What the Bible Says About It
There is a cause for prosperity and a cause for every sickness and disease. Notice what God promises for our cattle if we follow the right laws of agriculture.
"And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do ALL his commandments. . . . Blessed shall be . . . thy fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine (cows), and the flocks of thy sheep" (Deut. 28:1-4).
The same promise is given in more explicit detail in Deuteronomy 7:11-15: "Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments . . . He will also bless . . . the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. . . There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your cattle. And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness . . ." (including cattle sickness).
Notice that this all-inclusive promise of unrestrained success in life is dependent upon one factor: obeying God. God's ways were designed for the express purpose of automatically bringing success and happiness. One who believes what God says and obeys Him finds it impossible to be a failure.
But our people have not obeyed God. We — and that includes farmers — have forsaken Him on a grand scale. Notice what is to happen to us as a penalty for this rebellion:
"But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments. . . Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. . . The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me" (Deut. 28:15-21).
Notice that a quick end is prophesied for our prosperous society because of our rebellion against our Maker. God is no respecter of persons. A quick end came upon the prosperity of our people of old. And our prosperity today is about to terminate just as quickly for the same reason! A hasty downfall such as herein described could come only at the death throes of an empire or nation — when sin reaps its devastating penalty after God's patience runs out.
Today's mounting surge of livestock losses commenced in the middle forties — just after God started warning this heedless nation through The WORLD TOMORROW broadcast. God always warns His people before sending punishment upon them (Amos 3:7).
When men rebel against God's ways, their own clouded thinking and consequent wrong decisions bring most of their grief upon them.
God has given us instructions and examples to show us how to manage our affairs. But this darkened society has taught us to turn our backs on God's Word, the Bible.
Physical Creation Originally Perfect
A strong delusion has gripped the whole Anglo-Saxon world in regard to the principles of livestock husbandry. We have supposed that we have been improving our cattle to a now-near-perfect state. But near-perfect cattle do not suddenly "go to pot" as ours are doing!
When God created man and the animal world, He did not create scrubs, as men have thought. He did a good job of His work (Gen. 1:24-27). He created physical perfection. Any scrubs that have come along since are a result of man's mismanagement — of physical sins.
God reminds us: "I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" (Jer. 2:21) "They have perverted their way" (Jer. 3:21).
God gave us the standards by which man could have maintained that perfection. But man guesses and supposes, out of his own imagination, in order to devise his own standards of supposed excellence.
|
Wide World Photo
Cows are usually considered old at eight years, because high-pressure
production methods wear them out prematurely. But this 29-year-old cow,
"Old Snowball," shown with her 25th calf, is still a good milk producer because
her owner did not try to force an abnormal profit out of her.
|
Quality of Feed Affects Livestock
Modern methods of producing feed crops and feeding animals have had considerable impact on the present livestock distress. God gave us a rich, bountiful land full of a great variety of forage crops for our livestock and wildlife. Animals that are allowed to instinctively graze and browse in native grasses, weeds, and bushes will never become ill if they have good heredity as well.
But men, in the interest of greater, temporary profits for the moment, have in many cases cleared away the God-intended herbs and bushes that are vital in balancing the diet of livestock — so that they can plant a few quick-growing grasses and legumes. At first glance this looks good — if the farmer has his eye on money, only. But it is a well known fact that a limited diet makes an animal more susceptible to disease — just as it does us humans. Healthy cattle that have been allowed to browse and graze at will on bushes, weeds, and grasses, are likely to become susceptible to sickness within two or three years after being moved to a pasture containing only limited grasses.
|
Some veterinarians tell us that a sick animal or barnyard bird, if not too far gone, will usually recover if turned out to shift for itself among native plants. Even the feed companies admit this if they are honest.
Notice this quote from pages 3-4 of Ace Hi Feed Company's manual on the care and feeding of pigeons: "One little tip: if by any chance you have a very special bird that is off feed, or listless, remove it from the pen and let it forage for itself. This method surpasses anything else you can do."
|
Not only variety, but also quality, of feed is important. In pasture fertility experiments at Missouri Experiment Station, 1946-1949, Dr. Wm. A. Albrecht, Chairman, Department of Soils, University of Missouri, at Columbia, Missouri, came up with some startling facts:
A dairy herd, which began the experiment with only 25% conception, rose to 75% and then 100% in three years of treating devitalized soil with major and trace elements. Bang's disease (infectious abortion) dropped from 29% to 20% during the test, and heifers raised during the test had no Bang's disease at calving time, and their calves were likewise free from infection (Soil Fertility and Animal Health by Dr. Wm. A. Albrecht, p. 167). The cows which due to poor soil, grew up with weak constitutions, were gradually building health. The calves, having always had a good diet, grew up with sound health.
Another of his carefully controlled experiments proved that trace amounts of copper in soil lets an animal build its antibiotic protection that will prohibit worms from staying in its digestive tract (Albrecht, p. 150). A healthy animal tends to repel both body parasites and contagious disease. There are cases in which one man's cattle are victims of anything from cattle grubs to hoof-and-mouth disease, while his neighbor's unmedicated cattle just across the fence are untouched.
|
Bob Taylor Photo
Some poor hens are forced to be only egg-laying machines, driven to their utmost
production for one year by drugged feed and night lights. Do you wonder why
market eggs are pale, watery, discolored, and tasteless?
|
Hybrids Too
For years modern man has been developing and raising all sorts of new varieties of hybrid corn in order to squeeze a few extra bushels out of each acre — and put a little more waste fat on animals in the feed lots. But is this endeavor motivated by brotherly love? A desire to increase quality, as we are told? Definitely NOT!
In an experiment on 16 farms in Illinois, hybrid and open-pollinated corn were grown in neighboring strips under the same conditions, and the produce was tested by Armour's Institute of Research in Chicago. The open-pollinated corn tested 12 per cent protein. None of the hybrids showed more than 8 per cent. All the hybrids were short on 7 to 9 minerals, and all failed completely to pick up cobalt, whose deficiency is one cause of Bang's disease. By rapidly using some trace elements and leaving others untouched, hybrids unbalance and thereby poison the soil ten times as quickly as open-pollinated corn, horticulturists now admit. It is no wonder that God forbids the growing of hybrids (Lev. 19:19).
When Mexican farmers in the U.S.A. try hybrids for home use, they usually quickly give them up. Hybrids, they discover, are simply no good for tortillas: the flavor, color, texture, and consistency are all inferior to that of open-pollinated corn. Those interested in quality prefer natural varieties and natural methods of production. Shortcuts to riches are not good for anyone. Lust leads to downfall.