Hops and Happy Cows
I’m Susan Allen welcome to open Range , Wow nearly forty thousand acres of hops are grown here in the Pacific Northwest and Just like with our wine industry we have the perfect conditions for producing some of the finest hops in the world with boutique breweries abounding as evidence. Hop growing throughout Oregon, Washington, and Idaho is a tradition that dates back to the late 19th century but as you will learn from this upcoming segment technology is changing the industry. The hop is native to North America, but cultivation didn’t begin until the British and Dutch settlers arrived bringing with them the knowledge of brewing beer and the first hop roots in 1622. Today The YakimaValley alone contains approximately 75 percent of the total United States hop acreage. Oregon is the second largest hop producing state and Idaho isn’t far behind at third, accounting for about eight percent of the U.S. and two percent of the world harvest. There’s another application for Hops on the horizon. Cattle and sheep depend on natural bacteria to help digest grass but they also produce bacteria that robs animals of amino acids important for building muscles. Thus cattle producer add costly an often ineffective protein supplements to help reduce ammonia. Scientist found that the same hops added to beer to limit bacterial growth produced by cows and also had helped bovine fatty acids ratios important to nutrition. So in the foreseeable future an important component of cattle feed apparently will be hops...and a by product of all this happy cattle
