The Argument Essay: Corn Is Destroying Our Livestock

1. Augustine

Lorie Augustine
September 19, 2011
English 122

Corn is it hurting our livestock

Corn is commonly used as feed grain in beef cattle diets throughout the United States.
Cows see very little grass now days in their life span. They supported with the diet of corn which causes them to become fat and bloated and become depended on antibiotic. The drug causes the cows to developed liver damages. So if it causes health risk to the cows imagine what it does to our health Most feedlot uses corn as the main supply for feeding their cows. It is an absurdity in the way modern feedlots work: Cows are ruminants, which is to say, they’ve evolved to exist on grass. But cows in industrial feedlots are fed diets that
In fact, a lot of greenhouse gases come out of the stock as a methane emerges from their mouth as they eructate—it’s a technical term. And they bring down saliva in this process, and it keeps their stomach vey base rather than acid. So you put in the corn and this layer of slime forms over the rumen (stomach). Just picture the rumen; it’s a 45-gallon fermentation tank. It’s essential fermenting the grass. Suddenly your slime forms and the gas can’t escape, and the rumen just expands like a balloon. It’s pressing against the lungs and the heart, and if nothing is done, the animal suffocates. Some things that can be done if you catch it in time is to stick a hose done the cows esophagus to release the gas and feed it hay and grass, and it’s a lot healthier. But not all cows bloat. They are prone to bloat. On most farms of feedlot cows that don’t bloat tends to become acidosis which is acidifying of the rumen (stomach), more like a bad case of heartburn. Given cows to much corn it ulcerates the rumen; ended up in the liver, creating liver abscesses. Most cows on feedlots eating this rich diet of corn are prone to having their liver to become damaged, so to prevent this or limit it they need another regiment of antibiotics. But the antibiotic in turn, lead to resistance: resistant microbes that then come and infect us. So there are hidden
Corn is incredibly cheap; it cost about $2.25 for a bushel of corn, which is like 50 pounds. It actually costs less to buy than it costs to grow, because of subsidy. Ideally, I’d like to see us go back to a system where we relied more on grass. Imagine millions of acres of corn and soybean...were turned back to pasture on which animals grazed. That system worked pretty well. It makes very healthy, meat, and does a lot less environmental damages. We’ve heard a lot about overgrazing on the Western range, and it certainly is an environmental problem. But in recent years, the environmentalists will tell you, that’s not the big environmental impact of the cattle business. It’s on the feedlot. I think it is possible to build a more sustainable food