Cows kept indoors
Comments
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Fisherman, with respect, the fact that you so often fall back on lines like "your ignorance of the reality of rural life" and insults like "bunny huggers" simply shows the weakness of your argument. Many of us who grew up and still live in the countryside
are opposed to fox hunting and factory farming. It doesn't make us ignorant. It just means we have a different view to yours. That is allowed isn't it?0 -
This idea of cows being inside is a modern one. My father was a farmer who milked cows and they were out all year round. Cattle naturally thrive outdoors, they were originally woodland grazers, and penning them up inside is probably the cause of so many
diseases as it is an entirely unnatural environment.Cows are now bred to give unaturally large quantities of milk and suffer from udder problems as a result. These new milking units containing hundreds of cows are appalling bad for animal welfare. This is not a question of humanising animals, it is a question
of giving them as natural a life as possible.I have no problem eating meat or any other animal product but I go out of my way to ensure proper welfare standards have been observed in the productionThe problem is the majority of the British population are urban dwellers, and have no concept of how their food is produced. Battery hens are a case in point. If people refused to buy anything but free range eggs then there would be no battery houses. But,
they just want it cheap and to hell with welfare........catch up - do - battery cages were banned a long time ago. The country isn't big enough to cover it in enough land for total free range farming! We all have a choice - if we don't like the idea of intensive farming we can always by organically certified
produce.0 -
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... battery cages were banned a long time ago. .
Errr? Just 4 years ago http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-124834/Battery-hens-banned.html
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Different is the Red brigade on horseback and us farmers who use hounds to flush foxes to be shot. The ignorants could not understand the difference. We are now blighted in the countryside by cowboys going out at night with rifles and lamps. They very often
only wound a fox and once out of their lights linger on.We are left to pick up the pieces and very often its these wounded animals that cause the mayhem at lambing time.Instead of having been humanly dispatched they have to take an easy option of killing defencless
lambs. Do you wonder why we are incensed at the system imposed on us for no logical reason.Its only a mater of time before one of those rifle shots (lethal at up to 1 mile) causes human casualities.It could easily be your caravan or tent.0 -
Zero grazing is nothing new.I wasinvolved in it inDerbyshire 30 years ago.vHave been out most morningsover the last 14 days at 6.15 am, trying to kill foxes which are decimating the new lambs here. Because of the misguided politicians and bunny huggers
we cant control the fox numbers now with hounds. At the present rate it wont be long before sheep will have to be kept indoors year round to keep them safe....I understand in this area that more lambs/sheep are killed by uncontrolled dogs than foxes
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Different is the Red brigade on horseback and us farmers who use hounds to flush foxes to be shot. The ignorants could not understand the difference. We are now blighted in the countryside by cowboys going out at night with rifles and lamps. They very often
only wound a fox and once out of their lights linger on.We are left to pick up the pieces and very often its these wounded animals that cause the mayhem at lambing time.Instead of having been humanly dispatched they have to take an easy option of killing defencless
lambs. Do you wonder why we are incensed at the system imposed on us for no logical reason.Its only a mater of time before one of those rifle shots (lethal at up to 1 mile) causes human casualities.It could easily be your caravan or tent....That also applys to rabbit culls with infrared lamps,and in some areas badgers,
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Not sure how this discussion has left cows indoors and is now talking about foxes? Nevertheless - here's the facts:
Empirical evidence shows that fox predation accounts for only a very small proportion of lamb losses and has a negligible financial impact.
Estimates of annual UK lamb losses range from 7-15% However, only 5% of these losses are attributed to predators and/or misadventure (e.g. going missing), with the actual proportion of lambs lost to foxes being very difficult to determine and likely to be overestimated.
According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the main causes of lamb loss are: abortion and stillbirth; exposure and starvation; infectious disease and congenital defects. In other words, 95% of lamb losses are due to farm husbandry practices. Defra’s advice to farmers is very clear and focuses entirely on improving farming practices: “Many lambs could survive with better planning, good preparation, well organised lambing routines and facilities, good stockmanship, possibly increased supervision and staffing numbers around lambing time and early recognition of problem lambs.
Cheers
Bugs
PS - can we go back to cows now?
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No dairy cows, "free range" or not, spend all year outside. Grass does not grow all year, and the other main problem is the state of the ground in our climate. Gateways, feeders and any other area used daily by stock soon get poached (turned into a muddy
mess). Some hardy breeds (as seen on a couple of the recent This Farming Life series, do stay out all year. But not dairy cows.I'm not taking sides on the indoor/outdoor issue, but the building was built for the job, light and airy with good ventilation. We never saw the winter housing for the Free Range cows.
And in case you're wondering, our cows came in full time on 17th October last year (they had been in at nights for a couple of weeks). They will go out when there is enough grass, towards the end of April.
Please do not judge all farmers by how they are portrayed on programmes made mainly for non-farmers.
...Or to make for a "controvercial debate"
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I have a very interesting version of CPRE, but am too polite to post it on here. Not that it affects you Fish, living in Wales.
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