BEEF CATTLE

Meat from cattle is called beef. Cattle also produce a variety of by-products used in industrial, pharmaceutical and household items. Fats and gelatin are used to make soap, shompoo, cosmetics, desserts, and many industrial products such as photographic film and light filters.
    The pancreas and liver are used for medicines for such diseases as anemia and hypoglycemia.  Hide, hooves and hair are used in products such as sports equipment, leather goods and paint brushes. The leather from one hide is enough to make about 18 pairs of shoes. A football, frequently called a "pigskin," is actually made from cow hide. Ninety-eight percent of evey beef animal is used for meat or other products.

Ruminant Digestive System
Ruminant animals have a stomach with four compartments. They swallow food in large pieces into the first stomach compartment ("E" below), bring the food back into the mouth and chew it again. This is called "chewing the cud." The food is swallowed again and moves through the four stomach compartments (B, then F, then G).  Because they are ruminant animals, cattle can digest grass, roughage, food by-products and other materials people can't eat. They convert these otherwise unusable grasses and other products into nutrients for humans.  Camels, deer, sheep and llamas are also ruminant animals.

Source: Central Michigan University

Note that the map above refers to all cattle in the Great Lakes region, while the map below is specific to BEEF cattle. 

The map below is from the 1960's.  It shows that beef and livestock production used to be located farther south in the state, near the Indiana border.  With the advent of shorter-day corn hybrids, more farmers have been able to grow corn farther to the north.  Thus, cattle-raising has also moved with it, and as the map above show, beef production is now more important to the north of Grand Rapids than it has ever been.

Source: Hill, E.B., Riddell, F.T., and F.F. Elliot. 1930. Types of farming in Michigan. Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station Special Bulletin 206.

This material has been compiled for educational use only, and may not be reproduced without permission.  One copy may be printed for personal use.  Please contact Randall Schaetzl (soils@msu.edu) for more information or permissions.