First Battery Hens, now Battery Cows?

[MaureenHall]

I've just seen this and I'm horrified!! Though not really surprised . Will our future generations never see animals in fields?

Compassion in World Farming - Not so super dairy - feature

[jacob marley]

We went down this road about 6 weeks ago it got quite fiesty....jacob

[sewer rat]

Zero grazing has existed for a long time - we have one local farmer up here who practices it - for beef cattle and not dairy - the dairy industry died a death a long time ago up here - and is dying a death throughout the UK as I type. Until you have actually seen the sheds and conditions these Lincolnshire animals will be kept in, take what CWF witha pinch of salt. The photo they use is designed to be emotive - the guy up here has his cattle in large sheds, true, but they are knee deep in clean straw and have loads of room to run about should they wish.
Sadly this super dairy is probably going to be the future of the dairy industry in the uk at least until the supermarkets decide to pay the producers a realistic price for their product - and that won't happen unless we, the great British public tell them we would pay an extra three pence per litre. If things do not change, then in a decade, most of the milk consumed in the uk will be imported.

[lindyloo]

if you feel strongly that this is not the way you want your milk produced, then you can sign a petition with peta or compassion in world farming. it really does make a differance if people take a stand. just because some farmers have been doing this for some time previously, does not make it right. ( this is why my family got out of dairy) cattle like to be in, during the winter monthes, but every living creature enjoys freedom to roam, and the sun on its back, and, as we all do, time off from the workplace. (the kindest milk and dairy produce is only available by buying soil assoiciation approved products, so look for the logo, if you really care about the welfare of the cattle, and the calves that are the "byproduct" of milk production)

[Hilary B]

The problem isn't the notion of 'zero grazing', but the amount of space available to move about.
22 litres, 5 gallons, is NOT an enormously high daily yield for a dairy cow any more; the quote of 4 litres to feed a calf is.... on the low side! Even a beef-type cow might well give 6-8 litres a day at peak (around 3-4 months after calving), the differece is that the dairy-bred cow not only gives a higher yield (because of being bred that way, and fed to match), because she is milked fully 2 (or sometimes 3) times a day, she carries on producing rather longer than the suckler cow.
Yeah, I'd prefer to see them out in the fields weather permitting, (and there are plenty around here) but as you get into areas where cool damp weather lasts for over half the year, the yard-feedign approach becomes increasingly more viable.
The best ammunition against this hyper-market feed-yard system is the pollution it is likely to create. thousands of cows produce a LOT of... organic fertilizer, and it looks like the company have so far failed to sort out what they will do with this.

As for what we as consumers can do, buy FRESH (pasteurised) milk and refuse to use the packaged stuff (UHT etc). Much UHT is imported, it tastes of cardboard and plastic, and is only fit for emergency use!

[lindyloo]

those of us who buy milk, have to rely on the cow producing a calf every year to produce the milk.

the true horror of intensive dairy herds is the truly awlful life that awaits calves in a veal crate, here for 3 monthes with some space if they are lucky, or shipped abroad to live in a crate where they can only stand in one position, not even lay down, for 3 weeks, before they are killed for veal. so unless you can buy from a small farmer, who farms in traditional methods, and is approved by the soil asciociation, anyone who buys milk and butter is buying into an unnatural life for cows and thier offspring. and i am afraid that i think it is down to us, as the so-called superior species, to speak up for those species who cant speak for themselves.

so to me, if we can buy approved milk, and sign a petition to help make the cattles life more acceptable and natural, then i am going to do that.... preferable to living life worshipping the moneygod and forgetting natural values and morals. because this big farm is not for the animals benefit, or for the consumers benefit. it is to make big corperations richer.

and as an extra thought, methane is worse in a confined, intensive feeding environment, rather than biodegrading naturally outside. ( apart from the fact that humans produce far more methane than cattle). also, a natural herd which provides for a local market is not going to have the other impact on envirionment; fuel pollution, ie transport of milk and slaughter ( on a huge scale) .

personally think it is time to go back to local farmers producing local milk and produce, and stop using cattle that are bred for dairy, instead switching to more versatile bredd of cattle which are good as beef, or store cattle, and produce sufficient milk yields.

it seems that a lot of people have forgotten the lessons which traditional style farmers have known for years ie that an un- natural lifestyle and diet comes at a huge cost such as bse and swine flu bird flu etc. the animals and nature are trying to tell us something, and it is time we listened.

[dogsbody]

But then there are those like us, first free range garden hens, then garden cows......

...I have the former but fear that the latter would prove a tad too large and might trample the flowers, fall in the pond, wreck the greenhouses, frighten the cats etc. but then again a win on lotto, euro or premium bonds could change my outlook somewhat.

[beefy]

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...air_44518.html
Have a read through the original thread.