Plant things: what we feed to what we eat to what we research

Guest post by Clemson student Sophia Marek

As of today the plants that I can successfully identify are Prairie Smoke, Prairie Rose, Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Yarrow, and of course, Sticky Willy. The others take some time, and perhaps I don’t absorb as much of the plants because too much of my brain is stuffed with animal science terms and random facts. Still, it all connects. The reason we were out there was yes, to practice identifying plants, but also for research on biomass of what is available to cows and what is available for them to eat.

We did not visit as many places or people in this section of the class, but the days still passed. The previous way that the class did research was with different angles, measuring depth of soil, fuel coverage, and other factors. It was precise and straight to the point. However, I liked what we tried this time because a) we had no idea if it would work or not (living life at the cusp of the scientific frontier!) and b) I feel like it offered a lot of different experiences with identifying plants, chopping biomass from the ground, or navigating. The last one being my favorite to do.

I was the compass keeper of the group and so I identified where the four corners of the 20x20 meter square were. I had never really had a point to using a compass before, besides just telling my friends, “Look that way’s north.” Now, it was “that way’s North,” but with a purpose! I was very important, to say the least.

When we first drove down to visit the rancher of the ranch we are staying at the very beginning of last week, I had no idea that there were so many hidden plots to catch animals on camera and data in the rest. But, it does make sense. If I had land like this, I would also want to know which treatment would be preserving biodiversity and helping the cattle and the land be as strong as they can be.

Besides researching in the green of our very own backyard, we also visited two establishments that are in business with cattle: a feed lot for finishing and a stocker business for developing adolescent cattle’s bones and getting them ready for the feedlot. Both of which I was shocked by the size of each, which was much bigger than anything I had imagined while learning about them in class.

Currently, the feed lot housed around 17,000 cows of about 15 customers in order to be finished. I think among those I was most interested in the wagyu beef cattle and the amount of special treatment that they receive. Special diets, special aging, and a $70,000 ultrasound machine that specifically checks for marbling before the cows are sent away. No wonder wagyu beef is so expensive!

The stocker operation was a little bit smaller (or maybe seeing the feedlot the day before prepared me more). The cattle are given hormone shots of things like growth hormone in order to aid the amount of muscles and carcass weight that the cow ends up with. The person who gave us the tour brought up an interesting point about being able to sustain the amount of meat going to the market. It is kind of like a double edged sword. If people advocate for decrease in added hormones, more cattle will be needed to sustain the amount of meat consumed. More cows mean more methane, the most notably gas that people know for global warming.

Depending on how things change and what the opinions of the consumers are, there are different effects to sustainability within the ecosystem and keeping it the way it was or improving it altogether.