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The Poor Old Cows of Great Britainby
Since our last article on the delights of really fresh dairy products yet another food scare has made the news headlines.
Mad Cow Disease or BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) has occupied so much news space that it would by now have become truly boring were it not for the serious threat it may pose for the future well-being of mankind if it can move from cattle to humans.
We say may pose because what is termed expert opinion is so divided on the subject. Government ministers and scientists assure us that British Beef is safe to eat (or at any rate has only a very small risk). On the other hand a former Government scientist and brain specialist has stated that under no circumstances would he eat beef.
Richard Lacey, an eminent micro-biology professor at a major university, has said our Government's handling of the situation has been deplorable and has warned us of a very serious and widespread risk to the nations health ; and our European partners have decided to ban the export of all British beef .
The great British public, tempted by half price bargains , are reported to have besieged the stores of one the major super-markets and bought more beef in one day than ever before. This last piece of news puts us in mind very strongly of Gordon Rattray Taylor's writing in his wide-ranging and deeply disturbing Doomsday Book. [1]
"What must strike the layman as extraordinary is the cheerful assumption made not only by the public but by many experts that if a substance doesn't kill you pretty promptly it is harmless."
As lay people with a deep interest in food production we feel there are some facts which should be more widely known and thus help to clarify the situation .
During two world wars earlier this century Britain became virtually self sufficient in food production only to relinquish this desirable state of affairs due to the availability of cheap foreign imports and, dare we say it, the laziness of many folks to grow their own.
Post war advertising in the Western world has laid such emphasis on convenience or ready manufactured foods that the origin, growing, harvesting, processing and transportation of what they daily consume is unknown and of no concern to many people.
The ethos of convenience food has of course extended to animal feeding so that most domestic animals live on tinned or manufactured products and most farm animals are fed on compound or processed foods. Ever increasing pressure to produce more and cheaper food has lead to the use of the cheapest and most readily available ingredients in animal foods providing they meet the specification for the product as regards protein energy etc.
The protein for animal feeds used to consist of substances such as white fish meal or soya bean. Unfortunately these do not now come within the category of cheapest and most readily available .
Manufacturers of animal feeds have become increasingly secretive concerning the actual constituents of their products even to the extent of losing trade. As long ago as 1987 we stopped using any form of compound feed for our own livestock because we could not ascertain from our supplier (a very old established and reliable family business) just what went into compound feedstuffs.
We wanted to know what was the actual protein in the feed but this information was not available. Our decision to switch to straight or whole feedstuffs was vindicated when we learned that a local estate, with a large dairy herd and good retail milk delivery rounds, was pressing to ascertain what went into the compound feed they were using.
Again this information was not available despite very strong pressure from both the estate manager and the feed merchant on the feed manufacturer. Dissatisfied, the estate purchased from a different source.
Was this secrecy anything to do with the possibility that some revulsion might well be caused by the thought of feeding natural herbivores such as cows on the processed remains of other mammals ?
We leave this to you, WebSurfers, to judge. But, before coming to any decision on the wisdom of such feeding practises, it is well to reflect on what has been done to improve the dairy cow over the last half century or so .
Before the 1939-1945 war the average yield of dairy cows in Britain was about 2550 kg (560 gallons).
The average yield in 1960 was about 3400 kg (750 gallons) per cow; by 1969 national average was about 3700 litres (815 gallons); by 1977 was about 4500 kg (1000) gallons.
In 1989 in England and Wales the milk yield for recorded herds was 5758 kg - approx. 1270 gallons- with slightly higher yields in Scotland and Ireland. [2]
In today's high yielding herds, we understand that a cow must produce the best part of 2000 gallons to justify her place. Thus in a period of fifty to sixty years the average yield of our dairy cattle has been at least tripled and in some cases quadrupled. It is worth noting that a yield of 2000 gallons during a lactation period of 305 days is about twelve to fourteen times the cow's own body weight!
Such an enormous increase in yield imposes an equally enormous load upon the poor dairy cow , a load which is in no way made easier by the intensive conditions in which she is kept . Few dairy cows live to be more than eight or ten years, and during that lifetime they will almost certainly have received considerable medication, not only for milking related ailments such as mastitis and milk fever but also as routine preventative treatments for such pests as warble fly with pour-on applications of organo-phosphorus compounds.
Then at the end of it all they are sold as cull cattle. That is they are slaughtered and their worn-out bodies enter the human food manufacturing chain. In Britain about 60% of home produced beef comes from dairy herds. Some of it is from dairy bred calves grown on for beef , much of it is from cattle whose working life is over .
At the time of writing the British Government has just imposed a ban on the slaughter of all cattle over the age of thirty months but this may be a case of shutting the stable or rather cow-shed door a little too late. It must of course be reviewed and altered very soon to avoid complete chaos in the industry. A ban has also been imposed on the sale of all farm animal feeds containing mammalian remains. Until very recently, pig and poultry feed has contained these remains. It seems that this ban will also stop the practise of feeding additional fat in the form of fat prills to 11 month old beef animals at the rate of 1kg per day for the last five weeks of life to finish them for market as they would otherwise be too lean .
Government scientists told us that animals under thirty months of age cannot develop BSE so this early killed beef should be quite safe despite being "finished" on rendered fat from other animals. Government scientists also told us that organo-phosphorus compounds were perfectly safe to use for animal treatments.
Farmers were legally obliged to immerse sheep in organo-phosphorus dips and organo-phosphorus systemic warblecide compounds were poured on the backs of cattle. Grave doubts about these compounds are now emerging. Symptoms of organo-phosphorus poisoning are very similar to those of BSE , including the actual damage done to the brain .
A report in the Financial Times (http://www.FT.com) of 1 May 1996 is headed, "Sheep dip ban urged following research on suicides." and commences thus : "The Government was urged yesterday to ban organophosphorus sheep dips after research from Spain showed that suicide rates in areas of heavy use of the chemical were four times the national average."
Dr Robert Davies , a consultant psychiatrist from Taunton who has studied 33 patients with mental and sensory disorders apparently linked to OP poisoning , said that he had previously hesitated about calling for a ban but, he told a meeting of MPs at the House of Commons, "This work, in my view, makes the case watertight."
The Countess of Mar, a farmer member of the House of Lords , who believes her own ill-health was caused by exposure to OP sheep dips backed the view that suicidal impulses could be a side-effect. She said, "I've stood with a shotgun under my chin on two occasions and 10 minutes later wondered why I was doing it!"
Finally of course there is the all important question: Is BSE/CJD just a problem for Great Britain or could it be world wide? We have no way of knowing at the moment but we did see a report on Channel 4 Teletext page 462 on 8 April 1996 concerning a Mr Howard Lyman of Montana who gave up cattle ranching and is now involved in "Eating with a conscience campaign" - Washington DC.
Mr Lyman is reported to have said " I'm waiting for BSE to happen over here. 14% of US cows are fed to other cows. 100,000 a year die from an unknown illness. It's frightening ."
