#it's the artificial insemination of livestock for me

[bonefall]

Is there beef with the Holstein cows and you or what was that joke lol

It's kind of wild It's just never come up on this blog before, but I HATE holsteins. Bottom 10 cow breeds for me. I hate how they're so common they account for the majority of milk produced. I hate that they're the "default" cow to the point where some don't even know cattle HAVE other colors. I hate their tiny horns (IF THEY EVEN HAVE THAT. LOSER ASS HORNLESS COW) and their painfully massive udders.

Legit I'm trying so hard to not launch into a No Mouth Must Scream style AM speech-- shoot my hand slipped.

(AM speech about why i dont like holsteins below the cut)

For starters, I have to give a brief lesson on what these terms mean; the "Holstein" is the American strain of the "Frisian" breed. Frisians are an ancient breed from Frisia, in the north of what we now consider the Netherlands. Crosses between the breeds are "Holstein-Frisians."

(There’s even more to this but im keeping it as simple as possible. Also one of my friends is Frisian and she is probably going to kill me for describing it like that.)

Historically, livestock was adapted to the environment they lived in. Frisians were bred by the Frisii people for hundreds of years in extremely grass-rich, lush, flat environments. The "polders" of the northern parts of the Netherlands. They're huge and eat a LOT of food.

Traditional Frisians were developed to produce as much meat and milk from a single individual as possible, without compromising the health of the cattle with constant inbreeding to get quick gains. We are talking about a breed that is over 2000 years old. They had the perfect environment to make The Ultimate Food Cow and by god they did it. I can respect that.

So, take that, drag it across an ocean to a place that does NOT have polders, and add the rapid enshittification of capitalism to it. BAM you've got a fucking holstein.

There is ONE goal for "improving" the holstein. Make More Milk. As long as the black and white milkbag leaks enough, nothing else matters. Health? Fertility? Feed ratio? Ability to not die of infection? WHO CARES. MILK LINE GO UP.

Over 90% of holsteins are inbred to start with, because Milk Line Go Up. To the tune of having an average COI of 8%-- where extreme negative effects (think Hapsburgs) start to crop up around 10%

Holstein bulls are aggressive bastards (many dairy bulls are), so no one wants to keep intact males in their herds, meaning most cows are artificially inseminated

Not being limited by the natural lifespan of a living bull means that the same stud can keep having direct offspring for decades after his death

Toystory the bull had 500,000 calves before he died, and hit over 1 million offspring in 2015. That's ONE animal and to put this in perspective, there are 9 million holsteins in the US.

DON'T WORRY IT GETS WORSE

Not only can 99% of holsteins be traced back to just two bulls-- 99% of male holsteins share one of two exact Y chromosomes with those two bulls.

The gene pool is so small that it's equivalent to about 60 individuals. Warrior Cat allegiances are larger than that. That's barely bigger than modern ThunderClan.

"Massive lack of genetic diversity" does not begin to capture the existential dread of this situation. Mark my words, WATCH, when the Bird Flu finally mutates a strain that rips through a mammalian population, it's gonna be in the USA and it's going to be through our dairy cattle.

This is not prophecy or me laying a curse on the land, this is the natural consequence of basing the stability of US milk production on the equivalent of 9 million clones of two classrooms worth of individuals, and then packing them in close quarters

And we don't have to wait for doomsday for the impacts to be apparent on the cattle themelves

Holstein fertility has also dropped by half since the 1960s when the intensive inbreeding really kicked into high gear

Because their whole body is dedicating all of their resources to milk production, they have a notoriously "bony" frame.

Show judges, however, like this because they think that's a very "feminine" look for a 1600 pound ruminant. Very normal thing to think.

Like. I don't know if i can communicate this to people who don't look at cows a lot (it's not quite as obviously dramatic as a pug skull) but here is a comparison of an "ideal" show holstein and an "unselected" holstein from a herd that's been established as a sort of "control group" for what they looked like back in the 1960s;

The way that the artery on the "modern" cow's belly runs to the udder like a big pink worm freaks me out the most ngl

The udder also bulges out from between the back legs

The show cow is so thin

And then compare these both to a Holstein-Frisian cross who leans more on the Frisian side;

Proper weight, developed legs. Its biggest "problem" is actually just the udder shape-- deep udders, which "hang" low like that, aren't optimal for milk-focused breeds because the higher away from the ground the less chance there is of infection. In that department, the "unselected" holstein clearly outclasses the holstein-frisian.

But it probably won't be surprising to hear that the "show holstein," with its massive, swollen udder, is SUPER prone to infections such as mastitis.

But it is also just more prone to getting sick generally

And, to keep up with these insane demands, holsteins need a TON of food. You aren't going to just turn these things out into a pasture and be done with it. Even its ancestor the Frisian needed premium Dutch polder grass to be such a good cow-- crank that up to 11 with these Monuments to Humanity's Hubrice

The Texas Longhorn developed in semi-feral conditions and can eat a bush to become the best thing in a 10 mile radius. The Scottish Highland was iron-forged in upland moors with a steady diet of turf and rain.

Meanwhile if a Holstein has less than 5 homemade meals a day without poland spring bottled water it will die to death.

And the WORST part? You have to use these if you want to make money in dairy farming. It's WAAY too expensive to just run a suboptimal farm. Their milk isn't great, but they sure do make a lot of it.

...so Holsteins and Holstein-Frisians (and other "super efficient" breeds) have absolutely decimated heritage cattle. The American Milking Devon is a deep reddish brown with gorgeous horns and low maintenance; rare. Randall Linebacks are painted with lines of white speckles down the back and can be used for any purpose; critically endangered. The Niata was a pug-faced cow who could fight jaguars; extinct.

And THAT'S what makes me hate them most of all. I LOVE cows, but whenever I see a reference to one, it's a holstein. It's always boring black and white splotches with big pink udders. They're practically synonymous with "cow" when their homogeniety is actually hiding much cooler breeds from you.

Did you know cows can be tiger-striped?

And that England has its own type of longhorn?

Or that cow horns can twist upwards like an antelope?

And that they can have REALLY LONG ears?

And that they can be blue?

And that's not even getting into some of the cows that have gotten a small crumb of attention lately, such as Highlands, Ankole-Watusi, and Texas Longhorns. There's so many cool cows out there! And they're all really different from holsteins! MOST of them are also a lot healthier and produce tastier milk and meat!

TL;DR yeah i don't like holsteins and I like sniping at them. For reasons both legit and petty.

[buttonbuckfarm]

Broad Breasted vs. Heritage Turkeys, and the importance of heritage preservation

I’ve been asked about the differences between heritage and broad breasted turkeys, so here’s a write up that provides a pretty good overview idea of the differences and why I breed heritage turkeys. You can also read this on my Substack because I guess that’s a thing I’m gonna try for a bit.

I’m often asked why I raise turkeys if I’m not eating them, or selling them for meat.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against raising birds for meat, nor do I mind if a handful of my birds each hatch end up making a meal for someone. But most of my birds either stay with me or go to other breeders, never making it to an oven or slow cooker. This is, paradoxically, because I would like for more people to be eating turkeys from my lineages.

I raise what we call heritage turkeys. This distinguishes them from the domestic turkeys you find in the factory farms of Perdue and eventually in the freezer aisle of the grocery store phenotypically (the physical expression of genetics), but they are not genetically distinct “breeds.”

The USA consumes about 218 million turkeys per year. Of that vast number, around 1% are heritage turkeys. The rest are known as “broad-breasted” turkeys, sometimes referred to simply as production turkeys. A broad-breasted turkey is, as the name suggests, a turkey that has been bred to produce a substantially larger portion of breast meat compared to a turkey more closely related to its wild relatives.

The broad-breasted turkey may be the animal that suffers the most as a result of factory farming and our fixation on efficiency and maximized output. The increased breast size of a broad-breasted turkey has made them so unwieldy that they often struggle to walk, falling and breaking their own toes. Their bodies cannot keep up with the rapid meat growth focused in the breast, shortening their lifespans considerably (though they are not meant to survive past butcher reaching weight anyway, rendering their rapid drop in quality of life moot). Broad-breasted turkeys cannot even mate - their bodies are so awkward and unmanageable that they must be artificially inseminated. Smaller farms often have slightly healthier production birds, able to keep themselves upright and mobile till butcher date, but they still suffer from higher mortality rates from stressors and significantly more fragile immune systems.

A lack of genetic diversity is partially to blame, as broad-breasted turkey stock overwhelmingly come from three large companies, but the intensive selection for meat production above all else obviously comes with significant costs to health and well-being.

Heritage turkeys, on the other hand, are more similar to their wild relatives, though a bit larger. Naturally, they have a lower feed to meat conversion rate than a broad-breasted turkey and take longer to reach butcher weight. They exhibit much greater color diversity than broad-breasteds, given the narrowed genetic pool of production turkeys, and can come in hundreds of varieties. The array of heritage turkey phenotypes is widely unknown to those outside the poultry fancier world.

Because of their substantially lower ‘efficiency,’ heritage turkeys quickly started to be replaced with broad-breasted turkeys after their development in the 1920s. A 1997 census conducted by the Livestock Conservancy found that less than 1,500 breeding heritage turkeys were left in the entire country. Many thought they’d go extinct completely.

Fortunately, a wave of renewed vigor for the preservation of heritage turkeys surged across the small farms in the country. As is often the case, many tiny, isolated farmers found out they had rare stock on their hands without ever knowing it, and the push to make the plight of the heritage turkey known allowed these small farmers and many others to re-introduce their stock to the greater breeding population. The rebound was truly incredible, bringing us up to over 15,000 heritage turkeys as of the 2015 census.

This is still a tiny fraction of the millions of turkeys produced for meat in the United States, of course. And beyond the brief wave of zeal that pushed them from the brink of extinction, heritage turkeys have remained a niche, almost novel agricultural interest.

To bring us back to the start of this: I think we should be eating more heritage turkeys. The animals we raise for meat deserve dignified and peaceful lives, and struggling to sustain excessive meat growth to the point of being unable to move properly ought to be an unacceptable state for our livestock. Additionally, the genetic monoculture of the broad-breasted turkey has left them - and all other production-bred strains of livestock - dangerously vulnerable to epidemics. When every animal in our food system is equally immunocompromised, we are playing with fire - we’re nervously watching the avian influenza’s impact on our food systems as is.

In order to raise awareness that they even exist, provide more breeding stock to farmers, promote genetic diversity, and demonstrate the strengths of heritage turkeys compared to broad-breasted birds, we simply need more heritage turkeys. There’s not enough of them for us to even begin to transition away from production turkeys as a staple of our diets.

Additionally, and on a more lighthearted note, there are hundreds of potential color varieties in heritage turkeys. Many of these have been lost, or simply remain undocumented to this day. Alongside the implications for our food system, I want to preserve the beauty and diversity these birds have visually, particularly when so many varieties are teetering on the edge of nonexistence. They’re a dark horse in the bird world, but in recognizing the beauty and diversity of the domestic turkey, I hope we can also recognize and utilize their potential impacts on our food systems.

[animentality]

I know it's a fact of life and all, but it does give me the heebie jeebies, knowing there's someone out there whose job is to masturbate male pigs so they can ship off semen to artificially inseminate sows.

Like I get it... it's just...like...business, circle of life, this is how the meat industry is efficient in how it breeds livestock, but...

I'm trying to imagine someone whose job it is to masturbate a caged pig, and it's like...

Hm.

I hope they pay them...something good.

Also I wonder if like...female pigs ever feel super weird about being artificially inseminated.

Like they know it's not natural.

I assume.

And then I think, well, what about the male pigs?

They probably know it's not natural either, being jerked off in a cage by some human.

What is going through their heads during all this...

[fjordfolk]

Also had a chat this weekend about how iffy some dog breeders get when talking about artificial insemination, which is so odd to me. I understand that I'm probably coming at it from the wrong angle (because I'm used to livestock and grew up w fur farming, both of which will AI just about everything) but still. You'd think in a small country with a limited gene pool where importing is costly and time consuming and where absolutely everyone has the same problem (not enough decent quality unrelated males) ppl would lean on that more but ?? No sure meet someone at the Fennoswedish border under an elm tree on a thursday at 3am instead and hope it takes

[evita-shelby]

the math i have to make to make panem and its ridiculously small populations for places that need more people to function is giving me a headache. and this is just for a hunger games peaky blinders au only like 6 people will read lol

as someone from a cattle ranching family i wanna have a talk with suzanne collins to see how a place with less people than my county manage to feed a country when in 2023 the us had 1 million people working in the just the beef industry. and also the district that provides the livestock has like the remains of central and northern mexico, west central and half of north texas, east new mexico. by default it should be at least a million or two since meat plants are notorious for accidents and obviously you need to work in agriculture to provide feed for the animals, and have vets for them since they have artificial insemination for their cows and also the fact that it is also presumably surrounded by ocean they sustain themselves with fishing. by default d10 should be amongst the richest of the districts since it can literally sustain itself even if it holds the remains of the sonoran desert.

[nwaakwna]

Some confused musings on hucow kink

To me, livestock husbandry appears as a generally exploitative endeavour. I think that is the main reason why I’m drawn to it and not to other forms of animal play. Petplay as puppy or even kitten doesn’t seem to provide the necessary steep power imbalance – cats appear to be even naturally dominant or at least indifferent. Even ponyplay is too much “play” for me. What I crave is a true sub-human existence as a commodity, as a means of production and nothing more.

Dairy farming, for good reasons relying on relatively docile herd animals, provides an example of that. Milk production primarily exploits the female members of a species and particularly for the product of their biological nurturing role. The predatory exploitation has stepwise increased from pastoral cultures over partial animal housing with relatively small herds to modern factory farming or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

I’ve been roleplaying as a hucow on Second Life for several years now. From the conversations I have had and overheard most people do it as innocent pastime or fuelled by a drive to “level up”. Of course, it has sexual undertones for most, but most people seem to enjoy a lactation kink, achieving pride from their production, albeit virtual. Roleplaying being bred by bulls also plays a part. For me, roleplaying as a hucow also is arousing but for a different reason. In reality, cows are not bred by bulls anymore, but they are artificially inseminated for the only reason of getting gravid again. It’s the total lack of consideration of the cows needs that arouses me. Roleplaying and particularly not masturbating is what’s getting me hot. Because it’s not about my needs. Not at all. In the best case I’m a grain of sand within an overwhelming system.

I enjoy rules that make it difficult for me, even boring. I don’t get to keep any of the ingame currency I earn but give it to the dairy owners. It gets me deeply into a submissive headspace. Sometimes I spend several hours a day, just sitting naked in front of the computer, watching my alter ego equally sitting on a milker, listening to the sounds of the milk pump, gently playing with my nipples. In this mood, I even don’t eat human food but only gruel without flavouring. Some farmers tell me they like fat hucows because it improves milk quality. I have to object. Hucows should be emaciated because every joule of energy is poured into milk production. They should get as much as they need to keep production high but not a calorie more.  

I don’t like the natural end of the exploitative relationship. When I roleplay as hucow I don’t think of getting slaughtered. I just ignore that part of the reality of the template. I also imagine that hucows are kept lactating not by being pregnant, but by hormones. Consent of the female “calves” which would be raised into the system would be issue. So, while it’s not a perfect model this special manifestation of the hucow kink works very well for me and keeps me wet and horny for hours a day.

[littlecreampuffbirdi]

I remember I once had a classmate that deadass tried to convince me that AI increased worker production.

Maybe Artificial Insemination will increase your livestock, but Artificial Intelligence hardly does shit. It’s a tool that may have its place, but, for now, its place is in hell and people are misusing it

Your chatbot is turning you into an addict

[oca-rinn-a]

generally, breeding nonhuman animals for the enjoyment of humans should stop.

[jenniferrpovey]

So, here we go,

If you live in Colorado and care about animals you need to be aware of Proposition 16, which is being misnamed the Protect Animals from Unnecessary Suffering and Exploitation act. It's not an act, and it...well, let's take a look at it.

First of all, it would remove the "typical animal husbandry" exception from "sexual acts with an animal" and replace it with "For the welfare of the animal." The definition is any penetration of the vagina or anus with a body part or object.

This outlaws:

1. Artificial insemination. This would make it nearly impossible for small ranchers to breed, as many can't afford what it takes to keep a bull or boar. Rams and billies are a BIT easier.

2. Pregnancy tests on livestock. Large animals have to be pregnancy tested by using a transrectal ultrasound. You can't just put one on the belly because they're too big. This would make it impossible to give pregnant animals the care they need and impossible to detect twins in horses (of which the best outcome is at least one very stunted foal). The "welfare of the animal" exemption COULD keep you safe. Or it could not.

3. Taking an animal's temperature. No kidding. This would classify the use of a rectal thermometer as bestiality. Because whoever put this together doesn't have a clue about animals. Even by animal rights activist levels, this is ridiculous. You could get away with it if the animal was sick. But there would go the safest way to determine of a mare or cow was ovulating before you introduce them to the male. Btw, a non-receptive mare will do her best to kill a stallion and with hand or corral breeding, it's common for stallions to get hurt. We used to use cheap disposable stallions for this. We don't want to go back to that process.

4. Surgical castration. Yes, this animal rights sponsored initiative would ban the most humane form of castration of large animals. Do you want your next gelding to have been castrated using the much more traumatic banding method? That's the one where they tie a band around the testicles and wait for them to drop off. Smaller animals are castrated using a different method, but the method for surgical castration in livestock, because of their size, involves a small amount of penetration of the anus.

5. One method of spaying mares. When a mare is spayed, which is not a routine operation and is generally done either for medical or behavioral reason, an ovariectomy is done through either an incision or through the vagina. The last is the most common and safest way. It would be legal to spay a mare if she had a tumor or the like. It would not be legal to spay her if she was unridable when in heat.

So, that's all pretty...bad. And given a vet could be convicted of a sex offense, many vets will leave Colorado. Large animal vets would become almost impossible to find and small animal vets might also flee the state. There's also no exemption to any of these for teaching people how to do the procedure. Under this, I'd be some kind of horrible sex offender for having taught a prepubescent child how to take a horse's temperature. (The look on their faces when they find out where it goes...)

Then there's the second part. Clearly, what they intended to do with this was outlaw veal. Which I have mixed feelings about.

But what they actually have in there is a definition of the "natural lifespan" of livestock and a rule that they have to reach a quarter of that.

For cows, they have the natural lifespan defined at 20 years. I'm not a stockman, so I don't know if that's accurate, but it feels right.

Which means that ranchers in Colorado would have to raise cows until 5 years old.

The typical market age of a steer is 24 months.

Economically, unless they can drive cattle out of the state to be slaughtered (and btw, I am opposed to transporting live animals for slaughter any further than necessary), that puts ranchers out of business. They would no longer be able to export to Japan, which is a big market, because the Japanese won't take meat from cattle older than 30 months.

And believe me? You don't want a steak from a 5 year old cow. You even more don't want to pay more for a steak from a 5 year old cow. So, this thing is this entire mess of even more clueless than animal rights fanatics already are.

If you live in Colorado and somebody asks you to sign this thing, don't. If it ends up on the ballot next year, don't vote yes on it.

It would not protect animals.

It would destroy livelihoods and result in more cruelty. It would destroy not just the ranching industry in Colorado but the horse breeding industry as well. Even if you're a vegetarian, supporting something which would actually increase animal cruelty...

And people are dumb. They may fall for it.

But most people aren't as dumb as the animal rights activists who don't know where the thermometer goes.

[reikunrei]

there is honestly sooo much evidence that Brenner used Henry to "breed" Eleven and all of the other kids at Hawkins Lab:

we never learn anything about who El’s biological father is. it's never even posed as a really tangible question. all we know about Terry's pregnancy was that it was a surprise, and they were all worried about it since she was in the middle of doing these supposed "drug experiments" at the lab, which was also used as a cover for taking away El, blaming a "miscarriage."

if Terry was under the influence, she likely would not have ever been aware that she had been artificially inseminated.

Henry is of the right age for Brenner to have collected sperm samples from him. quick math with some science thrown in: El was 8 in 1979 and Henry was 32 (per the fandom wiki). therefore, when El was conceived, Henry would have been 23/24. we don't know the ages of the other kids at the lab, but there don't seem to be many who are older than Eleven. some of the kids who assaulted her looked like they could have been 15-18 (though this also depends on how much we're aging down the actors like the main cast lol). regardless, even if we ballpark one of the older kids being 18, Henry would have been 13/14 at the time of conception. people who produce semen can start developing sperm as soon as puberty begins, which can start as early as 11 years old. as icky as it feels, i would not put it past Brenner to take samples from Henry the instant he was viable.

the fact that there are age gaps between all of the kids is evidence that Brenner didn't want to raise any red flags about the pregnancies in his test subjects. it seems like anywhere from 1-4 kids at the lab could be around the same age, so Brenner would have played it safe by inseminating just a few women at a time to not raise any alarms.

Brenner admitted that Henry was difficult to control, so that would lead him to try and get "fresh" minds that he could mold from infancy so the kids wouldn't try to fight against him and would do exactly what he asked. he needed to be sure they'd have powers to begin with, though, so of course he tried taking from the only source he had.

this is less evidence, but just something the scene after Henry helps El and he gets physically punished for it reminds me of. him being tasered reminds me of livestock being physically reprimanded into behaving a certain way (ie. taser = cattle prod). and, hey, if you want good cattle, you breed your best bull.

and now, less quantifiable stuff to point at, but more evidence by way of the storytelling of the series... i talked about it in depth in this post where i discussed my personal thoughts and hopes for how they elaborate on the relationship between El and Henry, but to sum it up:

throughout the entire show, but especially in s4, there's been the discussion of "good vs evil" or "monsters vs superheroes" and how things are not so black and white, as Brenner put it. even Henry says that, no, Brenner was not a monster, he was just a mediocre man who was searching for purpose vicariously through his experiments.

this, i feel, is obviously leading to an understanding on Eleven's end that she has both done monstrous things and is still a good person at heart. she strives to be good, she pushes against being the "monster," but she will have to admit that, sometimes, she behaves in monstrous ways. however, that does not make her a "monster."

this could very easily jump into her being blood-related to Henry, worrying that it makes her more of a monster, before realizing that evil is not genetic. like, it's not that far of a stretch to place this narrative over blood relations while the kids at Hawkins Lab already all view themselves as "siblings" due to their upbringing.

on the opposite side of the coin, this feeds into the discussion that Henry is not a pure-blooded monster. not only will Eleven have to realize that she is capable of being a monster, but Henry is capable of not being a monster. he is, just like Brenner, simply a man who happened to find himself in fantastic circumstances.

[creampuffqueen]

ah...

cw: me dunking on vegans lmao

where do i even start right now??

let me give a bit of backstory: scrolling mindlessly through instagram reels eventually will pull up some vegan influencer or another. they're everywhere, and SUPER popular. i often stop my mindless scrolling to see what new bullshit they're spouting now. because of the way the instagram algorithim works, this means that i get many, many, many more videos than i want. which just leads to me having to watch them because they're just that dumb, which leads to MORE videos. it's a cycle.

anyway

most recent awful take i saw was a vegan influencer posing with their dog, while simultaneously saying "animals are not ours to use"

sweetheart. no

ALL DOMESTICATED ANIMALS HAVE A PURPOSE FOR HUMANS. ALL OF THEM.

dogs? they're companions. that is a PURPOSE. that is a USE. they are also hunters. herders. support. guardians. they have a purpose. so owning a dog is, by your definition, "exploiting animals".

same with cats. they're companions nowadays, but they were originally domesticated to hunt rodents. that's a purpose.

it isn't any different than animals used for consumption. it's really not. cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, etc, all were domesticated by humans for a purpose. that main purpose is food. but they also provide clothing, fertilizer, and work. and that's just the basics! look up how many products are made from a cow. things you wouldn't BELIEVE have cattle products in them somewhere. and many of those things are necessary for our survival.

dogs and cats are pets, but they were also domesticated for our survival! humans get lonely. dogs give them companionship, and a hunting partner. cats hunt rodents that destroy feed stores, giving people food security. every animal we domesticate has a purpose.

now, let's talk a little about the future. let's imagine some scenarios, okay?

alright. we do it your way. we stop using animals altogether. we never use another animal again.

this means no more pets, remember? that's exploiting them, using them for their intended purpose.

we set all the livestock and pets free! no more humans controlling you!

what do you think is going to happen? the freed cattle are just going to... stop being domesticated? stop depending on humans for survival? they're not going to eat literally all vegetation in the whole world because they're loose? (remember, that vegetation is our food source now!)

yep. that's absolutely going to work. it's not like all the sheep are going to get flystrike from not being sheared. it's not like all the cattle are going to be massacred by other wildlife, but not before they eat everyone out of house and home and destroy the ecosystem. it's not like the dogs and cats and ALL the animals are going to breed and breed and breed. no, that definitely won't happen!

okay. so that's not going to work. i mean, what are you going to do with ONE BILLION head of cattle? they're not just going to disappear. they'll still exist, but free and in the wild :P

alright, let's try something else! let's say we get everyone in the world to go vegan! let's do that! and instead of farming the livestock, we keep them in sanctuaries! which is like... the same thing as a farm, but no killing! instead we keep accumulating livestock and doing NOTHING with them. literally nothing. would you pay to go see an animal sanctuary of just cattle? wait wait wait we can't do that either, that's exploiting them :)

so we've got billions of livestock chilling, doing nothing. every person in the world is vegan now, so we don't eat them or use them for anything at all! but... what about... our pets?

i truly think you're more likely to make everyone in the world go vegan than everyone in the world give up there pets. so in this scenario, we've still got them. (despite the hypocrisy)

what on earth are our pets going to eat??? dogs and cats can't be vegan, you know. they CANNOT. humans can survive, even thrive, on a vegan diet. dogs will survive. cats will not. they WILL die on a vegan diet.

so our pets still have to eat meat. but where do we get it?? do we kill billions of native animals like birds and deer and wildlife to get it? or do we use the livestock for their INTENDED PURPOSE of giving food? huh??

and, what about animals in captivity? huh? what about them? try to feed a tiger a vegan diet. go on. try it. how does it work? tell me!

now, it's another conversation for another day, but zoos are a good thing and we absolutely need them. tigers are endangered. cattle are not.

sure, we could hunt the meat needed for captive animals ourselves. leave the poor, exploited livestock to do their thing. or... here's an idea... we use the livestock for, say it with me now, their INTENDED PURPOSE!

quality control is very important in a zoo setting. what better way to ensure quality and adequate health than when you've raised an animal since birth?

so, in this scenario, all humans stop eating animal products. but guess what. we still need livestock. not for us, but for other animals. it just doesn't make sense.

i was going to segment this into a conversation about artificial insemination and how it's actually a VERY GOOD thing and not 'rape' or 'forced pregnancy at all', but i'm tired so i'll do that another time.

whether you agree or not, or if you just have questions, please feel free to talk to me! i know this comes off as a bit aggressive but i am genuinely open to other points of view. i think it's very important to see other perspectives! have a great night friends <3

[iarafoschino]

It is crucial for me as an ethical vegan to also share a few facts on the destruction that animal farming causes to our environment, habitat and climate that leads to be the third leading cause of #climatechange ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨As the human appetite for meat,dairy and eggs increased over the years, so did our dependence on animal farming system that has livestock as its core commodity ✨To feed billions of humans leads to livestock not become a short-term commitment, as for farmers requires animals to be raised over months or years before they are ready to be slaughtered for meat and raised for to produce milk or eggs that require them to be alive for longer ✨These animals were brought here artificially and their products are all artificially inseminated, which is horrific pain for them and requires a tremendous amount of livestock feed, resulting over 40% arable land on the planet✨Our forests and biodiversity are paying a high price for this✨In 2012 there was nearly 800 million acres of forest in the U.S. ✨✨Currently, 260 million acres of US forests have been clear-cut to create land used to produce livestock feed, and 92% of the #amazon rainforest deforestation is attributed to animal meat and crops to feed livestock ✨The same amount of land to produce 1.000 quarter -pound hamburgers patties per acre we can produce with the same size of land 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, over 40,000 pounds of potatoes, 30,000 pounds of carrots or 20,000 pounds of apples .✨ The evidences on the whole from this illogical system destruction to our ecosystems and climate is undeniable ✨Going #vegan is the biggest single way we can do to diminish our carbon foot print ✨. A vegan lifestyle occupy much less land saving trees, water, soil, avoid desertification, extinction of spicies, biodiversity, emitting much less greenhouses methane and No2 .✨#whyvegan #eatfortheplanet #veganfortheanimals #veganfortheplanet #vegansofig #govegan #climatecrisis #sustainability #vegansofnj #vegansofnewjersey #vegansofnewyork #animalfarming (at Hackensack, New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/B75Y4MDh7Ki/?igshid=1jcwsh7iugg3h

[eastgaysian]

remembered. basically the point of comparison is the setting being a society where a subset of people are regarded as non-human so their deaths for the purpose of institutionalized meat farming/organ harvesting can be justified. VERY different books tonally due to being focused on very different aspects of their worlds (tender is the flesh is from the perspective of marcos who is uncomfortable w/ the industry but is an active part of it, reflecting on the language surrounding the "head" that sanitizes killing and eating people, never let me go is from the perspective of a clone raised to have her organs harvested and views the process as a fact of life, primarily interested in psychological exploration/introspection and more philosophical ideas) but their premises are i would argue pretty similar which is interesting to me.

some other disorganized thoughts:

nlmg's disposable people being clones kind of obscures the horror/legitimacy of their 'humanity' both in and out-of-fiction, but there's also a deliberately manufactured distance between them and the people they were cloned from, who they express interest in finding to somehow legitimize themselves. one of the most interesting absences in titf is where the first generation of 'head' came from. people 'with first and last names' are sent to slaughterhouses as punishment but it's pretty deliberate not to state which people began being bred as livestock (right after stating that it was immigrants and the marginalized who were targeted to be killed and eaten). creating and maintaining that missing link (head are only bred through artificial insemination + criminalization of having sex with head - it's fine to eat what you have sex with but it's not fine to have sex/reproduce with what you eat) is crucial to maintaining the veneer of acceptable cannibalism

nlmg's philosophical exploration focuses on whether the clones can exhibit an innate 'humanity' that would prove it's unethical to kill them for their organs, through artistic expression or through proving they're in love. in the end both avenues fail/were never options in the first place. ofc the head deliberately have their vocal cords taken and are not allowed any opportunity for self-expression precisely to avoid confronting the idea that they have that capacity/potential. even when marcos gives jasmine comparatively more 'caring' treatment (from his perspective) he is uninterested in anything she has to express - she draws with crayons but we don't know what she draws because he isn't interested, he doesn't see the point in teaching her to read which would give her the ability to communicate with him.

while it's pretty tangential in comparison to being the central focus of titf, the use of euphemisms and language that avoids the reality of the clones' situation in nlmg is also pretty clearly a deliberate way to sanitize/justify their organ harvesting and eventual deaths

committing to trying to go to sleep despite the horrors (being too hot and just not being sleepy for some reason) but when i wake up remind me that tender is the flesh actually made me think about never let me go by kazuo ishiguro. If that thought remains intact in my unconscious mind

[woluf]

I was going to add this to the reblog of that lat post about veganism but I think I’d rather not because I’m always paranoid that as soon a you ay you’re not against farming people are going to come for you but I’m going to just make a separate post here probably not really going anywhere cause I just want to mouth off about it. FYI this is not be saying I dislike vegans, or veganism, just a certain part of it pointed out in the last reblog. Neither do I support large farming corporations.

I want to just like openly agree with the post, having once lived on a (very small) dairy farm once, and I get hugely frustrated with a lot of the discourse I see surrounding it and total lack of critical thinking that goes on. I’ve spoken to basically militant vegans who openly alway assume when I say I lived in a farm it was a) cows, and b) we partook in the meat industry. Neither were true; we were a very small goat dairy farm on like an acre of land. But that subsect of vegans choose always to ignore this and put all farms into the same Big Bad Pot. Farming and agriculture is and always has been a huge part of the UK and I’m never going to claim to know a massive amount about it, but I do have a very solid lived experience from raising animals (specifically goats) from their birth, death, and everything in between. I had a friend in uni who was like this, who just made assumptions and became incredibly defensive when I tried to have friendly discussions about farming, and whom eventually blocked me on facebook when I politely challenged something she spoke about - more to do with metaphors of the meat/dairy industries than anything. How are we ever going to reach solutions if you just out-right block people telling yo hey! your language is problematic and by the way do you actually care about the people?? but okay.

 Anyway. During the financial crisis we experienced after the foot & mouth outbreak in 2001 (our animals were fine, but we couldn’t very easily sell our produce) my parents used credit cards to feed our animals because  they are the most important part of your farm. Yes, they’re your livelihood, but you love your animals - you name them, you nurture them, you do you absolute bet to provide care for their well being. My parents are still in debt because of this and losing the farm - we were collateral damage in the eyes of the government - and this we sold up & moved in 2003. I don’t think many people are aware of the impact that losing farms has on the farmers - both financial and psychological. My point here isn’t to bring a lot of that up, but I will say that I remember the day we sold our goats and had to move them onto the livestock lorry in the pissing rain, some goats in kid, and just how miserable it was for everyone and everything involved. I’ve seen clips on tv shows (Countryfile) about people in similar circumstances who lost virtually everything from diseases like foot & mouth and it’s truly, utterly heartbreaking to see. 

So my frustration with some types of vegans again is this lack of critical thinking and research they do into farming. Sheep really are stupid, shearing them does not harm them and wool is a by-product that farmers get (from what I recall my mum telling me) less than £1 per fleece. That’s literally nothing - even if you have huge herds, that’s a pittance. Leather is too, although I can’t speak about the cost having never owned cows, and it concerns me about the environmental impact of creating products that are “vegan alternatives���. 

Another side of farming is rare breeds - bigger corporations aside, I mean family run and owned business here that are either newer or have been family-run for decades - and how farming can support the continuation of particular rare breeds which extends from cows, pigs to horses. Without farms, these breeds can often be entirely lost. I’ve seen vegans talk about artificial insemination - another part of keeping up rare breeds - like animals are getting raped (!?!?!?!?!). It...just astounds me how people make these comparisons without ever thinking or considering the impact their own choices have (e.g. vegan alternatives) as well as the exploitation of people, predominantly people of colour and the poor. Artificial insemination ha been a part of farming from the 1950′s.

Again, like, I don’t know what the point of me saying this is because I’m always really careful to avoid talking about my opinions on farming as it always seems like a very unpopular opinion to have and I genuinely worry about backlash sometimes, but I just do not believe the farming - big corporate farms aside clearly - is inherently bad. If people want to be vegan I wholly support that, I just resent certain types of vegan folks for their attitudes, because much like the attitudes of some people who eat a lot of meat (for real some people are nasty and I very much do not support those people yikes), it’s not doing anyone or the environment any good.

Please do not rb this. I’ll block you if you do. I just want to talk about my frustrations and experiences but you’re welcome to openly disagree with me and that’s totally cool! I’m just not here for Drama and Discourse.

[livestocklens3-blog]

Live stock lens

Live stock lens

The Most significant thing that anyone ought to know about anything concerning cows farming is that no ranch or farm is precisely the exact same. Nobody farm follows the creation practices of a different, and no 1 manufacturer manages her or his cows the exact same manner as the following one will. If you would like to learn about everything connected with cattle farming, then get to understand the fundamentals first, what makes each plantation click and everything in between anything else. Dairy farming or beef farming, it does not matter what, there are particular things within those ventures which make them operate, from the feed to the cattle and the financing necessary to conduct the farm into the cows themselves.

Live stock lens

It is a Great Deal of Hard Work...

Anyone  Are a fool if they stated raising cows was simple.  You've got machines, buildings, buildings, and managing facilities to preserve, fix --replace if it is absolutely crucial --cattle waterers to mend if they freeze in the dead of winter or should they stop working on you all of a sudden, hay to haul, financing to maintain at the top of (loans, utility bills and penalties to cover ), fences to keep and fix, the list keeps moving. You may experience periods of exhaustion during times once the farm requires you the most--be it physical or psychological exhaustion.

When  It's really easy to get caught when you are least expecting it, and from the time you realize you are caught it is often too late.  The best thing to ensure your success and also to keep all of your limbs intact would be to always know about your surroundings, understand if and when you are feeling exhausted, never wear loose clothes around running machines, and show the utmost respect for each of bulls and fresh momma cows with their calves. There's an entire collection of all farm-safety items I could lay out in the following guide, however I fear that it is only going to take up more space than that I intend and induce me to seriously slough off course.

No matter bulls and cows Needs to be respected and frequently not trustworthy either, whether or not you are working or handling a beef or poultry farm. Dairy bulls are particularly dangerous and you never to turn your back .  This is an issue when you have not established dominance together and if they don't honor you and your distance.  In case a bull sees you as contest because of his harem, he'll come after you. Otherwise, and sees you as only a two-legged individual rather than a two-legged bovine, then you need to be secure, but do not take my word for this as who knows what goes through a bull's head during breeding period!

Hormones Are also a huge element in aggressiveness in cattle. A cow's first instincts when that calf strikes the floor will be for her to nurture, suckle and shield it with her entire life.    Bulls have their method of communication they're not conducive of your existence also: revealing their sides, arching their throat revealing their dimensions, head shaking, not recognizing your existence at all (in other words, even ignoring you) if you are in the pen together, etc.. These are warning signals to get out, or be ready to stand your ground and make it understood that you don't tolerate their behavior . Then be ready to undergo with your escape plan, in case you've got one.

It Requires Knowing a little Bovine Psychology

When Raising cows, you need to know a reasonable bit about what cows are telling you so as to tell if they are just being favorable, a nuisance, a hazard, or an expected cull. Cattle that admit your existence, and come around you but maintain their individual space from you (except in the event that you invite them) are favorable. A number of the favorable ones may also be those which don't discount you but return into what they were doing until you disrupted them may also be considered favorable. Even the ones that come running towards you whenever they visit you--might be considered favorable, particularly in the event that you understand them well enough to understand when they come hurrying just like that it is to have fed, and less to make a stampede! Cattle that make high-strung, high-headed and make a rush for it each time you're about are ones which needs to be culled--cows should keep their individual space from you, but not go so far as to attempt jumping over the fence to escape from you! Sometimes these kinds of animals can be trained to be calmer about individuals, but there are occasions when this could be much more vain than simply rewarding. Some cows simply can not be tamed and stay"crazy"

Even though     Calves on cows could be weaned when they are about 6 to 10 weeks old. Dairy calves are removed from their dams each day or 2 (sometimes less) after arrival, but are not weaned off the jar till they're about 3 to 4 weeks old.  Vast majority of heifers are ready to be consumed by the time they're around 15 weeks old. A bull is about to breed from the time he is 12 months old. Age of adulthood for the majority of cows is about 3 to 4 decades old.

Calving and breeding periods will match, and the best   There's loads of debate exactly what time of year it's ideal to calve out cows, nevertheless a cow could be bred--and consequently calve--in any given time of the year. A cow could be bred either obviously --through a bull--or --known as artificial insemination through AI semen and gun .

When the calf stems, the milk works. The very first milk a cow creates because of her calf is known as colostrum. Following 48 hours she begins making"normal" milk. Her greatest nutritional necessities occur from late pregnancy into the next month of lactation.  Calves, once weaned, however, have different nutrient requirements--because they become older, protein demands reduction.

Know What to Take Them

Perhaps not   This is most likely where the best variations in how cattle are raised starts, and something that I am only able to cover temporarily here. Basically there are five kinds of feedstuffs which are fed to cows: hay, silage, grain, other feeds, and pasture. The latter is not just fed to cows, but instead cows are put to nourish themselves.

All dairy farms Will Need to feed their cows cows a  Nearly all hay fed to dairy cows is constituted of alfalfa or clover and fishes such as orchard grass and timothy. Silage--that can be chopped and fermented feed--is frequently of corn, because it's greater nutritional quality than wheat or barley. The grain part of the TMR ration could be corn, wheat or barley, based on what is more appropriately grown in the region where the milk farm is situated.

Varies considerably more significantly than in your typical dairy farms.  The lowest-quality rations are awarded to cow-calf surgeries, and also the highest-quality to feedlots. Cows on cow-calf surgeries frequently don't have any issue subsisting from grass and hay, even though some manufacturers like to feed them grain or silage during the winter season. Backgrounding/stocker surgeries will need to nourish their calves so they develop, therefore pasture, silage and high quality hay is frequently fed. Feedlots finish cows for slaughter, therefore an 85 percent grain-based"sexy" ration is necessary. Another 15 percent is included of roughage such as silage.

All cows Have to Be fed sterile water and also have access to Mineral in any way times. Beef producers feed their nutrient to their cows free-choice, occasionally mixed in with all the feed. Dairy manufacturers have a tendency to possess these minerals blended in with all the feed.

Which Are You Getting Your Favorite From?

That is  A significant question to ask yourself whether you plan on starting your cows farm. Basically you've got two options: Create your own, or buy it. If you create your own, you'll need your own equipment and also the opportunity to produce the feed. You might require the excess labour if it is required, based on which sort of feed you are making. Producing your own feed will bite into your gains since it means more money spent on gasoline and maintenance/repair expenses. Purchasing feed has its dangers too. Although you do not close half the machines needed for producing your own feed, you still need to have somewhere to keep it and risk the feed you are getting to be less good excellent feed as you would like it to be. There might be health risks related to the feed you buy --that the hay you buy may have pieces of garbage or metal inside, or even the feed you bought from the feed shop could possibly be infected with something which will kill your critters.

You Can have as small as merely a few parts of machines to as numerous as to create any agricultural machines retailer company proud. I have known a few cattle producers that just have a couple pieces of gear: a hay-hauler truck, a livestock trailer, and also a four-wheeler ATV.   What kind and how many machines you believe you want to own (try to not consider it as"need") in your cows farm will have an effect on your bottom line and the way you increase your critters.

Believe  Of it this way: If you would like to repaint your cows on pasture throughout the year, there'll be a point in time at which you will understand that the machines you desire is not always the very same parts of machines you may need!!

Each   From that point you are able to do the test to find out whether you're losing money, simply breaking even or really making a little cash from the farm. In addition, it can let you know in which you're weakest or most powerful, and what options you should think about if you would like to boost income amounts to your enterprise. Creating and keeping a business strategy can help a lot too.

Sheltering Your Own Cattle

Shelter Is not too large an significance, though a easy lean-to drop or even a stand of trees will probably suffice for many. Dairy cows will need to be kept restricted to a barn during the winter season. This might not be so in locations where they do not encounter as intense, freezing or freezing winters as a lot of North America has. When they don't have a lot of shelter, then they will need to compensate for the absence of heat by ingesting more feed so they can remain warm.

Most Herds will need to stay current with their vaccinations each year, based upon the age and sex of the animals in addition to in which you're farming them.    Some regions need vaccinations against Anthrax too. Check with your neighborhood large-animal vet for what kinds of diseases that you want to vaccinate your creatures.

Assess your herd Regularly for signs of disease or illness. The clearest symptoms I have discovered using the cows we had were listlessness or lethargic action --calves that normally ought to be considering food aren't, they're slow to get up or attempting to put down and rest rather than get up and consume. Other indications include lameness, dull eyes, loss of body condition, bald spots, kicking at the stomach, coughing, snotty nose, or a lot of abortions on your herd to be considered ordinary, or anything else unusual regarding the creature's behavior or elements of its body, which range from the udder or scrotum into the eyes. Be constantly aware that one symptom you visit could be a indication of a far larger issue.

Where You Buy Livestock, You'll Acquire Deadstock

As The Circle of Life goes round and about, you can't expect any of your critters, old and young alike, to live eternally. You'll receive cows which will expire on you, otherwise or unexpectedly. That's only something to anticipate on each livestock farm or ranch. It's challenging for every single manufacturer to have an animal die on these, but that is only part of life. A lot of men and women that are generations removed from farm lifestyle don't understand this, however as somebody who wishes to enter cows or any sort of livestock industry this is a tough fact you have to understand or else you are not likely to survive long inside.

Everything you do with these dead Creatures is dependent upon local laws.  It is no issue to drag a carcass from the middle of a pasture and allow  The scavengers treat it. Other regions need such carcasses to Be instantly buried or burnt or possess a livestock-rendering truck encounter  To take away them for you.  Special bull or cow, prized or maybe not, opt to bury that creature just Like somebody would spoil a pet cat or dog which was part of the household  For many years.

[arra-tech]

Decided to give y:the last man a shot.

For those who haven't heard about it, the premise is that basically all male mammals (not specified but heavily implied, y chromosome is specified though) suddenly died in the span of 24 hours.

Assuming it didn't affect fish, birds, or reptiles, only mammals: that's still one of the weirdest mass extinction events someone could come up with. That's a massive ecological impact!

Makes me question what would actually happen if such a thing happened... obviously many species would go extinct, there'd be no way to save many of them... invitro fertilization might be able to save a generation or two? I strongly doubt society would collapse without cis men though.

Yes, it'd be a great tragedy, but it wouldn't keep the surviving members of society from continuing their roles or picking up new roles! Grieving process blah blah it's a crisis so pick up a shovel and help us all shovel the shit!

Spoiler warning:

The power plants shut down across the country without coal? Why can't they get the coal there? It's been like 60 days, 2 months, and the track haven't been cleared? 2 months and nothings been done? Just "surviving"? More like cowering and waiting to be saved...

Also I'm supposed to belive the line of succession of the presidency matters so much as that the acting president of 2 months can be deposed by someone coming out of a coma on another continent? When CLEARLY transportation aside from helicopter is impossible?! How are you fueling these whirlibirds but can't get coal from a storage facility to a power plant?

Also, how brittle do the writers think the American power grids are? Not everywhere is texas... also many places use power plants that don't use coal... like the solar collectors in the Mojave, hydro electric plants, the various wind farms, and 56 different nuclear power plants... the only continuous state that's not connected to one of the two national grids is Texas... so power... not really a crisis...

Food? Between what people (with the ability to) keep in their pantry, what would be in the grocery stores, the various distribution centers, and the fact that most livestock are females with some males kept for breeding or artificial insemination/ fertilization practices, plants aren't affected, birds (including chickens, ducks, etc that are commonly eaten) also unaffected, likewise fish... people would have to adjust their diets a little, but not really a problem either.

It all just boils down to keeping species (including humans) from going extinct due to lack of viable males...