Category Archives: Learning

Why we get fat

I recently was hired to go to Canada and judge an event called the “Feedlot Challenge” by Zoetis. It was a great event and as always I was so impressed by the Canadians’ skills and hospitality.

They are good people and hold no grudge for the consequences of BSE and the United States decision to not act as neighbors but enemies during that crisis. I first started going to rodeos in Canada, then did clinics for years in Canada, and could not find much different with them (except they said “Eh” instead of “you know”) from cow people in the U.S. For some reason I think if we had the problem (BSE) in the states they may have responded differently, but that’s just my opinion.

Anyways, Zoetis sponsored a dinner the evening before the competition and Dr. Gary Sides was one of the speakers. I have been on programs with him before and find him to be an excellent presenter. He has a great method of sharing his enthusiasm for the cattle industry and living a good and healthy life.

The last time I heard him I read a book he recommended titled Good Calories, Bad Calories written by Gary Taubes. As I have stated before when I read a book I just let the information go into my brain and manifest itself there. I don’t try to remember all the facts, but get the general idea then let my subconscious control my thoughts.

This time speaking he recommended a new book by Gary Taubes titled Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It. It is a very well written, factual, and interesting book.

With Obamacare just going into effect, all the obesity talk going on, and the high rates of cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart attack going on I feel we all should take health very seriously.

This book questions (and proves wrong) the belief that all calories are equal. It also challenges the thought that if you eat less and exercise more you will lose weight. The book is very protein and fat friendly, and carbohydrate negative.

I hope you will read it. I really think it is important for us to find out what is causing us to become so unhealthy. When I look in the mirror and see that I am starting to put weight on in places that it should not be, I am ashamed of myself. I have gotten undisciplined in my lifestyle and it is starting to show. It is important to me to be in good physical condition to do my job. For myself it is important to be athletic so as not to get in my horses way when riding. I also want to be healthy as I age to keep living this great lifestyle I have.

So thank you to Gary for the reminder. He gets paid by a company to promote a product. The healthy living he promotes is because he cares about people.

Your health is such an important thing. As always my advice is to shut off the technology and distractions and take an hour or two to analyze it. Don’t rely on the government or someone who’s only motivation is profit or some agenda to control how you eat and live. Get the facts.
It is real important.

People these days are a a lot like cattle following each other. The lifestyle draw is real strong. We are drifting toward a cliff. Don’t follow the bunch over the cliff, but split off into a draw that will lead to a nice meadow and create the good life. Don’t be afraid to try to get someone to drift with you.

~ Curt Pate

Progressive Dairyman

Of all the valuable reading I get on the modern day smoke signal (Internet), I get more from the dairy magazines than any other now. The dairy farmers have learned the best ways to get the most production out of a cow.

Nutrition, cow comfort, and milking style seem to be really important things that make the operation successful.

I have read that nutrition has changed from an art to a science with technology. It is amazing how effective our feeding of animals has become, when we control the feed they eat and the time they eat.

It used to be standard practice to milk morning and night. I have read in some cases they may milk up to six times a day, on the modern dairy. The way cows are milked, the kind of parlor design, and the skill of the milker is very important for production.

Cow comfort is very well thought out. All kinds of creature comforts are provided – water at the proper temperature (some dairies run milk and water pipes together to cool the milk and warm the water), feeding and feed bunk design for optimum cow intake, and the very best rest areas for cow comfort and reduction of lameness.

I recently learned from a dairy specialist for Zoetis that they design dairies for cows to turn to the right. The gut of the dairy cow is so large that they have a difficult time turning left, because of the way the gut is designed so the cow likes to turn right.

These are just some of the things I have learned about the dairy world. I am certain if you learn more about the business there would be much more to learn about the science of making cows more productive.

This is a problem that I see happening. The dairy industry has gotten so good that the cows are are actually working themselves to death.

When a cow’s genetics have caused her to have a gut so large that you must design facilities you may be going to far. Watch one try to get up.

The length of time a cow is productive is less than it used to be. The production part of the cow is getting to be more than the transportation part of the cow can handle.

A lot of the negative animal welfare on national media coverage has involved dairy cattle. Animals with limited mobility, handlers not using proper animal handling techniques, and usually handlers trying to force the animal to go faster than it is capable of all led to these animal welfare problems.

To be blunt, the cows are not taken out of production soon enough and are not in good enough shape physically to go from milking to slaughter.

The other problem happens when the handlers don’t have the time or compassion to slow down or use the proper equipment to get the job done correctly.

I am a big fan of the Mexican charro skills with a rope. These skills are amazing. The Mexican culture with animals is much different than ours. We must make the Hispanics understand that our culture will not tolerate what we in our culture view as abuse to animals. In my opinion it is more important to learn this than it is to learn English.

The Mexican culture with animals is not the same as ours. We must keep reinforcing and encouraging proper handling practices frequently. To just think we can tell them once and then all the tradition and habits will go away is ridiculous.

It is also important for the dairy employee to get skilled at Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) practices. We see that they are way behind the beef industry in this. Again it is important that the employee understands the impact of doing things wrong.

One thing I feel we could all benefit from is our emotions toward animals. Animal handling expert Bud Williams spoke of this all the time. He felt animals really responded well to a person that enjoyed working with animals, and the mood of the people dealing with the animals was really important to health and production. I read of a study that showed when you named a dairy cow her production went up. The researcher surmised that if something has a name people care about it more.

It is so incredible to have not only nutrition go from an art to a science, but many other aspects of animal care as well. In college it changed from animal husbandry to animal science. We better be careful not to go to far toward science. We may even benefit to getting back to the way we felt about animals when we hand milked twice a day.

The dairy industry has come so far in animal science, but I think they need to get back to the art of animal husbandry. I think we all need to learn more on the art of animal husbandry.

It’s the right thing to do, and that’s Stockmanship and Stewardship.

~ Curt Pate