Corn, Conventions and Butcher Cows

#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk

For my third week on the ranch, we were there for only two days then went to the Wyoming Stock [G]rowers event in Cheyenne. At the event a good point that I heard from more than one person was how important it is to show the benefits of beef. Because at the moment beef has lost its touch in America. Companies have now started to make “beef” that is made “100%” out of vegetables. During my discussions with these people at this event most of them had the same opinion that the beef industry needs to change because, if we don’t, then we will not survive in this day and age.

While at the ranch, every morning I feed the butcher cows. They eat corn but we started to run low on corn, so we had to change their feed and change it to half corn and half COB, which is corn, oats, and barley. This is an important point because it was important that we did not use all the corn and ran out of it before the cows went to slaughter.

A concept I would change would be not feeding the butcher cows corn. [I]nstead, I would feed them hay on top of the range that they eat, because I prefer grass fed over corn fed. Another concept that I would change is that the beef industry and ranchers in general need to capitalize on social media more, [due to]because with how much people use their phones and how much they use social media. [T]hat is another way that we can educate and help bring back the beef industry in my opinion.

Just because we really were not up at the ranch much this week, I do not have any questions and the questions I did have while down in Cheyenne at the Stock [G]rowers event were answered by professionals.

Something I plan on doing with what I have learned in this past week is learning more about the history of the beef industry and what could be done to change the outcome of where we’re going right now[,] because the industry has taken a big hit from this fake beef. Another plan is to learn more about why we feed animals what we feed them and how it affects them, because I think it’s important to keep in mind that what we feed these animals and put in their bodies we will also be consuming it in a way.