Protection Farms - modelling a better system than the slaughter of bi

Dear Rohita,

I have put our communications back onto the cow
conference. I'm not sure if you want it that way, but
I feel it is better so a greater feed can come
through.

So, from your feedback so far I have derived the
following:

Assumptions-
We are talking about a cool temperate setting, ie New
York state or the UK.
Using adapted (as dual purpose as possible) local
breeds of Bos Taurus.
Sheltered lifetime care.

Therefore, the cows will live an average of 20+ - but
what exactly would that mean - 29, 20 or 25? These
numbers would greatly alter the maths in the system.

Retirement at 14 to 16 for cows and oxen - as a basic
average.

The point I argue with here is the labour needed to
milk the animals. Below you state that 6 cows is the
optimum - this is half Syam´s number - why such
discrepencies - both devotees (I mean practicing, not
like me), both caring for cows? Could it be with the
time taken to do the milking? You state to do the
milking in one hour, wheras Syam has it done in 1.5
hours for twice the amount - remember this is with 3
cows in a 4-year lactation cycle. Below:

>From Rohita:

Tropical and subtropical regions
Seven cows
Two milkers, milking only, one hour (seven minutes per
cow).
Two milkers, setup and cleanup, ten minutes.
Two milkers, brushing, ten minutes.
one hour twenty minutes total time.

Six cows
One milker, milking only, one hour (ten minutes per
cow)
One milker, setup and cleanup, twenty minutes
One milker, brushing, twenty minutes
one hour forty minutes total time.
In temperate and Mediterranean climes the brushing
would be eliminated.

Setup means rinsing milk paraphernalia before use
(scalding water),
setting
out grain (we feed grain at milking time based on
production 1::3
grain:
milk), bringing in cows. Cows udders are washed with
hot soapy water,
to
stimulate let down (although I have seen people do
this solely by
massage)
and to remove debris from the udder.

Cleanup means washing in hot soapy water, cleaning
with brush and
rinsing
all milking paraphernalia. The milking parlour it then
swept and hosed
out.
Excess water swept out.

The brushing procedure also encourages let down as the
cows like to be
groomed and associate it with the milking process. In
temperate climes
the
cleaning of the milking parlour would be removing the
straw and putting
down
fresh so the area is setup for the next milking.
Deep-bedding is for
the
areas where the cows spend the night. In the
non-temperate climes, this
is
not necessary as the animals spend time on the field
except when the
weather
is inclement.
>

Other than that we need to start expaning into land
costs, capital equipment costs, running costs; plus
dairy arrangements.
Then there is the sticky issue of ox and crops.

As you seem to be on board with this, I would be glad
to hear your views on this issue. I have the UK
Vegetarian Society giving me another 2 page slot in
their magazine this Autumn - I want to include
something on ISKCON in this. Yet ISKCON, in general,
has not got behind the concept of a commercial system.

All around us millions of farm animals are sent to
slaughter. Now, in the UK, they are killing and
burying other millions - concentration camp or what?

The more one gets into the maths of this system the
more expensive it gets, and therefore the more
non-viable it seems. Yet it is so easy to be reactive
to the present system that to balk at the expense of a
humane system is totaly hypocritical.
Also, how far shall we go as a compromise to
Prabhupada? Whilst machine milking has its
impracticalities for the system itself, the non-use of
oxen (leaving them as range animals till death) could
lower costs whilst achieving one aim - not to kill
them. Not that I want this, but the normal consumer?

I find it amazing that devotees are so puritanical
that it's either all or nothing. Whilst I go on and on
and on about a commercial system, I feel most cow
conference devotees look on hoping the idea will die
along with the billions of farm animals that this
system hopes to replace.

Can you enlighten me a bit on this, and suggest ways
to bring this system to reality, as so far you are the
only cow conference devotee who has bit the bait. I
have Hanuman Prasek Swami who constantly writes to me
saying he is interested in my approach, yet he will
not get on the conference to push it through. Devotees
in Argentina know me as the cow man, but it is all pie
in the sky as the leaders - and here I mean cow
conferencers not GBC or Swamis - are not behind it. In
Arg the farm is a mess, no-one has a clue, yet just
down the road there are organic farms. I suggest joint
ventures, but they keep on struggling all the way!!!

Anyway, enough of my frustrated babble.

Yours in the bestest of faiths,

Mark


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