Higher Feed Costs Send Cattle to Pasture

Whatever is driving higher grain prices—ethanol, inputs, overseas demand—there may be at least one bright side (and you know how I like to look at the bright side): fewer cattle in feedlots. Instead of crowding cattle into messy, stinky concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), farmers are taking advantage of good grass conditions and letting more cattle run longer to eat a more natural diet out in the pastures [or so I learn from "Feedlot Numbers Continue to Shrink," Dakota Farmer, 2008.08.24].

I was paging through Dakota Farmer since I was following up on the CAFO situation in Grant County, where a little citizen activism has scared off (for now) Riverview Dairy from building a 5,700-head feedlot in Kilborn Township. There's still some county business to be done: on Tuesday, Grant County commissioners will consider changing the setback requirements for livestock feeding operations. CAFO opponents originally wanted the county to increase the buffer zone between new CAFOs and homes and wells from a half mile to up to two miles. They have since agreed to a compormise proposal by the township association to create a sliding scale, with the setback distance increasing with the number of cattle in the feedlot [see Terry O'Keefe, "Grant Co. Preps for Petitions," Watertown Public Opinion, 2008.08.28, and same author, "Set-back Discussions Continue," WPO, 2008.08.25].

But even with high feed prices, good grass conditions, and citizen activism, don't expect the drive for bigger CAFOs to disappear. There are big corporate interests putting big money into promoting industrial agriculture and displacing small, independent producers. A Grant County correspondent reports his frustration with a CAFO regulation meeting August 21 at which Ag United exec Steve Dick, state Ag Secretary Bill Even, and other experts offered a hearty defense of the corporate "bigger is better" line.

Funny: Mr. Dick actually believes that we need bigger farm operations to stem population loss, when the trend of the past century shows that bigger farm operations mean fewer farmers on the land.

Growth can be good, but the growth of industrial agriculture doesn't just concentrate cows, manure, and stink: it concentrates wealth, ownership, and independence in the hands of the few big operators whose interests are served by lobbying groups like Ag United.