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A feedlot or feedyard is a type of Confined Animal Feeding Operation
Factory farming

Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in Industrial agriculture by agribusinesses....
 (CAFO) (also known as "factory farming
Factory farming

Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in Industrial agriculture by agribusinesses....
") which is used for finishing livestock, notably beef
Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle . Beef is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of Australia, European cuisine and the Americas, and is also important in Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia....
 cattle
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
, prior to slaughter. They may contain thousands of animals in an array of pens. Most feedlots require some type of governmental permit and must have plans in place to deal with the large amount of waste that is generated.






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Feedlot 1
A feedlot or feedyard is a type of Confined Animal Feeding Operation
Factory farming

Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in Industrial agriculture by agribusinesses....
 (CAFO) (also known as "factory farming
Factory farming

Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in Industrial agriculture by agribusinesses....
") which is used for finishing livestock, notably beef
Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle . Beef is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of Australia, European cuisine and the Americas, and is also important in Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia....
 cattle
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
, prior to slaughter. They may contain thousands of animals in an array of pens. Most feedlots require some type of governmental permit and must have plans in place to deal with the large amount of waste that is generated. Long-running feedlots are often exempt due to various "grandfather clauses", which allow feedlots to wait until a change of ownership before obtaining permits and designing formal waste management plans. Increasing numbers of cattle feedlots are utilizing out-wintering pads
Out-wintering pads

Out-wintering pads allow livestock to be housed outdoors over winter on pads covered with timber residue. This facility is a low capital-cost cattle-housing system in which a layer of timber residue is placed over an artificially drained surface to control solid and liquid excreta from animal confinement....
 made of timber residue bedding in their operations . Nutrients are retained in the waste timber and livestock effluent and can be recycled within the farm system after use.

Prior to entering a feedlot, cattle spend most of their life grazing on rangeland
Rangeland

this is not realRangeland refers to expansive, mostly unimproved lands on which a significant proportion of the natural vegetation is native grasses, grass-like plants, forbs, and shrubs....
 or on immature fields of grain
Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
 such as green wheat pasture
Pasture

Pasture is land with herbaceous vegetation cover used for grazing of ungulate livestock as part of a farm or ranch. Prior to the advent of factory farming, pasture was the primary source of food for grazing animals such as cattle and horses....
. Once cattle obtain an entry-level weight, about 650 pounds (300 kg), they are transferred to a feedlot to be fed a specialized diet which may be made up of hay
Hay

Hay is a generic term for Poaceae or legumes that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing animals like cattle, horses, domestic goat, and sheep....
, corn
Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
, sorghum
Sorghum

Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of Poaceae, some of which are raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture....
, various other grains, by-products of food processing
Food processing

Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for ingestion by humans or animals either in the home or by the food industry....
, such as sugar beet
Sugar beet

Sugar beet , a member of the Chenopodiaceae family, is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production....
 waste, molasses
Molasses

Molasses is a thick by-product from the processing of the sugar beet or sugar cane into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese language word mela?o, which comes from "meli", the Greek word for "honey"....
, soybean meal
Soybean meal

Soybean meal is an ingredient found in some dog food and cattle feeding. According to AAFCO is the product obtained by grinding the flakes which remain after removal of most of the oil from soybeans by a solvent or mechanical extraction process....
, or cottonseed meal
Cottonseed meal

Cottonseed meal is the byproduct remaining after cotton is cotton gin and the seeds crushed and the cottonseed oil extracted. The remaining meal is usually used for fodder....
, and minerals. In the American northwest and Canada, barley, low grade durum wheat, chick peas (garbanzo beans), oats and occasionally potatoes are used as feed.

Feedlot diets are usually very dense in food energy
Food energy

Food energy is the amount of energy in food that is available through digestion.Like other forms of energy, food energy is expressed in calories or joules....
, to encourage the deposition of fat, or marbling, in the animal's muscles; Some consider this fat desirable as it leads to 'juiciness' in the resulting meat
Meat

In modern English usage, meat most often refers to animal biological tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to offal, including livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, in some countries lungs, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood....
. The animal may gain an additional 400 pounds (180 kg) during its 3-4 months in the feedlot.

Aside from ethical and environmental concerns, feedlots have come under criticism for human health reasons. The tissues of feedlot-raised cattle have far more saturated fat than that of grass-fed cattle, some sources say up to 500 percent more. Feedlot-raised beef may after long periods on feed have reduced healthy omega-3 fatty acids because of the corn-and-grain diets of the cattle.

Once cattle are fattened up to their finished weight, the cattle are transported to a slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse

A slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir ,or freezing works , is a facility where animals are killed and processed into meat foods....
.

See also


  • Livestock
    Livestock

    Livestock is the term used to refer to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce things such as food or fibre, or for its labour....
  • Managed intensive grazing
    Managed intensive grazing

    Management Intensive Rotational Grazing is a system of grazing in which ruminant herds are regularly and systematically moved to fresh pasture with the intent to maximize the quality and quantity of forage growth....


External links

  • - Inhumane Treatment of Farm Animals