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Let the Cows choose

by Whaleoil on December 9, 2009

There is the news that a farmer down south wants to build a cow hotel. The Greens call it battery farming of cows and other idiots call it factory farming, but I say it is farming innovation and maximising resources.

I have the solution though and it is one that the Greens should agree with.

Let the Cows Choose!

That’s right, let the farmer build the fricken great building in the middle of the field etc, then the day the first frost hits move the cows, poor buggers having to stay outside all that time anyway into the filed and see where they end up. In the warm shed away from the snow, sleet and hail or outside running free.

The dimwitted ones that stand outside, ship them off to the works immediately. I was speaking to a country lass today and she told me her job on the farm when she was little was to record the tag number of the last cow into the milking shed each day. Over time it was established that the last cow was always the same one then one day she stopped being the last cow. And the system started again thus guaranteeing optimum herd speed.

Oh and feed them on Grain please, the ability to get good quality grain fed beef is very difficult and there is nothing quite like a good grain fed steak. Now if you were a cow what would you want, grass all covered in your own shit and dirt to eat of grain delivered straight into your trough at face level.

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  • Adolf Fiinkensein

    Whale, you shouldn't venture into areas about which you know fuck all. Have you ever tasted a steak carved from a cull dairy cow?

    • Michaels

      I assume you never buy meat from supermarkets or The Mad Butcher then as this is where that type of meat ends up.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Whaleoil Whaleoil

    I would never eat such rubbish, but i do want some grain fed beef, so could you chat with those in the know and organise it because grass fed pales into comparison.

    Mind you steak in Fiji I'm heard is splendid, wonder what they eat.

  • grumpy

    I rest my case. QED. Over and out.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3146030/Cub…

  • mediatart

    Grain fed !! Yeah right. lets just add some hormones, then some colours , some MSG. Next thing you have factory farmed salmon. I mean steak….. delicious. NOT.

    Why buy NZ when this shit is produced by the truckload in the US and Europe.
    Dont worry the RMA will kill this corporate/ mad cow scheme dead.

  • mediatart

    While Im on mad cows , that how it got started they were feeding the cows the remains of dead animals because they were shed raised.
    This is so mad on many levels. The heated stalls, there goes the carbon footprint

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Whaleoil Whaleoil

    Who gives a shit about carbon footprints? That hoax is well dead, it is now just starting to stink up the joint.

  • http://nominister.blogspot.com Barnsley Bill

    mediatwat. wintering barns in england have fuck all to do with what they were feeding them. Not that I support this idea.

  • Adolf Fiinkensein

    Imported grass fed NZ beef.

  • MT_Tinman

    Better yet let's put the water back in the river so the salmon and trout can swim up as far as my lure and see if the cows can survive on the natural grass/tussock of the McKenzie Country and offer them the alternative of Auckland or the Waikato.

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  • John Boy

    Cows are ruminants. They are not designed to eat grain. Vanuatu beef is organic and grass farmed. Its very good, as is their free range organic pork. I must get back to Santo agin soon for a real healthy feed. While I don't object to factory farming per se I remain of a view that if you have to screw with the animals basic metabolic functions to make it work (like drugs to keep them alive because they are eating food they are not designed for) its a non starter. So, in this case we need more info to decide if its sensible.

  • gomango

    I don't think the real issue here is factory farming good/bad. NZ farming has already been intensified hugely relative to other countries. The real issue is will this initiative have a negative impact on the NZ clean, green brand. I assume the reason we can sell farm produce overseas to the scale we do is precisely because of our clean green reputation (whether it is actually true or not). Don't underestimate the ability of European farmers to use "factory farming in NZ" to create mischief around our exports. I'm surprised at Fed Farmers unqualified support for this, and agree with Fonterra's take on it.

    • mediatart

      Nonsense, the animals currently live out doors . How can that be 'intense'

      • gomango

        Intense in terms of stock units per hectare – our farmers are way more efficient than anyone overseas who also farm pastorally. You don't have to live inside a shed to be farmed intensively. Don't get me wrong – I have no problem with factory farming per se, and the all farmers know well managed livestock are more productive livestock , what I',m saying is a large part of the value NZ gets from food exports is due to our (not so accurate) clean, green pastoral image. Thats why asian and european housewives buy NZ butter and lamb – it wouldn't be hard to imagine farmer lobby groups and environmentalists in places like the Uk using sensational reporting of "NZ factory farming" to fuck up wider NZ ag exports for their own agenda. If we can manage that risk and manage effluent issues in the mckenzie (i'd hate to see my favourite supplier of farmed salmon have water quality issues) I say go for it.

  • Michaels

    Wagyu is well known as one of the best cuts of meat you can buy and is mainly barn raised, so I'm all for it.
    If Fonterra think it will damage their image they simply won't buy the milk so get over it folks.

  • DairyMan

    Where to start, where to start?

    Whale, if you want some magnificent grain-fed beef, contact these guys http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/beef-farming/7/2 , most of it is for export, but the do retail some and they do supply restaurants.

    John-Boy, yes, cows are ruminants — this just meand they have 4-stomachs and can cope with a high level of cellulose. They will quite happily eat grain and thrive on it. Why do you think dairy farmers buy in maize silage?

    First of all, I am a dairy farm manager, 1150 cows, Mid-Canterbury. I own no land, cows, or Fonterra shares.

    Some people have bought some unproductive farmland (NOT native tussock) and it is their right (duty, even) to farm their land in a way that will repay their investors most efficiently. If you don't want dairy cows, buy the land and plant it in native tussock yourself. People aren't going to repetedly plant oil-seed rape and watch it fail just to keep you happy.

    Clean/Green? Ha fucking ha. Cows in barns will be warm, happy, healthy, and the effluent will be MUCH easier to manage. Ever wonder why all the photos you see of dairy farms are in late Spring/early Summer? 'cos the dairy farmer isn't bollcks deep in mud trying to get an IV into a down cow. Why is she down? Constant rain washed away all the magnesium supplementation and she's got milk fever. A few photos like that'll screw the image quicker than any barn (where the cow is warm and happy all winter).

    Stop commenting from positions of (mostly) utter ignorance, and state the reasons for your objections so I can answer them.

    If I were thesae guys, I would engineer the facilities to such a high degree, and then open them up to the public for tours. They have nothing to hide and only public ignorance to fear.

  • grumpy

    I'd be more inclined to support it if it wasn't being pushed by a bunch of Dutch pseudo-farmers, who, having fucked up agriculture in their own country want to come over here and fuck up ours.

    Bastards can hardly even speak English. Where are all the good Kiwi dairy farmers?? Have they all sold out for EUROS?

  • Farm Girl

    Its called “Greedy Lazy Farming” as far as i can see. We own a drystock cattle & sheep farm, we only have about 110 of each on about 1200 acres – granted its not huge and its not dairy and i do take my hat off to dairy farmers.

    We also run two other businesses and i work for another company full time. We manage to run our farm (just the two of us) on a lot of hill country, which means a lot of foot work, and we do it very efficently (and I am pregnant right now). This is because we are dedicated to our amimals and we work to make it worthwhile. Yes we need to make money, but not at the expense of the well being of the animals. And, 9 times out of 10 our beasts get rated as “prime beef” at the meat works and sales – they are grass and hay/bailage fed. We find them generally easy to deal with as they have a good routine and they trust us.

    If these Mckenzie farmers cant be a**ed putting in the effort, and want to cage everything up then sorry, but they aint true farmers. These animals are not designed to be indoors for long periods at all. Sticking everything in a little pen is what the lazy cash greedy farmers want and I hope that the real Kiwi farmers of NZ who are dedicated to their animals have the decency to continue to put in the real hard work to get the reward.

    If you cant be bothered managing your paddocks and effluent etc properly and putting in the effort required then sell up to someone who will. Farming is about dedication and it doesnt matter if its dairy or beef – its still hard work.

    I’m proud that I have come from a family of pioneering women, hard working farmers, maybe thats why i see this as “lazy Farming” who knows. But i have serious concerns about anyone who blurrs the line between corporatising animals in this way and actual real farming.

    Whats next, farmers wearing a suit and tie with a clipboard to milk the cows and making the cows do a roll call at the shed???