Bovine Practice in the Next 25 Years

Abstract

Let us take a look at the food animal industry that we all desire to serve and see what we can find about it, realizing that much of the earth's surface is covered with energy forms that humans cannot consume, but that can be converted into human food by ruminants. Ruminants consume this fibrous feed, waste materials, many times, and byproducts and manufacture food that can be eaten by man. About 60 percent of the world's grazing land is unsuitable for cultivation. Another factor, many humans such as myself, and many of you in this room, prefer some animal products in their diet. I'd hate to know that I had to get by without a good steak once in awhile. Now to take a look at the healthy dairy cow as an example of one of these ruminants, she has the conversion ability to produce human foods that is more efficient than the automobile. She can take a hundred kilocalories offeed energy and convert it into 21 kilocalories of milk energy. She can take a hundred grams offeed protein and convert it into 30 grams of milk protein plus the carcass that she produces. But if you consider only that portion of her diet that could be consumed by humans, the conversion rate on energy is about 119 percent and on protein about 150 percent. The potential for consumers in this country alone is staggering. Our population in 1985 was about 236 million but by the year 2000 we'll be close to 260 million, about a ten percent increase. So there will be people there to consume these products from the food animal industry. Per capita consumption has continued to increase. Based on milk equivalent consumption in 1975, about 540 pounds of milk equivalent consumed, by the year 2000 it has been predicted that we will be consuming about 600 pounds of milk equivalent. This will be the result of increased advertising, lower prices, and emphasis on health and health foods, emphasis such as on osteoporosis that we see on television today, dental caries, hypertension, rectal cancer, and many other phases of human nutrition that we see advertised. These predictions mean that there will be food animals that need health care in the next 25 years. There is no doubt about that.