Hacker News Reader

Comment by chneu | Hacker News Reader

Not much happened to people but mad cow(prion diseases in general) completely changed US beef/cattle production.

For example, it used to be common practice to feed dead cattle to the remaining cattle. That changed. Some ranchers still do it, though. We also changed the breeding programs and import/export. A lot of countries, because of prion diseases, basically stopped importing US beef.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/us/mad-cow-forces-beef-in...

The US is also dealing with a chronic wasting disease issue in deer and other wild animals right now. It's one of those "about to explode" problems.

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/cervid/...

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10892334/

View on HN

What the fuck they made cows eat other cows? Dear God.

It used to be common place to grind it up and put it in the feed for animals.

Ranchers do a ton of shit that is pretty disgusting and messed up. If you call them out for it they'll get pretty upset and call you a commie or unamerican.

A lot of ranchers have "dead piles" where they just let the bodies rot. Dairy ops also routinely do the same stuff, along with just dumping milk on the ground or in "manure pits" which often leak into the groundwater.

I grew up in this world. Small town, ranching/farming, conservative. The stuff ranchers and dairy ops do is mindblowingly fucked up. They call it tradition and if you call them out you will be attacked.

A while back the governor of Colorado was like "Yo let's designate one day where people don't eat beef. It'll be good for the environment." Colorado ranchers lost their fucking minds. They threw huge hissy fits and ran campaigns to get people to consume more meat on that day. So dumb. Find some videos of the ranchers basically crying and throwing fits, they're pretty funny https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/communities-gath...

You've got a very ignorant view of dairy farming. Now I'm sure there's some operations in those western desert states that behave that way but it is absolutely not the norm east of the Mississippi.

I've got a friend who owns a dairy farm. He doesn't keep dead cows around because the risk of introducing disease isn't worth it.

Manure gets treated in a "lagoon" (which looks like an open pit to you) wherein the water evaporated and bacteria breaks it down to become fertilizer for the next guy. The system is specifically designed to keep it from running off. Good dirt work is cheaper than having you people up his ass over pollution.

If he dumps milk it's like 20gal from purging equipment or something, not enough to matter. Milk is money so he tries to avoid dumping any. If he did want to dump a bunch of it, he could dump it straight into the lagoons because a liquid designed to be nutritious for growing mammals will be a walk in the park for bacteria that feed on what the mammals leave behind.

And 40yr ago when he dad owned the farm all of this was the same. The technology has changed a little but they weren't piling bodies then either.

Your friend might be able to get incentives to construct an electric producing bioreactor for their lagoon pit. Something to perhaps mention if they aren't aware.

If you drive through farm country you see "fat" advertisements for finishing cattle or increasing milk production. IE: https://energyfeeds.com/magnafat/

Normal feed/grazing isn't optimal or cost effective compared to other options, for the animal's full lifecycle.

You eat the other cows...is it really such a big deal if a cow eats what you eat?

> A lot of countries, because of prion diseases, basically stopped importing US beef.

In many ways this is their loss. Yes, there is a risk, but US beef is the best in the world, with no small thanks to the rich multicultural society we live in.

Lol no it's not. Each country has specific tastes then breeds for it. American beef is not the same as Brazilian beef which isn't the same as European beef which isnt the same as Australian beef.

It's just preference. There is no "better".

I grew up ranching and have visited operations in several countries. It's all just preference. A lot of people think US beef isn't very good.

Australian beef is way better, and doesn’t come loaded with prions.

I will buy grass-fed beef from NZ and Australia, but not from the US because of how often it contains toxins (probably mostly heavy metals, hard to say because I never had any analyzed, but I am unusually sensitive to heavy metals) in my personal beef-buying experience.

Grain-fed US beef doesn't have the problem.

My guess is that there has just been much more industrial activity in the US than in Aus and NZ.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com