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January 4, 2006

Micro-Ag: Farmettes & Mini-Moos

We live in a time when we're constantly bombarded with new knowledge, causing us to make choices. What should we eat? What kind of pet is right for where we live? It all comes down to resource management. In short, we want our tomatoes bigger, our steaks cheaper, and our dogs smaller.

Ag researchers engineer plants and farm animals to be larger, more disease resistant, and cheaper to grow. Then we want to eat organic because it's sometimes more healthy than "all that processing". It's amusing to reflect on how trends like these are often working against each other. But really, it comes down to people wanting to control their environment, whether you're super-sizing or miniaturizing. We want to customize - everything.

So when I heard about mini-cattle, I was perplexed. We seem to be spending a lot of agricultural research on making ag products bigger: bigger apples, watermelons, tomatoes, strawberries. And where's the beef? We engineer bigger cattle with more of the choice cut meat on them. Dairy cattle that produce more milk, and at an earlier age. Sheep with more wool. If we could get away with more legs on the lambs, I bet we'd be doing it. We want less hoof, and more bacon.

So I asked myself: what's the deal with mini-cattle? When everyone wants bigger cows, where's the market for littler ones? Novelty-wise, I suppose I can understand. But for real farming? Why would you want to spend more money on a smaller cow that doesn't even taste different (someone needs to make a mini-Kobe beef cow).

Well, I guess the idea of having a cute little farm with cute little animals appeals to a lot of people, and its much more affordable and available nowadays. Lots of people have built their own farmettes, or small hobby farms. But they run into the age-old fish tank fish-inches problem when it comes to cattle. A rule of thumb for a fish tank is one inch of fish per gallon of tank. One cow needs more grazing area than a farmette is likely to have. Now, we see the perfect place for the mini-cow. Not only are they about a third the size of a normal cow and eat a lot less, but they are also more friendly and less of a problem animal than your bigger breeds.

If you’re a suburban cowboy hankering to raise a herd and short on ranch land, mini cattle may be for you.
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Mini cattle eat about a third as much as a full-sized steer, are less destructive of pasture land and fencing, and are easier to handle.
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While each animal may be smaller, more meat can be produced overall from each acre, breeders say.
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Miniature cattle are primarily sold for use as pets, for small-scale milk production, breeding, showing, organic beef production or for the farm-grown market, which produces cattle on smaller farms

More at: MSNBC: Don't have a back 40? Try mini-cattle

I suppose since most mini-cows are kept as pets, it shouldn't be such a surprise that people want them smaller and cuter. It makes it possible for a lot more people to have them on their smaller acreages, and they're significantly less expensive to feed and keep. Still, they run in the price range of some of the toy dogs people seem so eager to scoop up lately so perhaps its not as far out there was one might think.

Posted by sorsha at January 4, 2006 4:00 PM