Bad Becoming Normal is Detrimental to Beef Cattle Welfare
The author has worked in the cattle industry for fifty years. In the 1970’s, cattle handling was terrible and today it has greatly improved. During the last fifteen years, there have been increasing problems with lameness, heat stress, and heart failure in fed beef cattle. These problems slowly incr...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
Journal of applied animal ethics research
Year: 2022, Volume: 4, Issue: 2, Pages: 151-157 |
| Further subjects: | B
feedlot
B heat stress B Cattle B Welfare B lameness |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The author has worked in the cattle industry for fifty years. In the 1970’s, cattle handling was terrible and today it has greatly improved. During the last fifteen years, there have been increasing problems with lameness, heat stress, and heart failure in fed beef cattle. These problems slowly increased and people did not notice them until they became really serious. I called this bad becoming normal. The increase is these welfare issues is partially related to increased genetic selection for more muscle and weight gain. Other factors may be muddy pens, a lack of roughage in the ration, heavier cattle at a younger age, or overuse of growth promotants. These practices may overload the animal’s biology and make it dysfunctional. There is a significant minority of producers who push cattle for maximum production, which is detrimental to animal welfare. |
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| ISSN: | 2588-9567 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of applied animal ethics research
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/25889567-bja10031 |