
Agricultural News
Grandin Compliments Ranchers for Improvements, Urges Them to Share Their Story
Tue, 13 Jan 2015 18:07:03 CST
The American Farm Bureau Federation has honored Dr. Temple Grandin with its Distinguished Service Award at the 2015 Annual Convention in San Diego, California. AFBF honored the professor of animal science at Colorado State University for her lifetime of service in improving animal well-being.
Ron Hays interviewed Grandin after the award presentation. You can listen to the interview by clicking or tapping on the LISTENBAR below.
Grandin had high praise for at least one segment of animal agriculture as far as the things that have been done to improve animal welling and that is the beef cattle industry.
"A lot of ranchers are doing a great job and we need to be showing the public things that ranchers are doing for land conservation," Grandin said. "Grazing done right can actually improve the land. That is a message that we need to get out there. They maintain water sources that wildlife drink out of too. That is something that a lot of people just don' get it. Yes, they do take a lot of land, but I live in the West, I get in my car and I drive up to Laramie, Wyoming and I drive up further north, there is land up there is no way you can grow crops on that land, you can only grow grazing animals of various kinds on that land."
In telling the story of agriculture, Grandin said the public likes talking with individual farmers and ranchers. She said ranchers are great stewards of the land and we share that story through websites and such and find ways to reach young people.
"We have to communicate with people," Grandin said. "I am worried today we've got a whole bunch of young people today that are totally away from the world of practical things, all practical things. You get unrealistic views of things that are too abstract when you don't do hands-on things."
As far as improvements the cattle industry has made, Grandin credited the Beef Quality Assurance Program in training individuals on low stress cattle handling and decreasing the amount of injection site lesions in cattle. She said several studies conducted at Colorado State University and Kansas State University are documenting how much cattle handling has improved with decreased use of electric prods, cattle falling down and cattle vocalization. Grandin continues to push for further improvement and urges producers to always think how their actions would be portrayed on YouTube.
Dr. Grandin thanked Farm Bureau for the honor- but told the audience that there is lots of educating of the general public that need to be done to help consumers understand that livestock producers are doing a lot of good things in caring for their livestock. You can hear her response on the stage Sunday morning as she received this award from the nation's largest general farm group- click here to hear her comments.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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