How now / brown cows
Animal portraits 01/#3
Like yesterday’s donkeys, some cows have it better than others. The top cows are from a family farm where they have, as the saying goes, a “good life and one bad day.” They roam broad, rich pastures in the bovine community of the herd. Their farmer knows each one, but although I imagine this cow is cheerful and friendly, it is hard for me to distinguish personality and individuality or to read their feelings—with the exception of fear, which is painfully clear.
The black-face cow above is from a several-hundred head dairy herd that grazes pastures for a good half of the year before the grass dies and the snow falls. They are milked, mostly by undocumented migrant farm workers, twice a day. For reasons of economy and health(?), calves are removed soon after birth from their mothers. The females live their first months chained in small plastic sheds that look like upturned bathtubs. When old enough, they join the milkers. Their productive lifespans are short, and then it's on to join all their brothers on the hamburger express.
These are the good farms. Most cows—both dairy and beef—never walk on grass, feel sun on their backs or cool grass on their full udders.
I try to eat only animals that were allowed a decent life.
Brown cows should be Jerseys or Guernseys , especially in Vermont IMNSHO :-). And if you get to know them, they all have personalities. I have no problem eating meat, except for the way meat is grown these days in factory farms destroying the environment and lives of the workers in the meat industry. Eggs and milk are just as much a problem. I get mine local mostly, pasture raised.
I'm curious about the undocumented workers on the farm that you and I both know of (although it could be one of two). How does that work? You know so much more than I about the migrant workers in VT.