Variation, Behavior and Blame

They say that variety is the spice of life and I agree; doing the same thing day after day gets old quickly and my productivity diminishes when that is the case.  I thought the image of this "tiger stripe" steer was fairly representative of variety.  He was part of a group we bought a couple of years ago.  These were on grass for a brief pre-conditioning period before going into the feedyard.  They grew well, performed well and made a little money in spite of the huge variation in the pen.

Variety is good for some things, but not for others.  Because of the genetic variation in this group of cattle, the tendency for them to "grow apart" as they aged was even worse than normal.  They were ready to harvest at different times.  Fortunately, they were finished at a facility that was willing to "top the pen" which means they shipped them to harvest in groups as they were ready.

These days, this kind of discussion causes a very negative reaction among many people.  Talking about "harvesting" these animals creates a feeling of revulsion.  I personally think it is because we anthropomorphize them through making pets part of "family" and watching television shows that focus on the "cuteness" of animals as opposed to their true nature or, purpose in the ecosystems they occupy. 

Cattle, quite simply, are born to be food.  It is their primary purpose for being on this planet.  They are a mobile, reproducing, energy harvesting machine that stores the energy from the sun which is first captured in plants and then concentrated in the tissue of the animal for later consumption.  They are uniquely and amazingly suited for that sole purpose.

The natural world is designed to function in ways we are only now beginning to understand.  All of life on this planet is dependent on energy from the sun for survival.  Each animal, including humans, is designed to fit specific niches in the environment.  Within those niches, animals tend to attempt modification of the environment to suit their own specific needs.  A great example of this is the beaver which builds dams in streams which change the water flow and thus the surrounding local ecosystem.  Sometimes those beaver dams get taken out by the raging torrent of a flooding river.

Humans are by far the worst at modifying the environment.  We lay acre after acre of concrete and asphalt that alters the planet.  Sadly, in our ignorance of the impact we have, we change the earth to the point that in some places it is to our own detriment.  Flooding and altered weather patterns can be a result.  Because of our egocentricity, we tend to place the blame on other things.  Right now, one of the primary objects of "blame" is animal agriculture -- the production of food from animals.  It seems strange to me that we would blame a natural process for issues resulting from our unnatural behavior.  That's not exactly accurate -- our alteration of the environment to suit our purposes is part of our natural behavior, it's just that we have the ability to understand and reason through the facts that point to the ultimate consequences of that behavior; the planet will fight back.