we get new zealand beef here (god knows why, canada grows a lot of it's own beef, it's a major export), and was wondering how you treat your cows over in NZ. do you do the whole feedlot thing? or do you let your cows wander thru the fields eating grass?
yeah the cows are 'free range' as opposed to being enclosed the whole time. I would think that they're actually treated damn well - shitloads of grass to eat, milked twice a day so they aren't in pain, looked after well and all that shizzle... so no, we don't have 'battery cows'. The same can't be said for our eggs and chickens.
okay, that's what i thought. the butcher here was trying to tell me that new zealand beef was all feedlotted and that australian was freeranged. he must've been confused. i've always thought it was the other way around. thankyou!
Note Taylor used the phrase "I would think..." meaning, "I have no idea what I'm talking about". If you want a factual answer to your question, this is a terrible place for it. I recommend The Straight Dope Message Boards, where questions like this are answered all the time with highly informative/knowledgeable answers, and the spread of misinformation is strongly discouraged.
you mean you're not just going to give me the answer. ::sigh:: ps, that's a pretty crazy forum. there are some really strange things that pple wonder about...
Well, you can always placate yourself by taking a fake answer, but just rest in the knowledge that you are believing a lie. At least there you may be able to find the truth. It's a really excellent forum with all sorts of bright, funny, helpful individuals. Although it is pay-for-membership in the long run, you can register as a guest for free for 30 days.
Nope, but I love it. The collective knowledge of the people there has helped me many times. I also go by the handle Rigamarole there.
I'm not a beef farmer but you can drive around NZ and see cows in the fields, free ranging it. In geography in high school we were also taught that the beef is free ranged. but i'm not really sure, and I'm veggie, so beef isn't my forte..
yeap, they are all freeranged, havnt heard of any that arnt.. old auntie helen wouldnt like it to much if they wernt..
Well, seeing as I actually spend a month out of every year living on farms around new zealand, as well has having lived here my entire life and driven around the country many times, my assumption (based on having SEEN cows free ranging it and TALKING to beef farmers about their farms) that "yeah the cows are 'free range' as opposed to being enclosed the whole time" would really be quite accurate. Also, seeing as you're in Los Angeles, a city known for its smog and not known for its farming techniques in New Zealand, I would think that you should really keep your moth shut, no?
Never claimed I knew anything about NZ cows. But I do know how to tell the difference between when someone is telling an absolute fact and a guess - I get to practice that plenty in Los Angeles.
ahhh I love how Amercians think they know about everything from how the world is run to how to know if New Zealand beef is free range. Its great, really it is.
My point was just because you live there doesn't mean you know everything about it. If someone asked me anything about free-ranged cows in America, I would have no clue. But I am pretty good at ferreting out people who are BSing (and he/she may or may not be right, but I just don't like when people relay information they aren't 100% sure about), and that's a universal human trait.
OF COURSE you would have no clue. you live in Los Angeles, City of Smog and Hollyweird. As I have previously stated Don't assume that YOUR circumstances are universal. Just cos you wouldn't have a clue about cows in America, don't assume that we don't know shit here. We're an agricultural country. You'd be suprised at the amount of latent knowledge in the average kiwi.
Yes just about every single Kiwi *does* know exactly how cows are raised. We are agriculturally focussed. We see the damn cows everywhere all the time and have an awareness that our country is both arable and temperate meaning that there is not a single reason to have either dairy barns or feedlots. Our whole economy goes down the toilet every time the US slaps a tarrif on beef for the very reason that we raised cows non-intensively and therefore more cheaply (with better quality). Who is generalising more here... the Kiwi who knows what they know, or the Yank who assumes Kiwis are as ignorant as the Americans he or she knows personally (I am currently in a small agriculturally focussed town in the US and people here are by no means ignmorant about how the US raises cows)
hm, here in canada, i see lots and lots and lots of cows that are free-ranging but then a lot of them get sent off to feedlots for the last few weeks before they're butchered to fatten them up on grainstocks. neil young says~there's more to the picture than meets the eyyye. hey hey, my my hoping that kiwi cows range free till the end of their days, and wishing that i was over there to eat them , nimh
Again, Canada is not temperate or fully arrible. The cows cannot get enough free water or grass to get fat and must be run over huge territoires resulting in 10% calf mortality and skinny animals. Also in the winter they get very very cold. New Zealand is temperate and arrible. Animals in small pastures are watched fairly closely and get fat on grass and unless there is a freak storm or they are way South they do not get cold. If you like cows buy NZ milk and beef. NZ cows eat grass, and only grass; live outside, and only outside. Skepticism is one thing but just outright no believing good news just because it is good news and so can't possibly be right is silly.
a bit out of the time as this is old but heres how it happens. Most of the year the cows are kept outside in a fenced paddock and moved once a week to get more grass. However in winter some farmers place most of the cows in the wintering sheds and feed them hay or . This keeps the cows out of the harsh weather nd lets the grass grow. Now the killing part; when a selected number of cows are chosen they get sold off to the freezing works placed in trucks and taken to the plant where 1 by 1 get killed and processed into what you eat in canada. Thats my explanation =]
