Does raising DP for meat equal out?

[terri9630]

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My daughters stomach bloats, gets rock hard and hurts. She doesn't have any shaking though. They have tested her for everything they can think of and kinda gave up so I started my own testing. As long as I make everything home made she has no problems. She eats all the same foods, just not "premade". Some things just aren't the same though.......

I know,my daughter's ticked right now because she is getting a lot of organic food...not that she minds that but she's used to getting pre-made whenever she wanted.We tried rice milk for the first time this week...LOL....the cats won't even drink it!

We tried rice milk. Once. My daughter and cat both decided to give up milk until I bought some of the regular stuff. Soy milk went over a bit better but not much. Our Dr's tried her on every type of milk/formula you can buy when she was an infant. Even formulas have preservatives and stuff in it.

 

[dawnwinds58]

You could do another test on that milk allergy. Find an Amish or Mennonite dairy, make sure they don't have someone outside of the comminity treat there animals, get raw, clean, no chemical milk and let her try it. That would clarify if it is a chemical or preservative in milk processing. If it is the proteins, try either goat's milk, or even easier to digest, sheep's milk. Both proteins are more digestible than cow's milk. Calcium is so vital to human nutrition and being female, it becomes even more important.

It's worth a try.

 

[Cowgirl71]

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Raw Jersey milk is SO yummy too...

 

[dawnwinds58]

I agree. Some years back we had a friend with a dairy, a small one with a mixed herd. In that herd was a Jersey/Brown Swiss cross that they milked by hand due to a dog attack costing her a teat. We paid for her milk. It would separate in a glass gallon jug to near half cream and half milk. Made some excellent butter with it. It will put the weight on someone I tell ya' !!

We always wanted to get a couple of Jerseys. Plan was to raise them together, and when they freshened, put both calves on one cow and milk the other. What we don't use, can go to raise a couple of pigs for meat. Already cruising the web for people going to have litters of either Large Blacks or Tamworth. We won't do the regular commercial breeds. They've had their "graze and forage" instincts bred right out of the. We'll stick to Herirtage breeds with good traits, less fat production, and a sense of finding their own food.

 

[AlbionWood]

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My goodness that is a handsome rooster in your avatar.

Thanks! He's a Delaware. Over on the Delawares thread, they went pretty ga-ga over him. He's a real sweetheart, too.

(His brothers were delicious!)

 

[ShadyHoller]

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People keep talking about steroids/hormones in chicken. That's a myth. It's illegal. There are lots of gross things about commercially raised chicken, but hormones aren't one of them.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Meat_&_Poultry_Labeling_Terms/index.asp

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12803309/ns/business-consumer_news/

 

[dawnwinds58]

Since my husband worked for Cagles Poultry which is purchased by Tysons, I'll just not eat their's no matter what they wrote on the papers to the governent. One of the most common sayings there is "What the government don't know won't hurt them." I mean seriously? It isn't like anything "illegal" happens in this country, or like anybody might dare to "lie' in governemt forms or anything. That wouldn't be American now would it?

 

[Bossroo]

You know that your employee, USDA, performs tests at their test labs for such things as hormones, drugs, pathogens, etc. at every step of food growing/ processing . States and Universities have test labs that that perform random tests and anyone can submit suspected samples to. Farmers have to be licensed by the Federal/ State Government in order to buy pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers,drugs, etc., kept under lock and key, then keep detailed records of the pesticide, herbicide, fertilizer, drug, etc. application/ use. Applicators have to be educated and tested then licensced for their use, and their names are entered in the use log. Go to any supplier for these things and see what paperwork one has to fill out. However, Townspeople and wannabe farmers just go buy many of these things at any garden or hardware store then use them at will.Then there are the sales records from their supliers that can be cheked. This and the threats of law suits and courts keeps the processors from falsifying reports. Also, when an individual , business, and/ or corporate income tax is filed, there is a section for supplies and cost of goods sold that spells out clearly what was used and when that the IRS examiners pick up immediately. Those that violate the rules end up paying heavy fines and or jail time.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Our local industrial chicken corporation donates chicks to the local 4-Hers, so that everybody's meat pens start with the exact same genetics at the exact same age.

Their commercial growers and I have about the same rate of gain (some of them are friends and we compare notes, I am always slightly behind, but I go longer and I pasture). I do not use hormones. If hormones were in use by commercial growers, I would think the commercial growers would have a huge edge. I believe the genetics (at least in our case) are responsible for the fast rate of gain, not hormones.

That said....with the chicken corporation supplying the feed all made up, there really is no way for the grower/farmer to know what is in it without paying for the chemical analysis. I believe at this point they do not automatically include anything that increases costs unless there is a demonstratable and proportional increase in profit. Fines would really cut into those profits.

Keeping the barns cleaner and immediately culling anything that looks odd or small is relied on to keep disease out and growth percentages high for those precious 35 days from chick to 3 pound broiler.

 

[knjinnm]

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