Do ranchers care about animal welfare?

Paige Pratt, a lifelong farmer and her son take a break from feeding cattle to pose for the camera.

Earlier this week I went to the Bob Dole Institute for
Politics and attended a session entitled Animal Welfare in America.  The speakers were Wayne Pacelle, President of
the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Nancy Perry, Senior VP of
Government Relations, ASPCA.  The topics
of the evening ranged from puppy mills to horse slaughter to food animal
production.

Being a farmer and rancher,
I was very intrigued by the discussion regarding food animal production,
especially when Mr. Pacelle indicated one of their top priorities is to shut
down all intensive confinement operations.

For the most part, this would include hogs and chickens, so as a cattle
rancher most folks would assume I don’t have a “dog in the fight.”  This couldn’t be farther from the truth!  I recently lived in Virginia, one of their
top agriculture enterprises is poultry and turkey production, and I have many
friends that are involved in the hog and poultry industries.

Paige’s husband Jason and their daughter work on the ranch every day to provide care for their cattle. It is a 7-day a week job with no days off for bad weather or social events.  Paige’s family is committed to animal welfare–as are most farmers.

I have walked into a barn with 35,000 pullets
(chickens that are used for meat purposes) and I can tell you that the barn was
clean, and the animals were clean, healthy and well-cared for by the family who
owned the farm.  As we toured the
operation, you could see the pride of the farmer; his animals were comfortable
and healthy.  When we walked into the
barn the pullets came over to you, let you pick them up and showed no fear.

Grandpa and his grandkids–living and working daily on their farm.

Groups like HSUS, ASPCA and PETA want the
rest of the world to believe that “factory farming” has nothing to do with a
family farm and it does!  On this
particular farm, as is the case for most hog and poultry growing operations,
the company owns the animals, but the family takes care of them and owns the
facility in which the animals are raised. 
So, when these interest groups want to make changes to the way these
animals are raised, they are targeting the family farmer and his/her
profitability, not the company who owns the animals.

“I believe in the humane treatment of animals, as do all
producers I have ever known.”    –Paige Pratt, farmer and rancher in Kansas

We care for animals in the snow, wind and rain; we get up in the middle of the night, for many days in a row, to make sure they are born safely and are cared for by their mothers and we always make them a priority. As farmers, we have the challenge of feeding the world; we take it personally as we strive to keep the world fed every day with the safest and most nutritious food in the world. In order for us to continue our legacies and pass family farms from one generation to the next we must be profitable and in order for us to be profitable, we must care for our animals.