The Conservation Report

Farming smaller cattle breeds

Dexter cattle were considered an endangered livestock breed, but environmental concerns in addition to rising energy and food costs are making mini moos like Dexter cattle popular again. From the Times Online:

For between £200 and £2,000, people can buy a cow that stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog, gives 16 pints of milk a day that can be drunk unpasteurised, keeps the grass “mown” and will be a family pet for years before ending up in the freezer.

The Dexter, a mountain breed from Ireland, is perfect for cattle-keeping on a small scale, but other breeds are being artificially created to compete with it, including the Mini-Hereford and the Lowline Angus, which has been developed by the Australian government to stand no more than 39in high but produce 70% of the steak of a cow twice its size.

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“As long as you’ve got plenty of grass they will be fine. You don’t really have to feed them.”

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In America, small cow breeds such as the mini-Hereford are catching on among professional farmers keen to save money as the cost of feed skyrockets. These Herefords consume about a third less feed than normal cows and produce proportionately more beef for the amount of grain they eat.

Kangaroo ranching

Hoof stock such as cattle, goats, and sheep damage the land as they graze, and are susceptible to drought and disease. Furthermore, cattle produce a lot of methane, which is a greenhouse gas. However, it has been proposed that Australians should be ranching native species of kangaroo for meat in order to fight climate change. Kangaroo has been described as tasting “a little bit like deer“ or “a nice cut of beef.” From ABC Online, Australia:

In fact, 11 per cent of Australia’s total greenhouse gases come from cattle and sheep.

Kangaroos are animals that don’t burp methane because they have different micro-organisms to help them digest food. If we were to replace some of the cattle and sheep in Australia with kangaroos we could reduce the number of animals producing methane and at the same time promote natural habitats instead of hoof-damaged pastures.

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Current prices for kangaroo products are lower than they are for cattle, sheep and wool. However, the cost of producing a kilogram of kangaroo meat from a free-ranging animal that needs minimal management would be lower than those for cattle or sheep. For example, there are no costs for fences or yards, internal or external parasite control, shearing, crutching, purchasing new genetic material (e.g., stud rams and bulls), branding, dehorning or castrating.

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Livestock grazing damage to native ecosystems has contributed to the extinction of at least 20 species of mammals and continues to threaten around one quarter of the plant species listed as endangered. Fewer livestock and more kangaroos could include a reduction in hard-hoofed livestock damage to river environments, improved soil conservation, fewer weeds, increased capacity of vegetation to respond after drought, and improved water quality. These changes can improve native environments leading to an increase in habitat quality for other species such as emus, wombats, lizards and bilbies.

Raising giant rabbits

The North Koreans and Chinese are interested in breeding German gray giant rabbits as a source of protein for their people. From ABC News:

Could a plan to feed starving people with giant rabbits really work?

Szmolinsky estimates that it costs about $1,000 a year to feed the 60 bunnies he keeps in his yard. When you think that each full-grown rabbit has 15 pounds of meat on its bones, though, the payback is handsome.

Fifteen pounds is the equivalent of 60 hamburgers, but it’s not all good eating. The 15 pounds include the liver, heart, stomach, and even the meat on the rabbits’ gigantic heads.

As the old saying goes, they breed like rabbits. While one cow has one calf every year, one female rabbit can give birth to 16 bunnies in a year, and a male rabbit can impregnate two female rabbits every day.

Even if Szmolinsky doesn’t ship any more rabbits to North Korea, if North Koreans breed the animals correctly, the 12 they already have could multiply to more than 1 million in just eight years.

Giant rabbit image found here
Kangaroo meat in supermarket image found here

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Photo source for attribution (Dexter cattle). The author or licensor of this image does not endorse my work or me and their image is protected under an attribution license.