Rancher-Cow Relationships: Caretaking Or Commodification?
Content Warning: This summary contains explicit descriptions of the cow breeding process and other graphic content that may be distressing to read.
While most farmed animal advocates have a general idea about how animals are treated to produce meat, they may not have personally witnessed and participated in the processes of breeding, raising, and selling cows for slaughter. Such knowledge is important, especially as advocates try to paint a realistic picture of the meat industry.
The goal of this study was to chart the complicated relationships between ranchers and cows at each stage of the production process before cows are sent to feedlots. The researcher observed and participated in the work at 27 conventional cow ranches, two conventional farmed animal auction houses, and five conventional cow feedlots (all in the United States). In addition, they conducted 43 interviews with 36 producers.
The author suggests that the unique relationships between cows and ranchers may be due in part to the biological features of the cows themselves. Because of their size and specific dietary and reproductive needs, they require more space per individual and more interactions with ranchers compared to pigs, chickens, and other farmed animals. Conventional feedlots usually house and feed thousands of cows to get them to a high enough weight for slaughter. By contrast, conventional ranches — where cows are impregnated and calves are born — usually house a few hundred animals at a time. Fewer cows mean more opportunities to become acquainted with them individually.
On ranches, resident cows are described based on their sex and role in production: “cows” refer to females who have given birth; “heifers” refer to females who have not given birth; and calves are male and female babies of cows. Most bulls are castrated as calves, after which they are called “steers.” Uncastrated males, or “bulls,” are rarely kept alive due to the widespread use of artificial insemination. Additionally, once cows stop producing healthy calves, they too are slaughtered for cheap meat.
The author goes on to describe the cycle of breeding, which begins with artificial insemination. Sexually mature females are injected with hormones that begin their estrous cycle. Once they are receptive to sexual penetration, they will begin mounting one another until they are ready for the “squeeze chute.” This is a tight compartment that holds the females in place for insemination. As the inseminator, the rancher uses their gloved arm to deposit thawed bull semen via a three-foot-long steel pipette, commonly called an “AI gun.”
The researcher learned the technique of artificial insemination first-hand in a local community college course, where students practiced on disembodied reproductive organs from slaughtered female cows. Some of the uteri still had dead fetuses inside, indicating that some of the cows were pregnant at the time of slaughter. The researcher also participated in artificial insemination of live cows on ranches. In one instance, he observed the heifer strain hard enough to push feces and blood out of her anus during the process. Furthermore, the researcher observed an environment of sexualized jokes about the artificial insemination process, both in the classroom and at the ranches. They note that the breeding process bears several features of reproductive violence including hormonal manipulation, restraint, penetration, and forced impregnation.
The next stage of the process is calving, in which mother cows give birth to their calves, often with hands-on assistance from ranchers. According to the researcher, this stage tends to create emotional bonds between ranchers and their cows, especially with the calves that need bottle-feeding. Ranchers will sometimes refer to themselves as the parent and the calves as children, further reinforcing the kinship bonds between them. Nevertheless, calves still undergo non-gentle acts of domination, such as being branded with a hot iron. And while ranchers may have grown attached to some of the calves, they do not allow these bonds to get in the way of selling the calves to feedlots to be fattened up and slaughtered for profit.
Thus, at various points in the process of breeding and selling cows for meat production, ranchers serve as inseminators, midwives, and parental caretakers. These roles often lead to intimate bonds between ranchers and their animals. At the same time, ranchers perform acts of violence and subjugation, treating cows as commodities rather than sentient beings. The researcher emphasizes that these modes of relating exist at once, sometimes even in the same acts. They argue that other contexts of exploitation, including the exploitation of humans, often involve similarly complex dynamics of both love and violence.
This study provides animal advocates with richer, more nuanced understandings of the inner workings of meat production. Such knowledge can help advocates design campaigns that are more reflective of reality and ultimately more informative for the public. Finally, advocates who work directly with ranchers may have better success breaking through to them by demonstrating that they understand their feelings of stewardship for their animals.
https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-BJA10010