From: eerbl@cc.newcastle.edu.au
Subject: Dairy farming (was nice cows)
Organization: University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 14:56:32 GMT
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NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu


In article <1hd5boINNpra@morrow.stanford.edu>, andy@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Andy Michael USGS Guest) writes:

> And now for my real reason for following up:
> Is it possible to have a humane dairy industry?

If your definition of humane includes respecting the lives of the cattle, then
the short answer is no. The reasons are both obvious (like they are killed
after they cease to be "usefull") and subtle (like the trauma caused by
separating mother and infant).

>  I have met dairy cows> that seemed quite well treated and content 
> (and I respect the farmer in question).                                    

I too have met dairy cows. I have known several dairy farmers. I have
also had the experience of being with ex-dairy cows and calves overnight at
stockyards and slaughterhouses and seeing them killed.

Most dairy cows, most of the time, are content. That is also an adequate
description of my life, but that would in no way justify treating my life with the
the contempt that dairy cows are treated.

That "seemed" is an important qualifier. Again to use a personal example. I
"seem" contented most of the time. But that is the impression of the observer,
not the underlying truth. I've heard the following stated as an example of a
self-evident truth:           

"We sent the calf off to market... and she cried out for her calf... but then
after a day or two she setttled down to graze and _seemed_ to forget about it"

The underlying truth is that cow still suffers from the loss, but, what is she
supposed to do about it? Let me assure you, cows do not forget that easily. One
of my cows I befriended as a calf. Then she was sold and sold again. I lost
track of her and assumed the worst. Several years later I happened to be
walking down the right road and she recognised me at a distance and called
after me. (It's a much longer story than that).

>  Or is the industry intrinsically inhumane because of
> problems due to having too many male cows born?  Perhaps we could just
> put them all out to pasture.  There would certainly be fewer of them than
> there are meat cows currently.

All of this tempts me to have fun with some arithmetic. Lemme see. Cows give
birth to roughly equal numbers of males and females. A cow's natural life
expectantly is easily 20 years. (Now thats a hard figure to get hold of because
so few cattle get to live even a fraction of this). In a given amount of land
you can keep only so many cows. Threfore the rate of births has to be matched
by the rate of deaths by old age. Also, assume you can milk a cow for a year
without disturbing her calf. Okay, here is what you get.

On average each female will give birth twice and be milked for two years. Here
is the fun bit but. For every cow you are milking, you also have 19 other
cattle just eating the grass. Sorta makes soy milk look cheap don't it :)

But all of that glosses over one key assumption. Milking a cow without
disturbing the calf. This is rarely if ever done. Even in India, the common
practice is to physically separate (usually a tether) the calf from his mother
for part of the day. And that raises the issue of cows bred to produce as much
milk as possible. The Hostein cow is so highly geared to produce the maximum
quantity of milk that they rapidly degenerate after only a few pregnancies.
(But thats okay, you can kill them and raise new ones). I've met worn out, used
up Holstein cows wiht sagging udders and limps waiting in a pen before being
goaded to slaughter. What made it all the more tragic was how affectionate
those cows were, even as they stood and bellowed for their lost herd mates.

I should point out here that my oldest cow is a Holstein. At 13 she is a
picture of health, but only because she has never been pregnant and had her
system loaded by all that lactation.


I mean no disrespect for dairy farmers. Hell, most of my neighbours are cattle
farmers of one sort or another. The problem is that they don't understand and
cannot let themselves fully empathise with the animals they treat as objects of
commerce. There is something else that I find interesting. Its the phenomenom
of the "pet" cow. Almost every dairy farm I know has a "special" cow. Perhaps
Ted would like to comment on the psychology of this?


In summary. Buy soy milk. Its better food for humans and it ought to be cheaper 
simply because it makes less use of resources. Cows' milk is "cheap" only
because their lives are cheap.


- Russel
 
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