A Field Guide to yelling "COW!" out your car window on a road trip
Growing up in the Midwest has imbued me with deep nostalgia for regional rituals. Eating pizza weekly, usually on Friday nights, is a blessed holiday we call Pizza Friday. Some of my friend’s favorite desserts are amalgamations of processed foods and home baked classics like scotcheroos, buckeyes, strawberry pretzel salad and cookie salad. You probably guessed those last two are definitely not salads, though I’m not trying to start a “hot dog is a sandwich” style debate here.
Another ritual I revisit frequently is one lived out on the open road. When cruising a landscape along an interstate, beholding the rolling hills and expansive horizon, majestic wildlife inevitably enters the field of view. And hence, the tradition may commence:
“COW!”
Road trips are more than a way to get from Point A to Point B. The stretch of endless fields, the sway of corn and soy in the breeze, and the occasional sighting of a cow were all part of the soundtrack. For Midwesterners, yelling "COW!" spotting a herd through the window is practically a birthright. I’ve recently learned these traditions may not just be regional, but indeed instilled in the heart of every American, young and old.
As a quintessential eldest child, my Type A tendencies needed structure to keep me entertained on road trips to our go-to-vacation spot on Florida’s Gulf Coast. My parents gave me administrative tasks: cataloging gas stations, spotting license plates, and counting cows. For your kids who need some road trip entertainment like me, I’ve made a coloring sheet and guide to identifying bovines you may en-COW-nter on your journey.
WHERE YOUR BEEF HAS BEEN
The idyllic downlands are usually the first place conventional beef has been on a way-too-long journey to your freezer. Conventional beef refers to the standard supply chain stops that 97% of cattle make in their lifetime.
Cow-Calf Operations
All cattle in the United States start out on pasture, eating grass. These are typically family-owned ranches where cows give birth to calves. About 9% of cow-calf operations are small herds under 100 head of cattle. Link. Calves spend their first four to eight months nursing and grazing alongside their mothers. This is as close to a Hallmark version of farming as the beef supply chain gets.Backgrounder Operations
About 60% of cattle make a pitstop at the backgrounding phase, where they are kept on pastures or dirt pens and consume a diet of grain or grass until they are at an adequate size for stockers or feedlots. At this stage, backgrounders manage vulnerability to disease as cattle transition between sites. Link.
Stocker Operations
After weaning or backgrounding, calves are moved to stocker operations where they continue to graze or receive feed until they reach 12-18 months in age and 800-1,100 pounds in weight. These operations serve as a transition phase, allowing the calves to gain weight before heading to a feedlot.Grass Finishing
Tune in here kids - This is where you have to start reading your food labels. Approximately 3% of US beef is grass-finished, meaning they gain weight on a grass diet until they move to processing. Animals in grass-finished settings take longer to reach slaughter weight and are typically harvested between 30-36 months in age.
Feedlots (CAFOs)
Most beef in the U.S. is finished in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), even if it ate grass and lived on a pasture for most of its life. Here, cattle are housed in pens where activity and movement are limited to prevent animals from burning calories that could offset their weight gain. They are fed a diet of grains, typically corn, to gain 5-6 pounds per day over the final months of their life before moving to slaughterhouses for processing and distribution to grocery stores, restaurants and retailers. Link.
The NO-NO’s on CAFOs
CAFOs (pronounced “KAY-foh”) are large-scale industrial systems designed to house and feed thousands of animals. While they are efficient for producing meat at scale, they come with significant downsides.
Environmental Concerns: CAFOs produce massive amounts of waste, which can contaminate soil and water if not managed properly. Most manure is left to pile up, making is a steaming pile of methane emissions. These grass-less environments are void of the benefits of regenerative agriculture, like carbon sequestration and a healthy soil microbiome, which can foster methanotrophs and other microorganisms that can offset methane emissions, create cooler temperatures, retain water and other myriad benefits.
Questionable Financing: Changes in the 2002 Farm Bill made CAFOs eligible for Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funds, a controversial move that enabled conservation funds to support these grass-less sites. Link. Most beef in the US is packed for The Big Four (Tyson, Cargill, and Brazil-based National Beef and JBS) and CAFOs are often paid for by operators who cannot sell into the supply chain without sufficient compliance to Big Four requirements. These facilities are often built from debt financing by small producers who become overleveraged but trapped in this supply chain.
Animal Welfare: The crowded and often unsanitary conditions in CAFOs raise concerns about the ethical treatment of livestock.
Human Health: Overuse of antibiotics in CAFOs contributes to antibiotic resistance, and more difficult to manage diseases. Sources of grain feed from conventional agriculture can mean pesticides like glyphosate can enter the cow’s body and expose humans to harmful chemicals and less nutritious beef.
While not all cattle spend time in a CAFO, the vast majority of beef in the U.S. is finished in these facilities. Advocating for alternative systems—like regenerative agriculture—can help address some of these issues.
COW SPOTTING GUIDE
But don’t think about ANY of that doom and gloom while you are spotting cows! You can deal with your guilt at the grocery store by purchasing beef that has labels like grass finished or regenerative organic certified or purchasing beef directly from a local farmer.
On the road, keep your eyes peeled for these common breeds:
Black Angus: Solid black coat, medium size. Known for their high-quality beef.
Charolais: Creamy white coat, larger size. Often used in crossbreeding. These cows are of French origin and are prized for their muscle mass.
Hereford: Red body with a white face and belly. Stocky and hardy. Originally bred in England, Herefords are known for their adaptability to different climates.
Red Angus: Like black angus, but red.
Holstein: This is the cows that get drawn in story books. Black and white patches, these primarily act as dairy cows, but occasionally end up in the beef supply chain.
Texas Longhorn: Distinctive long, curved horns, often with a speckled multicolored coat. A symbol of Texas pride and the mascot of the University of Texas, Longhorns are more likely to be spotted on hobby farms than in the beef industry.
Jersey: Jersey cattle are a light, sandy brown with occasional accents of white. They are prized for their quality milk production.
Highland: These are the big floofy buddies due to their thick double coat. This coat makes them durable to cold and snowy climates, requiring very little shelter or feed supplements, even in rugged climates.
Will be printing a copy to have in our car for the next road trip.
OMG, I love the cow spotting guide! Happy Thanksgiving, Jessi!