Free Range
With all the growth stimulants pumped into cattle, and other meat producing animals to increase carcass weight. We as consumers of meat products have paid the price. Forty years ago people were healthier and heart disease was unheard of, except in rare an extreme cases. Today more and more people succumb to heart attacks and blood vessel related diseases. The list of alignments and diseases are too many to mention here, but they affect our daily lives.
All livestock reared by farmers used to be free range, without being branded “free range”. Farmers used to select only the best animals from their pastures and sell these off on weekly or monthly auctions. Here abattoir owners and butcheries alike purchased the animals for further processing. The demand exceeded the supply and farmers could not keep more cattle, than what their pastures could carry. This led farmers to increase their volumes, by way of feedlots. This exercise proved to be successful and farmers fed the animals with a feed mixture, to substitute natural veld grazing. Then feed manufacturers improved the formula, by adding growth hormones slowly but surely increasing it. This was fantastic for the farmer, as his animals grew in less time and produced more muscle. Today the feed is basically the same, yet new technology see’s farmers or feedlot owners insert an implant under the skin of the animals, this capsule produces a sustained release of steroids and growth hormones into the animals system. Muscle building is the name of the game and animals can easily double or even treble their weight in a matter of a few months. Some animals grow so fast, that their legs can’t handle the increase in body weight, and collapse not to be able to get up again.
The term free range constitutes animals that are fed a basic diet and are allowed to leave their pens at will and venture into a more spacious camp. Medication is administered as required and the diet can be anything from corn fed to feed obtained from the local cooperative. There are numerous free range farms in SA, that are managed and run well, and produce good quality products, the rest I need not even mention. It’s a disgrace. Let’s say there is free range and free range
Free range is a man made term that enables him to manipulate the animals and their habitat, in a way that is more often than not just profitable for the farmer.
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