Cows deserve respect

We deserve respect

The future of our dairy farms - is this where our dairy farms are headed?

"It is a containment farm, meaning the herd of more than 4855 animals resides in the four massive cow barns on the 35-hectare property, or in the calf-rearing shed or heifer barn.


Three thousand pregnant Friesians were imported from New Zealand to start the herd, which has just begun its second calving season.


The efficient containment system succeeds where pasture feeding is not an option – as in much of China where the land is unavailable or the winters are too harsh.


Self-consciously high-tech, the farm relies heavily on computers to track each cow's life history, medical records and movements, to measure feed consumption and forecast calving schedules, and to plan the herd's diet.


The milking operation goes 18 hours a day, with each cow milked three times. Two 30-tonne tankers leave the farm each day trucking milk to a range of domestic producers."

Lucky cows. Three times a day is a lot. Is this really the way to go. They are already considering the concept here. And i am not saying there shouldn't be dairy farms but they should be where cows grow best. A barn is not that place.

I wish we were helping the people over there bring back their traditonal methods. Those methods worked, they spread the wealth and benefits across more people and communities, they were sustainable and conservationally orientated. The answer seems to be in working with nature not in opposition by trying to put things where they are not meant to be.

By working with nature we achieve so much more.