Now, everybody concentrate!

The media these days love to focus on CAFOs. But what are they, really? CAFO stands for concentrated animal feeding operation. Most people, if they have heard this term, have an instantly negative connotation of it. I, myself, was even fooled into the fear of them by a well-meaning but misinformed biology professor back in the day. CAFOs are a little different for every species. For instance, beef animals start in a cow/calf operation, where they are on pasture, move to a stocker/backgrounder operation, where they are still on pasture, until they are about a year old, and then for about the last 3 months in a concentrated feedlot. Swine, on the other hand, spend most of their lives in a "hog house," an indoor feeding and care facility. Why are hogs raised indoors? Simply because it is easier to monitor each individual animal's health that way. Pigs have a tendency to get sick and to hurt themselves and each other. Having enclosed pens with only a few animals per pen makes it easier to observe any health issues they may have. Many people wonder if these types of environments are mentally taxing for the animals. The truth is, the animals in concentrated operations show no higher stress levels than those that are pastured. Is it an ideal environment to spend the last of your days? Probably not. But if you watch a herd of cattle or sheep in a pasture or a group of pigs, they all stuff themselves into the dirtiest, muddiest corner and huddle all together, even when there is a whole big green pasture around them! So a concentrated feeding operation isn't exactly going against their natural social behaviors. Every day, the USDA is setting standards for feedlots and the health requirements of animals in every type of operation. Most skeptics who have the opportunity to visit one are typically very surprised at how well run the operation is and how well treated the animals are. If you ever have the opportunity to visit one, take it!