Thread: what cattle are eating these days

On Sun, 23 Sep 2012 21:27:49 -0600, Janet Bostwick wrote:

> Cattle enjoy sweet life amid corn shortages
....
> KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Mike Yoder's herd of dairy cattle are living the
> sweet life. With corn feed scarcer and costlier than ever, Yoder
> increasingly is looking for cheaper alternatives -- and this summer he
> found a good deal on ice cream sprinkles.

Just better hope some beef by products don't make it back into the
food chain. All that scrambling for feed, you can't trust everybody
not to do it.

-sw

On 9/23/2012 11:27 PM, Janet Bostwick wrote:
>
> Cattle enjoy sweet life amid corn shortages
>
> By Carey Gillam, Reuters
>
> KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Mike Yoder's herd of dairy cattle are living the
> sweet life. With corn feed scarcer and costlier than ever, Yoder
> increasingly is looking for cheaper alternatives -- and this summer he
> found a good deal on ice cream sprinkles.
>
> "It's a pretty colorful load," said Yoder, who operates about 450
> dairy cows on his farm in northern Indiana. "Anything that keeps the
> feed costs down."
>
> As the worst drought in half a century has ravaged this year's U.S.
> corn crop and driven corn prices sky high, the market for alternative
> feed rations for beef and dairy cows has also skyrocketed. Brokers are
> gathering up discarded food products and putting them out for the
> highest bid to feed lot operators and dairy producers, who are
> scrambling to keep their animals fed.
>
> In the mix are cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange
> peels, even dried cranberries. Cattlemen are feeding virtually
> anything they can get their hands on that will replace the starchy
> sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn.
>
> "Everybody is looking for alternatives," said Ki Fanning, a
> nutritionist with Great Plains Livestock Consulting in Eagle,
> Nebraska. "It's kind of funny the first time you see it but it works
> well. The big advantage to that is you can turn something you normally
> throw away into something that can be consumed. The amazing thing
> about a ruminant, a cow, you can take those type of ingredients and
> turn them into food."
>
> Feed is generally the largest single production expense for cattle
> operators. Whatever is fed needs to supply energy and protein levels
> that meet the animals' nutritional needs. High prices for soy has
> operators seeking alternatives for both corn and soy.
>
> Corn alternatives are in particular demand as supplies are so tight
> that in some areas of the country, feed corn is not available at any
> price.
>
> Pricing and availability of the many different "co-products" as they
> are called, varies from place to place, but buyers report savings of
> 10 percent to 50 percent.
>
> The savings for operators are shrinking, however, as savvy resellers
> tie pricing for their alternative offerings to the price of corn,
> which surged to record highs this summer due to drought damage.
>
> The U.S. Department of Agriculture said last month the harvest now
> underway will yield the smallest corn crop in six years due to the
> drought that is still gripping more than half of the nation.
>
> "They are using less corn in a number of these rations, but as corn
> prices go up, prices for really every other co-product go up too,"
> said Greg Lardy, head of the animal sciences department at North
> Dakota State University.
>
> Operators must be careful to follow detailed nutritional analyses for
> their animals to make sure they are getting a healthy mix of
> nutrients, animal nutritionists caution. But ruminant animals such as
> cattle can safely ingest a wide variety of feedstuffs that chickens
> and hogs can't.
>
> The candy and cookies are only a small part of a broad mix of
> alternative feed offerings for cattle. Many operators use distillers
> grains, a byproduct that comes from the manufacture of ethanol. Other
> common non-corn alternatives include cottonseed hulls, rice products,
> potato products, peanut pellet.
>
> Wheat "middlings," a byproduct of milling wheat for flour that contain
> particles of flour, bran, and wheat germ, also are fed.
>
> And every now and then, there is a little chocolate for the hungry
> cows.
>
> Hansen Mueller Grain out of Omaha, Nebraska, who markets chocolate
> bars alongside oats and peanut pellets, said it all comes down to fat,
> sugar and energy.
>
> "That's all it is," said Bran Dill, a spokesman at Hansen Mueller.
> Demand is high, he said.
>
> But he also said increasing prices are making alternatives less
> attractive.
>
> "The price of this stuff has gone up so much it's gotten ridiculous,"
> he said.
>
And a major and sad reason is that something like 40% of feed corn
production goes to produce AlGore hysteria energy negative ethanol (it
takes more energy to plant, fertilize and process corn into ethanol than
we get from it)

On Sep 24, 12:06*am, Sqwertz <swe...@cluemail.compost> wrote:
> On Sun, 23 Sep 2012 21:27:49 -0600, Janet Bostwick wrote:
> > Cattle enjoy sweet life amid corn shortages
> ...
> > KANSAS CITY, Mo. *- Mike Yoder's herd of dairy cattle are living the
> > sweet life. With corn feed scarcer and costlier than ever, Yoder
> > increasingly is looking for cheaper alternatives -- and this summer he
> > found a good deal on ice cream sprinkles.
>
> Just better hope some beef by products don't make it back into the
> food chain. *All that scrambling for feed, you can't trust everybody
> not to do it.
>
> -sw


Oh, they'll do it all right. There's too much incentive right now.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:33:50 -0400, George <[email protected]>
wrote:

> And a major and sad reason is that something like 40% of feed corn
> production goes to produce AlGore hysteria energy negative ethanol (it
> takes more energy to plant, fertilize and process corn into ethanol than
> we get from it)

I don't call it hysteria, I call it waking up and smelling the coffee.
Of course we need better alternative energy, but it seems like ethanol
is the energy equivalent of methadone to the heroin/gasoline addicted
vehicle driving population.

Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind powered"
vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that would serve as
start up power. Then they produce their own wind after they are in
motion. Simple and efficient. Unfortunately, there would be
absolutely NO R&D money other than auto manufacturers (who are deep in
the pocket of fossil fuel companies) because no energy producers will
ever be able to make a profit off it.

--
I take life with a grain of salt, a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila

"sf" wrote :


<snip>

> Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind powered"
> vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that would serve as
> start up power. Then they produce their own wind after they are in
> motion. Simple and efficient. Unfortunately, there would be
> absolutely NO R&D money other than auto manufacturers (who are deep in
> the pocket of fossil fuel companies) because no energy producers will
> ever be able to make a profit off it.

I sincerely hope that the above is satire, but I'm afraid that she's
serious...

Cheers,

Michael Kuettner

Michael Kuettner wrote:

> > Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind powered"
> > vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that would serve as
> > start up power. Then they produce their own wind after they are in
> > motion. Simple and efficient. Unfortunately, there would be
> > absolutely NO R&D money other than auto manufacturers (who are deep in
> > the pocket of fossil fuel companies) because no energy producers will
> > ever be able to make a profit off it.
>
> I sincerely hope that the above is satire, but I'm afraid that she's
> serious...

You have to admit that wind is cheap. It consists of 100% air.

On 9/24/2012 1:17 PM, sf wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:33:50 -0400, George <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> And a major and sad reason is that something like 40% of feed corn
>> production goes to produce AlGore hysteria energy negative ethanol (it
>> takes more energy to plant, fertilize and process corn into ethanol than
>> we get from it)
>
> I don't call it hysteria, I call it waking up and smelling the coffee.
> Of course we need better alternative energy, but it seems like ethanol
> is the energy equivalent of methadone to the heroin/gasoline addicted
> vehicle driving population.

AlGore and friends made a lot of money with bogus science (remember the
AlGore movie with the drowning polar bears?) and he was one of the
biggest promoters of ethanol even though it is energy negative.

Here is a really succinct article with on of the greatest inventive
minds of lightweight and efficient designs in our countries thoughts on
the subject:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybel...nd-burt-rutan/



>
> Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind powered"
> vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that would serve as
> start up power. Then they produce their own wind after they are in
> motion. Simple and efficient. Unfortunately, there would be
> absolutely NO R&D money other than auto manufacturers (who are deep in
> the pocket of fossil fuel companies) because no energy producers will
> ever be able to make a profit off it.
>

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:17:48 -0700, sf wrote:

> Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind powered"
> vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that would serve as
> start up power. Then they produce their own wind after they are in
> motion.

Especially with you behind the wheel.

You have to credit to Barbara for thinking up the idea of a personal
vehicle that could perpetually power itself. Heck, she's definitely
in line for the Nobel Peace Price in Whoosh! for that gem.

-sw

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:42:57 +0200, Michael Kuettner wrote:

> "sf" wrote :
>
>> Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind powered"
>> vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that would serve as
>> start up power. Then they produce their own wind after they are in
>> motion. Simple and efficient. Unfortunately, there would be
>> absolutely NO R&D money other than auto manufacturers (who are deep in
>> the pocket of fossil fuel companies) because no energy producers will
>> ever be able to make a profit off it.
>
> I sincerely hope that the above is satire, but I'm afraid that she's
> serious...

I have no doubt she's serious.

-sw

On Sep 24, 10:43*am, "Michael Kuettner" <Michael.Kuett...@gmx.at>
wrote:
> "sf" *wrote :
>
> <snip>
>
> > Of course we need better sources of energy. *I vote for "wind powered"
> > vehicles. *They would need to have a small battery that would serve as
> > start up power. *Then they produce their own wind after they are in
> > motion. *Simple and efficient. *Unfortunately, there would be
> > absolutely NO R&D money other than auto manufacturers (who are deep in
> > the pocket of fossil fuel companies) because no energy producers will
> > ever be able to make a profit off it.
>
> I sincerely hope that the above is satire, but I'm afraid that she's
> serious...
>
> Cheers,
>
> Michael Kuettner

Maybe she is thinking of windmill powered battery chargers?

On 9/24/2012 8:33 AM, George wrote:
> On 9/23/2012 11:27 PM, Janet Bostwick wrote:
>>
>> Cattle enjoy sweet life amid corn shortages
>>
>> By Carey Gillam, Reuters
>>
>> KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Mike Yoder's herd of dairy cattle are living the
>> sweet life. With corn feed scarcer and costlier than ever, Yoder
>> increasingly is looking for cheaper alternatives -- and this summer he
>> found a good deal on ice cream sprinkles.
>>
>> "It's a pretty colorful load," said Yoder, who operates about 450
>> dairy cows on his farm in northern Indiana. "Anything that keeps the
>> feed costs down."
>>
>> As the worst drought in half a century has ravaged this year's U.S.
>> corn crop and driven corn prices sky high, the market for alternative
>> feed rations for beef and dairy cows has also skyrocketed. Brokers are
>> gathering up discarded food products and putting them out for the
>> highest bid to feed lot operators and dairy producers, who are
>> scrambling to keep their animals fed.
>>
>> In the mix are cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange
>> peels, even dried cranberries. Cattlemen are feeding virtually
>> anything they can get their hands on that will replace the starchy
>> sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn.
>>
>> "Everybody is looking for alternatives," said Ki Fanning, a
>> nutritionist with Great Plains Livestock Consulting in Eagle,
>> Nebraska. "It's kind of funny the first time you see it but it works
>> well. The big advantage to that is you can turn something you normally
>> throw away into something that can be consumed. The amazing thing
>> about a ruminant, a cow, you can take those type of ingredients and
>> turn them into food."
>>
>> Feed is generally the largest single production expense for cattle
>> operators. Whatever is fed needs to supply energy and protein levels
>> that meet the animals' nutritional needs. High prices for soy has
>> operators seeking alternatives for both corn and soy.
>>
>> Corn alternatives are in particular demand as supplies are so tight
>> that in some areas of the country, feed corn is not available at any
>> price.
>>
>> Pricing and availability of the many different "co-products" as they
>> are called, varies from place to place, but buyers report savings of
>> 10 percent to 50 percent.
>>
>> The savings for operators are shrinking, however, as savvy resellers
>> tie pricing for their alternative offerings to the price of corn,
>> which surged to record highs this summer due to drought damage.
>>
>> The U.S. Department of Agriculture said last month the harvest now
>> underway will yield the smallest corn crop in six years due to the
>> drought that is still gripping more than half of the nation.
>>
>> "They are using less corn in a number of these rations, but as corn
>> prices go up, prices for really every other co-product go up too,"
>> said Greg Lardy, head of the animal sciences department at North
>> Dakota State University.
>>
>> Operators must be careful to follow detailed nutritional analyses for
>> their animals to make sure they are getting a healthy mix of
>> nutrients, animal nutritionists caution. But ruminant animals such as
>> cattle can safely ingest a wide variety of feedstuffs that chickens
>> and hogs can't.
>>
>> The candy and cookies are only a small part of a broad mix of
>> alternative feed offerings for cattle. Many operators use distillers
>> grains, a byproduct that comes from the manufacture of ethanol. Other
>> common non-corn alternatives include cottonseed hulls, rice products,
>> potato products, peanut pellet.
>>
>> Wheat "middlings," a byproduct of milling wheat for flour that contain
>> particles of flour, bran, and wheat germ, also are fed.
>>
>> And every now and then, there is a little chocolate for the hungry
>> cows.
>>
>> Hansen Mueller Grain out of Omaha, Nebraska, who markets chocolate
>> bars alongside oats and peanut pellets, said it all comes down to fat,
>> sugar and energy.
>>
>> "That's all it is," said Bran Dill, a spokesman at Hansen Mueller.
>> Demand is high, he said.
>>
>> But he also said increasing prices are making alternatives less
>> attractive.
>>
>> "The price of this stuff has gone up so much it's gotten ridiculous,"
>> he said.
>>
> And a major and sad reason is that something like 40% of feed corn
> production goes to produce AlGore hysteria energy negative ethanol (it
> takes more energy to plant, fertilize and process corn into ethanol than
> we get from it)


I had ethanol on my mind while reading this, too. I guess getting
around town is more important than keeping food costs down.

sf wrote:
>
> Of course we need better sources of energy.
> I vote for "wind powered" vehicles.

WIND powered... that would be your gigantic cellulite ass! LOL-LOL

I bet the city of frisco makes sf turn on her over sized vehicle
flashers to cross the Golden Gate! <G>

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. . . .

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:09:39 -0700 (PDT), merryb <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Maybe she is thinking of windmill powered battery chargers?

No, I'm saying that once the car is in motion the air is in motion at
the front of the car and it = wind. It's a new idea that he's too
stupid to understand.

--
I take life with a grain of salt, a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila

merryb wrote:
>
> On Sep 24, 10:43 am, "Michael Kuettner" <Michael.Kuett...@gmx.at>
> wrote:
> > "sf" wrote :
> >
> > > Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind powered"
> > > vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that would serve as
> > > start up power. Then they produce their own wind after they are in
> > > motion. Simple and efficient. Unfortunately, there would be
> > > absolutely NO R&D money other than auto manufacturers (who are deep in
> > > the pocket of fossil fuel companies) because no energy producers will
> > > ever be able to make a profit off it.
> >
> > I sincerely hope that the above is satire, but I'm afraid that she's
> > serious...
>
> Maybe she is thinking of windmill powered battery chargers?

Yes, and with a fan to blow on the windmill and
keep it running when there's not enough wind.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:39:49 -0700, sf wrote:

> On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:09:39 -0700 (PDT), merryb <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> Maybe she is thinking of windmill powered battery chargers?
>
> No, I'm saying that once the car is in motion the air is in motion at
> the front of the car and it = wind. It's a new idea that he's too
> stupid to understand.

Like I said - Llorente here is a shoo-in for the Nobel Peace Price in
Whoosh! power.

-sw

Mark Thorson <[email protected]> wrote:
> merryb wrote:
>>
>> On Sep 24, 10:43 am, "Michael Kuettner" <Michael.Kuett...@gmx.at>
>> wrote:
>>> "sf" wrote :
>>>
>>>> Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind
>>>> powered" vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that
>>>> would serve as start up power. Then they produce their own wind
>>>> after they are in motion. Simple and efficient. Unfortunately,
>>>> there would be absolutely NO R&D money other than auto
>>>> manufacturers (who are deep in the pocket of fossil fuel
>>>> companies) because no energy producers will ever be able to make a
>>>> profit off it.
>>>
>>> I sincerely hope that the above is satire, but I'm afraid that she's
>>> serious...
>>
>> Maybe she is thinking of windmill powered battery chargers?
>
> Yes, and with a fan to blow on the windmill and
> keep it running when there's not enough wind.

It needs some sort of reserve power... rubber band kinetic energy storage
most likely.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 23:28:58 -0500, Nunya Bidnits wrote:

> Mark Thorson <[email protected]> wrote:
>> merryb wrote:
>>>
>>> On Sep 24, 10:43 am, "Michael Kuettner" <Michael.Kuett...@gmx.at>
>>> wrote:
>>>> "sf" wrote :
>>>>
>>>>> Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind
>>>>> powered" vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that
>>>>> would serve as start up power. Then they produce their own wind
>>>>> after they are in motion. Simple and efficient. Unfortunately,
>>>>> there would be absolutely NO R&D money other than auto
>>>>> manufacturers (who are deep in the pocket of fossil fuel
>>>>> companies) because no energy producers will ever be able to make a
>>>>> profit off it.
>>>>
>>>> I sincerely hope that the above is satire, but I'm afraid that she's
>>>> serious...
>>>
>>> Maybe she is thinking of windmill powered battery chargers?
>>
>> Yes, and with a fan to blow on the windmill and
>> keep it running when there's not enough wind.
>
> It needs some sort of reserve power... rubber band kinetic energy storage
> most likely.

What about the radiator fan? The radiator fan generates the wind that
powers the car that powers the fan. And if you park on the downhill
then no battery is required to start the fan in the first place! I
tell ya, she's invented recursive, perpetual power. Nobel
Prize-winning material if I ever saw it!

-sw

On 9/24/2012 8:09 PM, merryb wrote:
> On Sep 24, 10:43 am, "Michael Kuettner" <Michael.Kuett...@gmx.at>
> wrote:
>> "sf" wrote :
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>> Of course we need better sources of energy. I vote for "wind powered"
>>> vehicles. They would need to have a small battery that would serve as
>>> start up power. Then they produce their own wind after they are in
>>> motion. Simple and efficient. Unfortunately, there would be
>>> absolutely NO R&D money other than auto manufacturers (who are deep in
>>> the pocket of fossil fuel companies) because no energy producers will
>>> ever be able to make a profit off it.
>>
>> I sincerely hope that the above is satire, but I'm afraid that she's
>> serious...
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Michael Kuettner
>
> Maybe she is thinking of windmill powered battery chargers?
>




"Perpetual motion describes "motion that continues indefinitely without
any external source of energy; impossible in practice because of
friction."[2] It can also be described as "the motion of a hypothetical
machine which, once activated, would run forever unless subject to an
external force or to wear".[3] There is a scientific consensus that
perpetual motion in an isolated system would violate the first and/or
second law of thermodynamics."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion

"George" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:k3s6oo$leq$[email protected]..

> "Perpetual motion describes "motion that continues indefinitely without
> any external source of energy; impossible in practice because of
> friction."[2] It can also be described as "the motion of a hypothetical
> machine which, once activated, would run forever unless subject to an
> external force or to wear".[3] There is a scientific consensus that
> perpetual motion in an isolated system would violate the first and/or
> second law of thermodynamics."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion


Politicians seem able to violate most of the laws of thermodynamics.