, she would have absolutely no purpose! So, if we want to turn this whole world vegan and vegetarian, should we just kill all the animals and waste the products we could be creating from them? I am a strong Christian girl and I always have been. I do not support animal pain and suffering, however, I do support the use of animals for their purpose! If we are not going to use the products and by-products of animals, what is their purpose?
The part of his article that hit me the hardest was that he grew up on a dairy farm! He should know that dairy cows are raised well and treated well! If the cows are not treated well, they do not produce milk! If they are not producing milk, they are not a profit for the farmer! So, as Livestock people, we WANT our animals to be treated well...we NEED our animals to be treated well! We don't want to see them harmed any more than any vegetarian or vegan out there! Trust me...
Now, a message to Mr. Kranz...You really should read this blog post by Tasha. She was a vegan and started having MAJOR health problems that her doctors directly linked to her lack of meat consumption! She started eating meat again and her health is back to normal! Being a Vegan is not necessarily a healthy choice! http://voraciouseats.com/2010/11/19/a-vegan-no-more/
http://www.sdsucollegian.com/opinion/healthy-eating-leads-to-a-healthy-person-you-truly-are-what-you-eat-1.1814581
OK, so onto my opinions of this article.
First off, I love the title! I really do want to be filled with what I eat, which is why I eat beef! Who doesn't want to be filled with Zinc, Iron, Protein, and B12 Vitamins?
So, just as Mr. Kranz did, I am going to get right to the meat issue! He states that "Nearly everyone knows that cruelty almost beyond measure is happening at factory farms where the animals are excluded from many state animal cruelty laws." Alright, I understand his concern for animal cruelty mainly because it is the same concerns I have! I do not approve of unlawful and inappropriate behaviors in meat packing plants. Which is frankly why there are laws and regulations to begin with! The meat sold has to be regulated by the USDA and without that stamp of approval of the treatment and cleanliness of the meat, it can't be sold! The laws of these plants require you to meet regulations, not only of the meat, but of the plant treatments. If the animal can't walk, the animal can't be slaughtered!
I also completely agree with his comment "It's easy to be negative and easy to not think about it. But it takes effort to CARE. You may have heard the quote, 'nothing worth doing is ever easy'." The agricultural community is struggling to get the truth out! We are trying to promote our industry and articles and stories like this that make us all sound like monsters do not help the cause! And I would argue with his statement that there is no such thing as a happy cow! If you've ever been in my show cattle barn, I would say those heifers are pretty darn happy in the summertime when it's 100 degrees outside and they are in a 60-65 degree barn all day long! They get fed all the food they want, get pampered, brushed and washed everyday, and they get turned loose at night to run around and munch on hay all night long! If I were a cow in that situation, I would be pretty darn happy! Also, if you go out to the Dairy Unit here at K-State, those cows are treated extremely well! The purpose of livestock is to reproduce. They are made to carry a calf and their bodies are made to handle it! If a dairy cow didn't have a calf, she would have absolutely no purpose! So, if we want to turn this whole world vegan and vegetarian, should we just kill all the animals and waste the products we could be creating from them? I am a strong Christian girl and I always have been. I do not support animal pain and suffering, however, I do support the use of animals for their purpose! If we are not going to use the products and by-products of animals, what is their purpose?
The part of his article that hit me the hardest was that he grew up on a dairy farm! He should know that dairy cows are raised well and treated well! If the cows are not treated well, they do not produce milk! If they are not producing milk, they are not a profit for the farmer! So, as Livestock people, we WANT our animals to be treated well...we NEED our animals to be treated well! We don't want to see them harmed any more than any vegetarian or vegan out there! Trust me...
Now, a message to Mr. Kranz...You really should read this blog post by Tasha. She was a vegan and started having MAJOR health problems that her doctors directly linked to her lack of meat consumption! She started eating meat again and her health is back to normal! Being a Vegan is not necessarily a healthy choice! http://voraciouseats.com/2010/11/19/a-vegan-no-more/
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