A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 9, 1991
Grandin Warns
(Continued trom Page A 1)
facilities, Grandin spoke about her
experience with cattle producers
and packagers.
According to Grandin, bruises
are costing the cattle industry
about $22 million per year.
Tremendous loss
“There’s a tremendous loss that
just saps the whole industry,” she
said, robbing producers and packa
gers out of large amounts of money
per head. The problem, as she put
it, “gets down to a lack of
accountability.”
Grandin revealed results of sev
eral studies, including several of
her own observations and surveys
taken over a 20-year period. With
in the past 10 years, however, she
has concentrated hef research on
Mid-West and Eastern producers
and slaughterhouses. Grandin has
found a wide range of data that
shows that, in too many cases, pro
ducers and packagers arc doing a
great deal of harm to the cattle
industry.
Bruises alone create a great deal
of problem all stemming from
mishandling and gross negili
gence, especially in the case of the
10-15 percent of the “hardcore
abusers that are dragging cripples
around, throwing calves, just
doing stuff that every decent lives
tock producer knows is wrong.
And we have got to do something
about these bad actors. We have to
put a lot of pressure on the bad
actors or they’ll wreck the rest of
the industry.”
Even though many feedyard
managers do a superb job, accord
ing to Grandin, the whole industry
must come together and educate
“John Q. public” about what the
industry is trying to do to maintain
good animal husbandry
techniques.
Expensive part
The livestock expert said that 45
percent of all bruises happen in the
loin area, the most expensive part
of the animal. She related statistics
taken by a Colorada packer that
reports about 5 percent of all the
fed feedlot cattle (particularly in
the West) have bruises. “Thai’s
adding up to a loss of 43 cents a
head on the average,” she said.
Moyer Packing Co., in an inde
pendent study, proved that 2-10
percent of all cattle have rib-area
bruises. The loin bruises occured
on up to about 30 percent of the
cattle a loss of $B-24 a head.
And back bruises are increasing,
mostly because, Grandin believes,
of the trucks used to transport
them.
“The thing that’s bad about all
these bruises is that it hasn’t
decline that much,” she said.
“Why are bruises still just as bad
now as they were 10 years ago?”
Segmented market
Grandin attributes the continu
ing losses to not only mismanage
ment, but the fact that the industry
operates as a segmented market.
The problem is, the producer
doesn’t get a premium price for
extra work and expense he puls
into the calves.
Grandin said rough handling is
the biggest cause of all bruises.
The other half is caused by defects
in the facilities, such as sharp
edges, cattle being agitated, or
gates that fall on cattle.
“Where those feedyards are
going to start getting a $2OO deduc
tion on a truckload of cattle, you
should have seen them* do some
thing about bruises,” she said.
“Bruises dropped from 14 percent
of the cattle to 7 percent.”
Cattle bruising and mis
management are hurting the
Industry, according to Dr.
Tample Grandin. She spoke
on Tuesday at the Cattle
Feeders Day In Lancaster.
She said that when the fecdlot
operators had to start paying for
the bruises, “all of a sudden, the
bruises got important. And then
they went out and got these special
trucks to haul these precious little
darlings in,” she said. “For years
I’ve talked to these feedyards
about bruises, and they could care
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economist, gave his 1991 pre
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less! But then all of a sudden when
they had to pay for it, they did
something about it”
Dark cutters meat which has
been stressed, and turns dark, with
a shorter shelf life is another
major problem that Grandin secs
occuring with increasing regulari
ty. This shows up on a lot of 4-H
cattle, :aiscd individually and not
socali/.cd with the other penned
animals. The problem occurs
when, after the show and sale, the
cattle then are brought together for
a length of time and fight until they
are slaughtered by that time,
Emptyfliisßag.
And Rll This One.
about 20 percent on average,
become dark cutters.
“The national incidence of dark
cutters is going up,” she said.
Another reason is that we are
breeding more lean cattle.
“There’s also the possibility that
some of the hormone implants...
could be increasing. ” She said that
hormone implants have to be more
carefully researched into the affect
they may have on dark cutters.
Other factors that contribute to
bruises on cattle include sudden
weather change (32 degrees F with
an icy rain is very life threating to
cattle) and injection site damage
because of ‘ ‘ sloppy, dirty injection
techniques,” said Grandin. Some
vaccines are very irritating and
cause pus.
This kind of problem is costing
about $1.44 an animal and affects
about 8 percent of all cattle.
“This is pretty bad, this is pretty
serious,” she said. “This is the
sort of thing that’s going to get us
into a lot of trouble with the
consumer.”
But educating the consumer
about how meat is produced
should be a top concern of fee
dyard operators and packers.
Grandin mentioned that producers
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should take time to explain exactly
how meat is produced.
“Maybe we ought to actually
show how the animal is slaugh
tered,” said Grandin. “The gener
al public thinks that (the cattle) are
bashed over the heads with a
sledgehammer. What actually hap
pens doesn’t actually look as bad
as people are imagining is
happening.”
“We have a choice of us show
ing (the slaughter process) and
showing it nicely, or the animal
rights people are going to go to
some scud-pit packing plant and
take some really grotesque
pictures.
People imagining
“What people are imagining is
worse than what’s actually going
on in a well-run place,” she said.
“As long as we don’t have
accountability, these losses just
keep happening,” she said. “We
live in an era where a high percen
tage of the public does not know
where food or other products come
from, where perception is reality. ’ ’
The livestock expert believes
that the main factor is communica
tion. “We have to start communi
cating with the public. We’re not
going to be able to do anything
about the animal rights radicals.
We need to communicate to Mr.
(Turn to Pag* A 36)
New DK 125