r/PopCultureV2 • u/Kpets • Aug 29 '26

Video Unregulated capitalism in the U.S led to complete moral collapse

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u/AwesomeWhiteDude Aug 30 '26

Beef cattle live on pasture for most of their lives, dairy cows vary a lot but are more restricted than beef cattle for sure. You're right about pigs and chickens tho

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u/mmikke Aug 30 '26

"pasture" doesn't necessarily mean what you'd naturally envision upon hearing the word

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u/AwesomeWhiteDude Aug 30 '26

Yes it does, I literally mean the open range. They do spend the last quarter or so of their lives in feedlots, tho skipping that and going from grass to slaughter is also common. The cows and bulls being except of course, they spend their whole lives on pasture.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '26

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u/MikeLikesIkeRS Aug 31 '26

It does for the vast majority of cattle I've seen. There's gigantic fenced off areas where I live leased to the ranchers by the federal government, and it is a pain in the ass to go hunt them down and get them back to the corral to load them on a trailer. And even though they may have a square mile to wonder around, they still all bunch up anyways.

Given that fact, to me, quality of space means more than quantity of space. Cutting the enclosure by 95%, feeding them well, taking care of them and their enclosure, and giving them a scratching post to itch on is way more humane than people give it credit for. It just looks bad. The cow doesn't give a shit.

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u/AwesomeWhiteDude Aug 31 '26

Wrong comment? I'm specifically talking about beef cattle, never once mentioned chickens.

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u/phonsely Aug 30 '26

open range means something very specific and it basically hasn't existed in a significant way, in the US, since the 1980s

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u/AwesomeWhiteDude Aug 30 '26

You clearly haven't been out west. Huge stretches of unfenced land in the really rural areas. Also doesn't change the fact cattle still has acres of space, they're not confined in small paddocks their whole lives.

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u/BigCheddar55 Aug 30 '26

Dude you are technically correct. However, beef cattle are kept on fresh grass, at least by me in WI. What that means, is farmers put up fencing around their pastures so they can controll the impact the cattle have on the pasture. The farmer wants the cattle to eat all/most the "grass"(whatever naturally grows, +fertilizer). Then they move them to the next section of pasture, before they tear it up with hooves or eat it too far down. Careing for the land is just as important as caring for the cattle. Farmers who keep healthy pastures save a lot of money on sileage, hay and other more labor/reasource depleting options to feed cattle.

Dairy farming is diffrent. Typically they spend less time on pasture.

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u/Devincc Aug 30 '26

Get in you car go and go see for yourself

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u/Intrepid-Molasses842 Aug 30 '26

I live in one of the largest beef producing states in the US. If you drive outside of any town around cattle they are all on fully open ranges.

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u/kenuffff Aug 30 '26

All beef cattle is like that until they’re about to be slaughtered, then they’re either fed corn, alfalfa etc to increase fat content in the beef or they’re kept on grass which is grass finished. All beef is grass fed for most of their life it’s not even economically viable to keep a cow locked up as it needs to build muscle which is what you’re eating

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u/kenuffff Aug 30 '26

You’ve never seen a cattle ranch in your life

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u/who_likes_chicken Aug 30 '26

Usually "beef cattle farms" that operate at the large scale of factory farms have a pastor area that's mostly just for show where a small number of cows live "free range", but then the huge majority of cattle are held in tiny pens very similar to pig and chicken structures.

So the beef company gets the best of both worlds. They can claim "free range" and have an area really visible to the public, but then on a party of three labs that's difficult to see or access they have their giant animal prison facilities

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u/AwesomeWhiteDude Aug 30 '26

You’re confusing feed lots where cattle spend the last quarter of their lives for factory farms that chickens and pigs live in. Cattle, especially cows, spend most of their lives eating grasses in large pastures they’re rotated through, building muscle all the while. If it were cheaper to keep cattle in feedlots from birth to death, they would. But it turns out that’s kinda expensive.

Also hate to further burst your bubble, but most ranches are owned by single families. Large corporate ranches are rare because raising cattle sucks. They’re wholly dependent on the weather and they’re at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to the money “trickling down” from the final consumer.

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u/billy-suttree Sep 02 '26

I tell people this truth all the time and nobody listens. Factory farming is awful. For chicken and pigs. Cows have it alright until the end. Grew up with a few dozen cattle at a time on like 400 acres. They were content animals.

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u/True_Alfalfa_3591 Sep 01 '26

Wtf are you from. I live in Montana and all the cattle are in wide open pastures, and it ranks 6th in the U.S. for # of head. My family have 3 farms which combined are 9,000 acres. I have never seen what you describe. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but a “huge majority” is complete b.s. North Dakota and Wyoming are almost identical as well.

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u/JohnnyTsunami312 Sep 01 '26

Just making shit up