Author Topic: Feedlot  (Read 4310 times)

pat

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Feedlot
« on: May 08, 2014, 06:37:41 PM »
A common word according to the 'deflection' puzzle, although the dictionary describes it as US.

If it's a word used in this country it's one I've never heard.

mkenuk

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2014, 06:57:10 PM »
You beat me to it, Pat. I can't recall ever seeing it before.  Neither COD nor Chambers knows the word. Merriam-Webster Online does, which tends to suggest it's American, like other words with 'lot' - parking lot, building lot etc.

A suitable case for 'de-commoning' ?

MK

blackrockrose

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2014, 09:07:57 PM »
'Feedlot' is fairly common in Australia.

birdy

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2014, 12:49:14 AM »
What do the Brits call such areas?

mkenuk

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2014, 02:18:43 AM »
What do the Brits call such areas?

fields?

pastures?

meadows?

MK

(later) Apologies. I've just realized after looking up the word on 'Wikipedia' that this term refers to factory farming. The M-W definition doesn't really make that clear  ('a plot of land on which animals are fattened...'). In which case I have to say that I don't know what the UK term is for these force-feeding pens.

MK
« Last Edit: May 09, 2014, 03:38:28 AM by mkenuk »

cmh

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2014, 11:56:18 PM »
other than "veal crate" I'm not sure we do. Maybe if we don't give it a name it doesn't happen?

Ozzyjack

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2014, 06:31:22 AM »
'Feedlot' is fairly common in Australia.

I agree the word is common in Australia but when I thought about it, I realised I knew virtually nothing about feedlots except that I had a feeling that there was a negative connotation to them (reinforced by some of the comments in this thread).  I also wondered why it would be common in Australia but not in Britain.  So I decided to do a bit of research.

It turns out that the feedlots are not only common but operators have their own professional association with a website http://www.feedlots.com.au/.   Some interesting excepts from the site:

Quote
There are approximately 450 accredited beef cattle feedlots in Australian with the majority family owned and operated. They are generally located in areas which have a ready access to grain, cattle and water.

In Australia, all feedlot cattle spend most of their lives on pasture. Cattle are generally taken to feedlots because pasture quality does not allow cattle to reach marketable weights during poor seasons (droughts) or particular times of the year when rain doesn't fall. Notably, pastures are deficient in northern Australia during the dryer winter months and in southern Australia during the dryer summer months.

Feedlots employ stockmen and women who supervise cattle each day. These key staff members are specifically trained in animal welfare, husbandry and handling along with quickly identifying any animals that may appear sick so that they can be isolated from other animals and treated as soon as possible. Feedlots also employ qualified veterinarians to oversee their animal health programs. As feedlot cattle are also protected from floods, fire, droughts and wild animals, mortality levels are lower than in extensive grazing systems.

The cattle feedlot industry considers that effective management of environmental, animal welfare and food safety issues are not only essential for sustainable agricultural production but protects farmers businesses for future generations.

Feedlots offer a number of environmental benefits. Beef feedlot production is more efficient, with less land and cattle required, less stress placed on the environment and less greenhouse gas emissions produced.

The Australian Feedlot Industry is passionate about animal welfare. Feedlot veterinarian Tony Batterham and feedlot managers Geoff Cornford and Brad Robinson discuss how the industry ensures the welfare of the cattle in their care through following the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare principles: Freedom from hunger and thirst; Freedom from discomfort ; Freedom from pain, injury or disease; Freedom to express normal behaviour; Freedom from Fear and Distress.

While acknowledging that the Association's job is to promote feedlots and therefore probably contains a lot of spin, I am also willing to concede that my prejudice against feedlots may have been the result of ignorance and the mistaken association with iniquitous practices in the poultry industry.

Why feedlots not common in Britain?  I am guessing that the problem of "poor seasons (droughts) or particular times of the year when rain doesn't fall" don't exist or are not as common.

Should feedlots be common in Chihuahua?  I am indifferent and happy to leave it to Alan's usual wisdom. :)
Regards, Jack

cmh

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2014, 07:29:10 AM »
As I have said in  a previous post it is an an unexpected bonus of joining the Chi family that I am learning so many new things. The above post ( sorry but doing a quote thing is beyond my computer related abilities!) makes complete sense of why we Brits lack a comparable phrase to feedlot.  I think that there is still also an element of British head in the sand as there are some farms in the UK where dairy cows never see grass all year round.

ensiform

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2014, 08:25:01 AM »
It's possible they also spring out of very large land areas (Australia and the US).  But then, is feedlot common in Canada?  I don't know.

Alan W

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2018, 10:06:13 PM »
While there's still a fair sized backlog of word requests, not many of them are requests to switch words from common to rare. I'm going to try to deal with all of these over the next few weeks. Some of them look as though they should be fairly straightforward - but there's always the temptation to delve into the details of a word, beyond what's required to decide the issue.

For instance, it seems that feedlots are not used in the UK and hence the word feedlot is not well known there. This really decides it - the word will be treated as rare in future. But the question was asked, do they have them in Canada? Well, I'm not quite obsessive enough to research the actual extent of the feedlot system around the world, but I can at least get an indication of usage of the word in various countries.

Going by the News on the Web corpus, the word feedlot is used more in Australia than anywhere else. The next biggest user of the word is Malaysia, mostly in connection with the "National Feedlot Corporation scandal". It seems that Malaysia does have feedlots, but the word has extra prominence in the media because of a financial scandal. The other two countries that are big users of the word are Canada and New Zealand. The word appears only 47 times in UK publications (compared with 1147 times in Australia) and these UK instances are in news stories from other parts of the world.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites

yelnats

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2018, 11:33:08 PM »
My understanding is that feedlots are for cattle coming from more arid areas to fatten them up before slaughter. There was an infamous case here in Oz a number of years ago.
Quote
A bacterium, Clostridium botulinum, produces the potent toxin "botulinum" in some organic materials when they decompose. "Botulism" is also a serious form of food poisoning in humans. It is a common cause of death in cattle that graze in phosphorus-deficient areas. When carcases decay, the botulism bacteria can proliferate and produce the toxin. Cattle consume the toxin from bones that they chew due to hunger induced by phosphorus deficiency.
 
Years ago, chicken litter was used in Queensland as a feed supplement for cattle in order to provide high protein levels. A spectacular loss of over 5,000 head of feedlot cattle occurred when one batch of chicken litter proved to be contaminated with the toxin.
http://rense.com/general8/bot.htm

I don't think the UK has arid areas.

birdy

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Re: Feedlot
« Reply #11 on: March 09, 2018, 11:18:57 AM »
My impression is that feedlots in the U.S. are used to give cattle raised on open range (not necessarily arid), an extra boost of food, along with less exercise, to increase the amount of fat in the muscle, marbleizing the meat.  Not so good for our cholesterol, but supposedly better flavor.

I'm no expert on feedlots, since the only time I've seen one was on a birding trip to the King Ranch in Texas. And yes, we did get our target bird, the bronzed cowbird.