Mathematics of the Farming Industry

The other day on social media, a video went around, showing a mama cow bellowing to proclaim the "horror" of the dairy farming industry.  I'm not a dairy farmer, but I know a little bit about the subject, as I purchase young dairy bulls to raise for beef, not veal, beef.  I do raise goats, and I've purchased a couple of goats from dairy farms.  Next, let me qualify this by saying, the dairy industry has been vilified for the way some of the big operations do business.  I'm not saying they are all above reproach, but they don't all deserve a bad rap.  There is another side to this industry, and the accusation of greed, and that would be the consumers.  Even if you don't drink milk, if you eat cheese, yogurt, put cream in your coffee, or use butter, and don't have a cow; you are complicit in the dairy farming industry.

The goat I purchased from a dairy herd is a great goat.  She loves me, she lets me know, according to her schedule when I should be getting the milk bucket and heading to the milking parlor.  She doesn't even need to be tethered to the stanchion, she just jumps up there and stands.  I do give her something to munch, but she doesn't always even eat it.  She is a perfect milk goat, but . . . she isn't so maternal.  Now this may be because she was in a dairy herd and the kids were removed at birth, but the fact of the matter is she's not maternal and she doesn't grieve about it.  She gives birth, licks them a couple of times, not nearly enough to dry them, and goes right on with life as it was before she gave birth.  Once I get them dry and on their feet, she will allow them to suckle, but it's not her priority, she's just exceedingly accommodating for me.  The point is, she displays no distress or what would appear to be maternal instincts.  She's certainly not mad at me for moving the babies.

A friend of mine does have a dairy operation and they remove the calves at birth.  The cows aren't all in a dither.  They really don't know any other life.  We tend to "assign" human emotions to animals, and sometimes that is the case, but sometimes it's simply PETA programming.  The calves are very well cared for, dry, warm and well fed.  The heifers will become the next generation of milkers and the simple fact of the matter is, most dairy bulls just don't have a prolonged life expectancy.  As for keeping the calves in small pens or enclosures.  Young animals of all kinds, humans included, do not know to come in out of the rain.  I realize there can be greed in corporate farming and likely is in the huge operations, but there are still hard working family farms that treat their animals well, but treat them like animals.

As for the cow in the video, I can tell you, weaning time, is a much bigger raucous than removing calves or kids at birth.  Once the baby has run with the mama and they've bonded, it doesn't matter how mature the offspring is, when they are separated, there is bellowing.  With the exception of my "career" dairy goat, I do keep the kids with their mamas and just separate them in the day time for evening milking, then babies and mamas are together again til the following morning.  That is based primarily to operate around Sabbath.  Mamas and kids are together for Sabbath and I milk once a day, six days a week.

Now, lets get down to the mathematics of it all.  With only 2% of Americans farming, but 100% of Americans eating, every dairy farmer has to milk 49 more cows, than he would for his own family.  With the exception of vegetarians, every beef rancher has to raise 49 more calves than he would for his own family.  To address greed, most folks moved away from an agricultural lifestyle to make "more money."  So we need to be careful just who is being called greedy.  There is no paid holiday on the farm and no sick days.  Farmers work rain or shine and the animals have to be cared for whether milk is $2.00 a gallon or $4.50.  Ranchers tend their herds regardless of the price of hamburger.  The consumer on the other hand, can choose their food purchases based primarily on cost and convenience, at the time.

It's so interesting that the majority of Americans do not want to farm, but they still want to eat.