In response the comment on yesterday's post about how wonderful alternative farming is.
Don't get me started on the whole organic thing. I am no fan of chemicalling everything to death and using drugs to take the place of good husbandry. If you care about your cows and take good care of them, they will take care of you. My kids literally love their cattle. This whole place was in mourning for months when old LV Dixie died. She was one of the family after a lifetime in the show ring. In fact, our oldest is passing up a free ride to vet college in the Caribbean to come home and run this little dairy farm on a thin, fraying shoe string because she loves her cows. However, only in magazines is organic husbandry better for cows than using modern medicine when they are ill.
You wouldn't deny your child an antibiotic if they were ill and I will be damned if I will do the same thing to my cows. Organic husbandry means that if your cow gets sick, you give it a few probiotics and hope the hell it gets over whatever ailed it. Even the best cared for cattle, under the most natural of circumstances get sick sometimes and they need help. I have watched acquaintances of ours go to organic dairying to make an extra buck and watched their cows DIE of curable diseases. I believe in grass feeding. I believe in not dumping twenty different hormones into an animal to make up for stuffing it in an overcrowded barn. However, do not bother to tell me to throw away the bottle of Excenell for a scouring calf or to NOT give Star, our eleven year old pet some penicillin when she suffers from a retained placenta. Good management prevents some of these things, but just as no matter how much we love our children we can't always keep them from getting sick, sometimes even well cared for cows NEED medicine. Ours are going to get it if I have any say in the matter.
organic
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5 comments:
AMEN!!!
I agree with an earlier comment that we are addicted to sugar, fat, and processed foods, BUT reducing sugar, fat, and processed foods is not the same as going organic. We can feed our bodies well without going to that extreme.
My sister cares for cows at an organic dairy farm. Because I have both a nursing and a dairy background, she often calls me to discuss caring for the cows and calves when they're sick. She gets upset, and often cries, as she watches animals sicken, suffer, and succumb to ailments that could be easily cured with a dose of penicillin.
Threecollie, I agree strongly with what you posted here. Keep up the good work!
I think this is the problem with how the word "Organic" is treated and by whom. I believe in the organic movement, I buy organic foods when I can, and raise our animals and vegetables organically. However, I would never go to the bother of obtaining an organic certification for my animals because of this very thing--you need to give them medicine when they're sick. I am sure there are fine "organic" wormers and the like, but when antibiotics are called for then they need to be used and used wisely. I would much rather label my product--if and when--"grass-fed, open pastured, hormone free, loved to bits" than "organic" these days, especially since the USDA has weakened the meaning of the term to mean, "if and when available, otherwise substitution okay."
It has to be remembered that many of the "Organic" movement people go home at night after do-gooding and wash thier hands with Antibacterial soap, drench little Johnny with Antibiotics when he has the sniffles so he can go to school, so they can go to work and feel fulfilled.
As a practice the pure ideal of "The Organic" is certainly to be aspired to and upheld where possible, but in reality we all have to make choices as to our comfort level with risks. Producing organic dairy may be great; lower yeilds aren't necessarily a bad thing, loosing your main means of income from something simple is--my risk comfort level says skip the label "organic" and go with what makes sense in an "almost, but not quite" way.
Great post. You keep us thinking!
AMEN! I went to the Minneapolis Zoo my first summer here and because it's minnesota you can "visit the farm". I laughed my ass off at their "organic" cows. Whatever! Feed them real grass, pull out their calves by hand if you need to, and if they are sick, treat them. Thank God someone still believes in raising "real" cows.
And yes, i had pet farm animals :)
I'm with Sam. AMEN! It's all about management.
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