Hacker News Reader

Comment by 10u152 | Hacker News Reader

The point about cattle taking 25 calories in grass to produce 1 calorie of meat is true but in most places, those cattle get their nutrition from grazing grassland that has no arable value. The grass grows with no human intervention and they wander around and feed themselves. Humans can’t eat grass. So it’s not really “inefficient” in that sense.

View on HN

97% of cattle is grown on feedlots, not grass [1]. So massive amounts of corn and soy are wasted (as the original article notes growing soy for cattle feed leads to massive amounts of deforestation)

1. https://www.nrdc.org/resources/feedlot-operations-why-it-mat...

Are they raised their entire life on the feedlot? If not what percentage of their life is on the feedlot?

AFAIK:

>Are they raised their entire life on the feedlot

no.

>If not what percentage of their life is on the feedlot?

about half.

But that half of their lifetime accounts for more than half of their weight.

Good article by Michael Pollan about how cows are raised: https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/power-steer/

Sure in the US, but the US isn’t the world and also imports a lot of beef.

Cows aren't feed the seeds of corn. They eat the part of the plant we don't eat. If we didn't feed that to animals it would just go to waste. It's upcycling useless leaves and stems into milk and meat.

I'm guessing you're talking about America?

50% of the surface area of Denmark is dedicated to growing feed for pigs, and we import a lot as well. All that land could be used for growing food for people directly, or for other things. Since there's basically nowhere in this country where you're more than five kilometers away from some sort of settlement, almost all of it is interesting for other developments as well. So at least here, some of us would very much like agriculture to change.

Do you know what percentage of total meat production is represented by pasture-sustained animals? Because my understanding is that it is very small.

my understanding is that most cattle are fed on a combo of both. on pasture initially then moved to feedlot later in the process to fatten up

In France that's ~70% of what cattle eats. I feel like most of the information about things like that is very USA-centric.

No matter how small %% it is, lab meat is not grazing at all

93% of a beef cattle's lifetime diet consists of food that is not in direct competition with the human food supply, such as grasses or agricultural waste (cornstalks and such).

https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/print-publications...

pdf warning

Corn doesn't fall from the sky into pigs mouth.

The land that grows corn to feed pigs could grow things that humans can eat, so it is in direct competition with human food supply.

Or it could be bio-diverse land or forest where we have owls, foxes, deers and thousands of other animals, not just bugs.

Corn is grown to feed humans, the humans eat the corn, but not the corn stalks. The corn stalks are fed to cows and pigs. There is no competition there.

It's not competition. We eat the pigs too.

Reference needed for (in most places).

I always heard most cattle is fed grain and have no access to pasture.

You’re right, I have experience but only in Australia. The number of barn raised and or processed grain fed cattle is almost 0.

This is correct. Most would also say grain fed tastes far better than grass fed.

That's true for some countries, not all.

In the US there's endless fields of corn grown to feed livestock.

Currently, technically, no. Most of the corn fed to livestock is the remains left after distillation for alcohol.

[citation needed]

Here's mine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_production_in_the_United_...

33% livestock feed, 27% ethanol, 11% "other" (which includes beverage alcohol according to the above link)

That Wikipedia page is weird. The paragraph reports it as the corn production for 2019 but the link says it was retrieved in 2014. The current page has no numbers (but a video). A link to https://www.iowacorn.org/corn-production/production/ shows (for Iowa corn), 44% ethanol/fuel, 25% feed, 18% exports, 4% food and industrial.

I was referring to another commenter's:

https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/print-publications...

2015, of course.

I've wondered about this since so much alfalfa and corn are specifically grown on arable land to feed cattle. What fraction of beef calories is derived from non-arable grazing lands?

There is also the extensive use of water to irrigate pasture in arid areas just to feed cattle. That water could be used more efficiently. to grow food directly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com