Another pic of Moments, since everybody liked herA lively debate has sprung up in the comments and I thought maybe I should address it from the point of view of 32+ years of caring for and milking cows in both styles of stabling, freestall and conventional barns with pasture. I can assure you from personal, long-term experience that cows are fine in both kinds of barns. Sure they like pasture, but they also race to get into the barn in summer...that is where the fans are and fly control is better. And in winter that is where it is warm and comfortable. Although they can withstand amazingly adverse weather conditions they like to avoid them just as any creature would.
I am not sure that the terms that we use to describe our own emotional states apply to cows in the same way as they do to humans. I admit I am as anthropomorphic in my language as anyone, but I think a cow's sense of well-being runs more to comfortable vs. uncomfortable, hungry/not hungry, frightened/secure rather than abstracts like happy or sad. They are not predators, but rather prey animals, and as such they devote most of their energies to survival. If we make survival easier for them, rather than being what we conceive of as "unhappy" because they are not outdoors, they are contented with having what they need to live and feel safe and comfortable.
Most free stalls are designed with the cow's comfort in mind, with ventilation systems and sprinklers in summer and side curtains to keep out the weather in winter. Cows can walk about freely, eat when they want to and lie down in stalls that are scientifically designed after much research (which is still constantly ongoing with better ideas coming out every year) to fit their needs as perfectly as possible. I am sure you heard about Temple Grandin, whose life story won a boat load of Emmys this year. She is a perfect example of the kind of expert who designs animal handling and care systems so that they serve animals as well as their caretakers..
Not unlike house cats, which might have a heck of a lot of fun hunting birds in the neighbor's back yard, but are much safer indoors, cows inside stables may not look as natural, but the key thing is care. They are well-cared for, their wants and needs attended to and they do just fine. If I were to try to define a "happy" cow, I would describe one that is lying down on a firm but comfortable surface, chewing her cud, calm rather than alert, at a proper temperature for her species (cows like the fifties). There is no reason she can't experience all those things, as much as she wants to, in a free stall barn as well as in a pasture.
Cows look pretty grazing out on a nice green hillside, and under the right conditions that is a fine place for them to be. I like pasturing our cows because it is a very economical way to care for a herd of our size, and they do thrive in summer. Winter is another story. I would love to have a nice modern free stall barn for them in winter. The cows would like it I'll bet. Inside a stable that was painstakingly designed, after much research and trial and error at universities and on farms, to cater to their every whim, is a fine place for them.
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Thanks so much for this post. We have a small farm where we feed out steers and I milk a few cows an goats. I started doing farmers market this year taking our meat to sell and other things I have made from agriculture products. Boy people are so misinformed about farming in general especially how they should be housed. It has been a year of explaining why we raise our animals the way we do because we do not have enough pasture to pasture all the animals. Once they listen to me explain how well they are took care of and I have a picture they can see of the cows they say oh they are happy cows ya. Animals can be just as happy housed inside with a small lot to go into or just inside if they are fed and treated right. So with all that said thank you again. Rebekah
Fella down the road from the Aerie put in a freestall barn a couple of years ago when he increased the size of his milking herd by 10 or 12 animals. On the southeast side of a hill, the cows enjoy the early morning sun and lots of protection from the northwest winds. A simple pole barn like construction with knee walls all around, fans to circulate the air (and fly control), and drop down shutters to keep the cold and snow under control--all it lacks is a spa. The cows seem very contented.
Okay, you got me with the "house cat" thing. I'll try not to feel so sorry for them when I drive by. :) And thanks for the details.
I just remember as a kid climbing out to the hills south of town to help our neighbor Edgar herd them in for evening milking. He let all us kids "claim" one and name it. Mine was Daisy, and she loved to lick the salt off my hands. Those are precious memories from a precious time. Maybe the ones missing out with the new arrangements are the people.
Thanks again. And as you're so good at this explaining stuff, maybe you'd like to tackle antibiotics in a future post? I know a farmer east of Glen had a letter to the editor a couple years ago, when that controversy was raging, and I'll bet we'd all benefit from your viewpoint.
Goatmilker, thanks so much for visiting and for your very kind comment. It is sometimes very hard to explain why we do the things we do, because people simply are not that familiar with farm animals and there is no way that they can be. I really like pasturing cows...I am as much a sucker for their beauty out on the hills as anybody, but I do understand why things are done the other way too. If we had to pasture all the cows in the USA we would run out of room in an awful hurry.
joated, exactly! Of course there are bad barns and bad situations, but you can find that in any thing you look at. There are plenty of children living in less that good homes too. For the most part farmers do the best they can. However, in everything it is the bad ones you hear about.
Akagaga, I really do understand where you are coming from. I love to see the cows out on the hill and it is, or can be, a great way to care for them. It is just that the other way works too, and in some cases better than what we do from the point of view of cow comfort. Thanks for being so understanding. I will get on the antibiotic thing one of these days...once again a very complicated issue...hard to distill it down into a blog post short enough that people will read it. I did write a Farm Side a few months ago on how well removing antibiotics from farm animals has worked in Europe where it was mandated in some countries around 2008. As is so often the case, it didn't end up as they expected it to. Although they lowered the amount of non therapeutic antibiotics given to animals, the overall amount used increased because the animals got sick more. There was no decrease in instances of resistant germs at all.
That's a sweet 'Moment' :0)
I missed a post somewhere along here, because I haven't found the debate.
But I sure trust your take on this, TC. You care about your animals and decades of experience counts enormously.
I missed the post with the cows - and I thought I was keeping up. I am partial to Broadway and Moment, nothing against your pretty Holsteins, I guess I am just biased towards brown cows :)
You're right on with your care taking, we don't get as cold or hot here as you folks, but most times the cows prefer the outdoors to indoors, and in the summer they don't mind the sun that much either. The choice is theirs, and especially in the cold, I don't think people understand how much heat a ruminating cow puts out.
When we had the large laying flock we were always surprised that people thought the chickens should be free, and that the cattle shouldn't be allowed that freedom. It was hard to explain that a free range chicken wouldn't last as long as one who stayed inside the electric netting.
Great post and love, love, love the pictures of the cows. Broadway is a beauty!
Good looking cow! I have been trying to find a couple Jerseys here in Missouri. You guys seem to keep them all out East, just out of my reach! Oh well, I will keep looking. Nice explanation on the shelter thing too. We really need to inform more people how (and why) things work.
Well said. Also, I love Temple Grandin and when folks ask about the chute I put the llamas in for injections, toenail trimming, shearing, etc., I explain that they like it better than being tied to a post. They feel secure and safe (me too!). Of course, the chute looks like something from a dungeon. Sorta.
Cathy, thanks for that. We all try to do our best....
Nita, you have a great understanding of your animals....I always enjoy your how to posts.
Paul, thanks....even I like her and I am not so much of a Jersey person. Shame that you are so far away as Liz is selling her yearling sister this fall. Shameless is a pretty nice girl, sired by Mecca (Moments is by Moment..lol) Their dam was my favorite of all Liz's Jerseys. She had a front end like a Mack truck and was a real powerhouse.
Teri, understanding of the animals is so very important...their needs, not what we perceive as their needs. I know folks who have worked with some of Grandin's systems and found them really amazing.
I summer about 600 head of yearlings every year, from May thru' September or as late as October, and I can assure you, they prefer to live next to each other, and lay in each others cow pies. Few people know as much about cows or any animal for that matter, as those of us who are around them 365.
JB, six hundred! I know that is probably not a lot out in the wide open spaces, but it is a lot more than we have to deal with. As fewer and fewer people farm and ranch and Disney becomes more and more the spokesman for all things animal, it becomes harder and harder to explain the whys and wherefores of rural life. Animals don't really sing Hakuna matata, but you would think so if you listened to the msm
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