Pork Tragedy

A few days ago I was made aware of a practice that has bothered me ever since.  A while ago I wrote on here that many times hog farmers have available pigs that have a belly rupture.  While this sounds worse than it is, truthfully it is only a hernia.  Most times the farmers will sell these at a lower cost because they usually cannot send them out with the rest of the herd to the processor.  We have had one of these hogs and there was nothing at all wrong with it in the end.  It tasted amazing!  The processor does have to be careful, though, when butchering so they don't cut into the intestines that have come through the abdominal wall.  If this happens it contaminates the meat.

A few days ago, I learned there are some confinements just killing these hogs before they are full grown since they can't send them out with the rest.  I'm not talking about 1 or 2, but tens to hundreds of them.  Basically, they aren't worth the trouble to them.  I'm not sure if everyone else knew this was happening or not.  I had no idea this was happening and to me with all of the people in America who are struggling to make ends meat that this practice is such a waste!

If there was a place that would take these hogs and finish raising them it could make a difference helping to feed those that are struggling.  Most of the time, though, they would rather kill them than give them away!!! 

I do understand that these companies are in the business to make money, but it doesn't cut into profits to give something away or even to charge a small fee for it if you were going to dispose it of anyway.  

I would love to hear thoughts on this and any ideas for encouraging these places to do something different with these pigs. 

Grass Fed vs. Grain Fed

In all my years of loving to eat steak I had never given any thought to what it was fed until recently.  I am a lover of lean, tender meat with lots of tastiness.  Steak is by far my favorite food.  I would say that most cattle around here are grain fed.  Lots of them spend much of their time in a feed lot.  Our cows, on the other hand, wander the pasture as they please eating grass.  They sometimes get some grain -as a treat more or less.  They also get apples, melon and carrots as treats.  This, to me, makes my cows happy cows!  I am not, however, trying to make a living with them.

As I spoke with the very nice lady at the locker, who answers all my questions about the meat and processing without complaint when we take a steer or buy one from someone else, she mentioned that they could tell our cow was grass fed due to the color of the fat layer and thickness.  This amazed me as I had no idea that it really made any difference.  I began my research into the difference and here is what I came up with:

Grain fed cattle grow faster and to promote this are sometimes given a growth hormone implant.  The meat contains more marbling that promotes tastiness (which can be debated).  The fat is thicker and white in color.  This beef is much more abundant and cheaper to buy.

Grass fed cattle may take a year longer to finish than grain fed.  The fat is yellow in color and the meat has much less marbling.  This meat is higher in omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins A & E and lower in calories.  It costs more and is much less abundant.  The quality of the meat can vary widely depending on the breed of cow.

This all being said, we raised our first grass fed cow and butchered him this year.  I was a little nervous that it wouldn't taste as good as the beef we purchased in the past, which was grain fed.  When we cooked our first steaks I was AMAZED!  This beef is exactly what I love to eat -tasty, lean and as tender as can be.  From what I have read we may have gotten lucky as to the cow, the breed or luck alone, but it tastes amazing.  We definately have no problems with raising our own grass fed beef again.  Also, I haven't crunched a bunch of numbers but it seems to me that it was cheaper for us to grass feed.  It took 2 years to grow him so we had to hay feed him through two winters.  We did not,however, have to buy grain for a year which seems like it would have been lots more expensive than letting him pasture eat.  The cost would be different, though, if we crop farmed and had our own grain so we wouldn't have to pay the higher prices of buying it. 

At the end of the day, we had a good experience and came out of it with a freezer full of great beef to eat that may be a little healthier than what we would have bought at the store and a lot less expensive!