Recently I was the speaker at the Dutchess County Sheep and Wool Growers annual membership meeting in New York. I was originally reluctant to go, I am a country boy at heart but I am sure glad I did. Other than the air travel, it was a great experience. The people were great and while some were part time sheep producers, others were making a substantial income off smaller flocks of sheep. They do a lot of direct marketing of lamb meat and wool. There again, it was a good experience and its helpful to step out of your environment and observe how other people get the job done. They sponsor a lamb and wool festival in the fall that draws 60,000 people, a great opportunity to expose urban and city people to agriculture. Food comes from the grocery store but doesn’t originate there. Someone has to produce it. We in agriculture have to tell our story and this group is getting it done.
When I get out the USDA brochure entitled Sheep and Lamb Predator and Non-Predator Death Loss in the United States 2015 the first thing that catches my eye is the number of ewes. In the past 20 years, the number of ewes has dropped from five million to three million. During the same time, the number of operations increased 10%. Basically, this shows 94% of the sheep flocks are 100 or less and 5% is 100 to 500 and the balance of 1% are 500 or more. It appears to me that the beef cattle industry is under similar pressure. Goats, for the most part, start out small and while I haven’t seen any statistics, they appear to be growing in numbers. Local veterinary services continue to be a problem for all three groups, not as evident in beef right now, but it’s coming.
Subway has joined up with Chipotle and Panera with their push to serve meat that is antibiotic free. All meat sold in this country is antibiotic free. All meat. Whether labeled antibiotic free or not, it is a federal regulation and it is documented through testing.
The issue from an animal rights perspective is whether it is humane or not to treat sick animals that are in the food chain. Common sense tells us that it is not humane to let sick animals suffer and die. It is humane to treat sick animals. Antibiotics that are given to sick animals have a withdrawal period to ensure that our food is all antibiotic free.
The political issue that is not being talked about is the animal rights people want us all to be vegans. They can accomplish this in various ways. One of the fastest is to make animal protein too expensive to buy.
If I were to patronize Subway, and in the future I won't, I would be more concerned about the preservatives and salt in their meat than I would be concerned about consuming antibiotic residue or antibiotic resistant bacteria. It is a known fact that food produced organically has a much higher bacterial count than that produced in approved farming and manufacturing practices.
Coming home from New York I had the opportunity to read Woody Lane’s book, From The Feed Trough. A twenty-one hour travel day will do that for you. I found the book a hard read but it definitely contains good information that explains many of the observations that I have made.
