MILKING MACHINES

[naturediva]

Last night (Sun) I watched BBC Countryfile and had yet more skin torn from my eyes about intensive dairy farming whereby cattle are kept in cramped bays with barely enough room to stand or indeed lie down and their only exercise is a short walk down the shed to the milking parlour area and back again.
With not a blade of fresh green grass in sight they are fed fodder and nutrients in order that they produce 80 pints of milk per day!
Maybe more consideration should be given to choosing to buy what we NEED rather than what we want and pay a reasonable price in that order the animals have a better quality of life and have the opportunity to be out in fresh air and open fields.
I know this a tiny glimpse, sadly in many ways, of how we abuse the animal kingdom.
It's barbaric - in the name of all that is sacred how can we call ourselves a 'civilised' society - we are all responsible for abominations like this and at times like this I for one feel ashamed to be a part of the human race.
Our saving grace is that some are already doing their absolute best for animal welfare and that many more are becoming more conscious of how conditions can be improved.

[Primrose]

Yes I too watched this programme with dismay. Whilst I was aware that dairy farmers often brought their cows under cover in winter I had no idea that some milking cows spent the whole of their lives living in these conditions. I think many people will have been shocked and surprised by this. What also surprises me is that there seems to be no marking on milk bottles to say how the milk is produced. At least with eggs we now have a choice between buying Free Range, Barn Eggs or Battery, yet with milk we do not know whether we're buying milk from a cow that has roamed in fresh grass or has spent its life indoors mostly trapped in an inadequate pen.
Come on Jamie Oliver and Hugh F-W ! . Time to notch up the food production campaign again, this time for cows!

[alan refail]

Primrose

There is a solution with milk - Organic.

[richard p]

i didnt see the program in question but it does seem to have given the wrong impression of how dairy cows are housed.
the vast majority of british dairy herds are only housed during the winter months, in this part of the country typically from mid november to early april, during this period the grass isnt growing and what there is contains very little nutrients, and the ground is too wet and soft to take the cows without it becoming a knee deep mud bath. there are a minority of large herds that are housed throughout the year.
the small pens refered to are called cubicles and are only three sided, they are deliberatly made cow sized so that the cow enters head first so all the dung falls over the rear into the dung channel where it can be removed easily, this also keeps the cows bedding (and hence the udders) clean. the cows are free to wander from their cubicles to water troughs, loafing yard and the feeding area. they will either have access to the silage clamp so they can help themselves or the silage ( basically fermented lawn mowings) will be placed in troughs 2 or 3 times a day. extra corn based feed is either added in the troughs or fed in the milking parlour.
even organic herds are housed in the same way, organic only refers to the way the cows food is grown and what vetinary products/treatments they are allowed.
basically happy well fed cows produce a lot of milk. whereas poorly fed , stressed , unhappy cows just eat and make dung.
it seems to me that the vast majority of people making these programs dont understand what they are filming or are deliberatly filming the bits that support the view they are trying to promote.

[naturediva]

I agree with you Primrose and yes alan - organic.
All animal and poultry products should have information about how they were reared/farmed and also the location (hideous transportation conditions etc - yet another wretched story) so that we may become even more aware and make our choices accordingly.
I feel much of the general public actually have very little idea (including myself) of what appalling conditions some our farm animals suffer because the meat just turns up on the supermarket shelves clinically wrapped and far removed from the original source.
If information labels list virtually every calorie, fragment of fat and E numbers etc. on most food stuffs nowadays (which make boggling reading -if you know what to look for) they should be able to include the aforementioned information too!
This also makes me consider that supporting local farmers and buying from local farm shops etc. etc. is by far the best move we could make to improve things all round on a vast scale.

[naturediva]

Hi Richard P - I know the countryfile item was relatively brief, however, to me it still looked like a cattle equivalent of a battery hen shed which housed dairy cows.

[Johnboy]

Hi Naturediva,
May I suggest that you read Richards posting again, especially the last paragraph.
Also the Organic Milk that Alan refers to: The omega 3 mentioned may well be true before the milk is processed but the omega 3 disappears when the milk is processed so there is nothing gained. Again reread Richards posting with regards to the difference of the systems.
I saw the programme and didn't particularly like what I saw and would certainly not advocate the system to become common practice.
The programme tried to portray that this was really the norm whereas this is very far from the truth.
Countryfile have been doing this sort of portrayal for years and it is only those who live in the large towns and cities that seem to get up in arms because they have nothing to do with rural affairs and countryfile is their only link.
As we have seem these installations are real but certainly far from whole truth.
JB.

[Cider Boys]

The programme Coutryfile has long been referred to in our house as Townyfile but that is another story

From the description of the ‘Milking Machines’ I would suggest that they were referring to Zero Grazing, a method used for many years in Canada and North America. The method is to bring the food to the cows. My concern is that the animal developed to suit this system namely the Holstein is now the most prominent dairy breed in this country. It is a large bony animal that can suffer from more foot problems than our traditional breeds that have had to walk to their fields and graze. Also the male calf from each Holstein dairy cow is worthless as a beef animal.

However you can not blame the dairy farmer from keeping the most productive milk yielding breed, but I hate the thought of the British Friesian losing out to these Holsteins since it can only encourage more Zero Grazing to take place.

Barney

[naturediva]

Hi Cider Boys (Barney) and all

I agree with you with regard to Holsteins and British Friesan and as you say we certainly do not wish to encourage more zero grazing practices.

Programmes such as Countryfile (townyfile) at least encourage people to question where their meat and produce comes from and whether they consider certain practices ethical or otherwise. It may well be that there is a bias sometimes - but none-the-less thought provoking and it is right that people do know what's going on in rural matters with regard to food production etc., whether they live in the town or country.

Through greater information people are able to be more descerning in their choice of purchases.

Of course, you could equally say that "country folk" have a right to know what's going on in towns and cities especially in view of the appalling behaviour of the banking community and some MPs monumental abuse of claims for expenses - which is true - though these are further grim stories!

[gloworm]

55 yrs ago farming Ayrshires with my Dad, if we got 1000 gal/yr we were happy, now the Holsteins are over 2000gals. Milk yield is an easy thing to breed for, the trouble is the capacity of the cow to consume sufficient fodder is harder to acheive, this results in metabolic probs, lameness difficulty to conceive & a short productive life, this is the real cruelty. Some farmers here are turning back to British Freisians as being a less productive, less cruel & less demanding option, also the bull calfs are worth rearing for beef, a local farmer told me recently he sold some for £450 each, much better than a bullet at birth.

I could go on..............

[Johnboy]

Hi Gloworm,
I can only agree with everything that you have written.
I now get my milk from here:

www.mawleytownfarm.co.uk

The milk is really superb!
Holsteins are in great difficulty with fertility at present and as you say many milk producers are going back to The British Friesian.
JB.

[gloworm]

Yes JB. Another gripe is this supermarket homogenised milk, I like to see the cream !