The Truth of Cattle Implants and Estrogen Consumption
The Truth of Cattle Implants and Estrogen Consumption
Welcome to Open Range, I’m Susan Allen. Stay tuned because after the break I’ll check in with our field reporter, Greg Martin for the AgriBeef Minute.
I’m Greg Martin with the Open Range AgriBeef Minute. There has been a lot of concern over cattle implants and the additional hormones used but Jeff Pastoor, Senior Cattle Consultant with Land ‘O Lakes says estrogen is used to improve cattle weight.
PASTOOR: Young animals, even humans; but pigs, chickens, cattle, turkeys, whatever - the younger they are the more efficient they are at converting. As we mature we get less efficient in converting what we eat and to gain. So the implants will delay maturity and allow those animals to continue converting efficiently and put more body weight on.
That of course translates to more meat per animal and that is important in several ways.
PASTOOR: The return on investment of using an implant is somewhere in the range of 20 to 1. And that’s a pretty tremendous return on investment for anybody on the production side. Plus the fact if we quit using implants today we would be short another 10% on beef production and right now we are short already.
Bottom line for those people concerned about this issue?
PASTOOR: The fact is there is no scientific basis for concerns about implanted cattle and the estrogen they carry. It’s just such a minute amount it’s just barely measurable and there’s so much more estrogen we take in in a day and produce ourself everyday that it’s basically nothing.
I’m Greg Martin and that’s today’s AgriBeef Minute.
Thanks Greg. Don’t forget Greg will be back each Wednesday with the AgriBeef Minute. Agri Beef Co - Real Families, Great People, Exceptional Beef. I’m Susan Allen.
