We no longer live in Grandma’s world. We all know thousands of great, honest, people that we would trust with our life. But there are a few out there who would scam or take advantage of anyone not watching. Several hundreds of years ago, farmers let their animals run free all summer. In the fall when it started to get cold and people began to stock up the food supply for winter, animals were rounded up and each farmer took their own animals home for the winter and butchered some for the cold winter ahead. They even had butchering bees when the local community helped each other to do that rather special job. But, there was often that one “me, me, me” person who always claimed the largest, fattest animal whether it was his or not.
While our family lived in Massachusetts, one of our ancestors was assigned, by the governor, the job of identifying everyone’s animals. He came up with a different ear mark for each farmer. Holes and notches in different places or different ears were assigned to each farmer. Those marks were recorded in a town book for further use year after year. Later, property lines were fenced to keep animals in, but animal identification was still used.
A close friend of mine had trouble keeping his animals from breaking out and eating in the corn field or somewhere that they were not supposed to be. His brother-in-law lived close to the U.S. border and bought a strong electric fencer called the “bull-dozer” which had a very high amperage output but a lower voltage. That fencer would burn off any stem of grass that touched it and might short it. It would not just give you a shock if you touched the wire but it would burn your hand. Cattle only touched it once.
Today in Canada, all animals are identified with passive electronic ear tags which are assigned and recorded by each province. For some years in the wild west, cattle rustling was punishable by hanging. Before the electronic ear tag was selected for animal identification, other methods of identification were researched. Holstein Canada was promoting an electronic chip embedded in the animal. Some beef breeders were looking at DNA so animals could be identified dead or alive. Some breed associations still use DNA for certifying blood lines so the correct sire is noted on a purebred animal’s papers. Any part of the animal or person can be used. A hair sample, blood, muscle, or any other part is the same DNA on that one animal or person. Cold cases of murder are often solved with DNA.
Different breeds of animals are known to have much more tender meat than others. Some farmers breed for “tenderness”. A beef farmer in western Canada was known to have animals who had the tenderest meat and exported his beef to different countries. In Japan, Wagyu beef is the most expensive beef in the world because of its tenderness. Many dairy farmers now use Wagyu or Black Angus bulls to breed the poorest milk producing cows. The offspring are black and carry the gene for fast growth and tender meat. Today’s veal producers pay a premium price for those cross-bred calves, and they are also the most wanted feedlot steers. Many local farmers have made a name for their farm with top quality, tender beef. When they get an animal butchered and prepared for sale, they want to get their own animals’ meat back so that they can assure the buyer of that beef that it is tender. The DNA from a hair sample before butchering better match the DNA from a meat sample after butchering.
One of the newest forms of fraud is an article or information created with artificial intelligence (AI). The information used by AI for that specific article or information must be both correct and neutral information. If the information given to AI to write the article is slanted in one way or another, the reader can be encouraged to think that way. AI could be used for political purposes, encouraging you to buy one thing instead of another, to encourage consumers to favour certain kinds of marketing over another, (Canada’s dairy farmers have noticed that lately) or even destroy someone’s reputation! There must be some very strong guidelines and fences to keep writers who use AI honest. Farmers have noticed that most seed corn companies use selective test-plot results which usually show that companies’ corn varieties are superior to others.
Now if we could just apply the DNA test and a good hot electric fence tactic to keep AI on the straight and narrow.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
