Hi, this is Matt Garcia, Utah State beef specialist, again.
This is our second installment of our beef producer educator
program.
And today I'm just going to be talking about the first card
that we actually had developed.
If you remember, we started developing these business cards
for producers to carry around, help educate the public.
And this is our first card that we actually developed
a couple of months ago.
And it's a card entitled "Hormones in Beef and Everyday
Foods."
And one of the reasons that we decided to develop this card--
first is one of the big things we hear from consumers
or ex-consumers is that they're concerned with the fact
that we use growth promotants or hormones in our beef animals.
Now, part of that is the fear that these hormones
are going to alter physiological function,
cause girls to go into puberty earlier, things like that.
But the reality is that the growth hormones that we use
and the concentrations that we use in our animals, our beef
animals, and the reasons we use these,
are very different from what the public actually knows.
Now, if you look at this card for example,
it has a list of different foods and their normal estrogenic
activities, their normal hormone activities or concentrations
that are in these foods.
Beef, for example, an implanted steer
has 7 nanograms of estrogenic compound
in it, where soy flour or tofu has 755 million and 113.5
million nanograms in it.
So the concentration in beef is completely irrelevant
compared to tofu, pinto beans, white bread, peanuts.
And all these concentrations are in this card
right here for you to see.
And these have actually been documented by USDA.
Shore and Shemesh in 2003, a scientific peer
reviewed study, as well as Hoffman and Eversol,
and Hartman and associates.
Multiple peer reviewed scientific manuscripts
documenting the evidence that hormone concentrations
in other foods, naturally occurring
hormone concentrations, are exponentially
and significantly higher than what we have in beef cattle.
Now, one of the big arguments is that the estrogenic activity
or the estrogenic compounds in plants are phytoestrogens.
Now basically, phytoestrogens are just exogenous estrogens
that are produced outside the body that you ingest
or you put into your body externally.
And they have an effect.
That's the same thing as the implants
that we're using in our beef cattle.
They're exogenous estrogens.
Now, the other thing that people--
one of the misinformations that the public has,
in terms of why we use these compounds, is typically,
they think that we're using these compounds
to generate these huge bodybuilder, overly
muscled types of cattle.
And the reality is that we're actually utilizing these growth
promotants.
And at time points during the production cycle,
when we know animals are going to get stressed,
we know animals are going to go off feed.
And what these growth hormones actually do--
I actually refer to them as growth sustainers.
Now, part of the thing that they do
is we give them a lot of times in our preconditioning
programs, our weaning programs.
They'll get them when they enter the feedlot.
And the idea is that this implant not only
helps these animals grow, but by implanting it,
it helps them become more vigorous.
It increases appetite.
These animals are going to eat.
They're going to walk around.
They're not going to lay down.
They're not going to get depressed.
They're not going to get sick, more than likely,
if they have these implants.
These implants also aren't going to make
these animals extremely large.
And the reason I call them growth sustainers
is because these animals get these and are
more vigorous, and more likely to eat,
not lay down during these time periods, they're less likely--
during these times of stress, weaning, entering the feedlot,
these times, they're actually going
to continue their growth curve.
Animals that don't receive this, that are stressed,
that get sick, when they hit these stressful time
points, their gain stops, which means that producers have
to invest more in getting these animals to gain and go forward.
So it's almost an efficiency model,
but it's also an animal welfare model
to keep these animals healthy, eating, growing,
so that they remain healthy throughout the beef production
system.
Now with that, we have some information
about why we actually utilize these.
And that's something we need to be telling the public.
We're not generating these mutant animals.
We're doing this to keep these animals
healthy, eating, productive, going forward
in the production process.
Now, with that being said, once again, if you'd like to get
ahold of some of these cards--
I'll be making some more of these videos going forward
for antibiotic use in animals, the benefits of grazing
whether it's public lands or private land.
And then after seeing some activists here on campus,
I'm going to be generating one a card
and a video dealing with animal welfare
and handling in the beef production industry.
And with that, if you'd like to get
ahold of some of these cards, feel
free to contact me-- matthew.garcia@usu.edu
or give me a call here in the office, 435-797-2144.
And I look forward to talking with you
more about these topics.
And if you have any questions, concerns, suggestions,
feel free to contact me.
Thank you.