The Principles of Cow Protection

1. Cows should not be killed

2. Milk is for humans as well as for the calf

3. Bulls are kept for breeding or neutered and trained as working oxen and suitable work developed for them

4. Hand milking is the principal method

5. Calves are given their fair share of the milk and suckle until they are about 6 months old and the surplus is for humans

6. Cows lactations are extended, after weaning, for as long as practical without annual re-impregnation

7. Dry cows are encouraged to give milk even without having a calf

8. Only suitable natural foods are given for the cows such as grasses, vegetation and grains

9. Downer cows are properly cared for until their natural departure

10. For those who want to use the body of the cow just wait until it dies naturally

Why these principles
Don’t kill them.

The underlying principle of cow protection is that all the cows, calves and bulls or oxen are protected for their whole lives. This farming system cares for the cows until their natural departure. This is a very different method than regular dairy farms what to speak of other farms that keep cows. Protected cows farms will keep all their calves, male and female, the cows will be used for milk production and the males will be trained for work. When the cows get sick and old they will be nursed and cared for and when they finally reach their time to die naturally they will be loved and made as comfortable as possible.

As there is a lifetime commitment to protect the cows selling or moving cows can only be to another farm with the same principles. The cows and bulls will never be killed. This means that the plan for the herd has to take into account the whole family spectrum of life. Cows can live for 20 years or more although the average is closer to 16 years and therefore planning for breeding cows has to take this into account. A cow is for life and not just while it gives milk or works in a Yoke. To ensure there is enough income to provide all the needs for the herd and farm the milk and ox work value will need to be adjusted accordingly. To protect cows and bulls the products of the cows and bulls have to be priced to support the ethical farm practice.

We must acknowledge that there are instances of Governmental interaction when cow protection is compromised. For example there are sometimes illnesses that affect the cows for which the government’s prescription or demand is the euthanasia or slaughter of the cow. In the UK these are called notifiable diseases. It is very important in cow protection to reduce the possibility of the cows contracting these diseases so there is no conflict with the government rules. If possible try to get protected cows recognized as a special category that are exempt from notifiable disease legislation that ends in the death of the cow.

Another area of conflict with cow protection is the interpretation of cows suffering unnecessarily in animal welfare law. To avoid and reduce any conflict in this area it is important that the highest standards of cow care are followed and in particular when a cow is under acute medical attention and even more so during its departure phase of life. Working with a good veterinarian is very important to ensure all medical options are followed and also for the administration of pain suppressants if necessary. The veterinarian has to balance the law with caring for the cows. There may be circumstances that are extremely challenging for a veterinarian where his only option is euthanasia. If a cow is in extreme trauma and it cannot be relieved with pain suppressants the veterinarian may be obliged to end the cows’ life. This step should only be allowed if there is no other option.

Milk is for people as well as the calves.

The next principle is that the milk of a cow is not just for the calf but is also for humans. Divine nature allocates different food for different species and all are dependent on other species. The cow gives more milk than is needed just for the calf when taken care of properly. Milk is full of minerals, vitamins and protein and is a natural food for humans. The cow likes to be miked and thrives in a loving relationship. Those who work with the cows often say how they feel happy by the presence and interaction with them. The cow likes being milked and often lines up eager for her turn. She gets some food, a brush down and human interaction and she reciprocates happily with her milk. The Sanskrit texts give us many authorisations to use the milk of the cow and we experience practically the naturalness of it. The cow and human interaction is part of the system of nature and those who milk cows mostly feel this personally.

Train and work the oxen.

The male cows are kept for agriculture, transportation, labour and for breeding. Modern society has become dependent on the tractor and other vehicles with its industrial requirements and petroleum dependency; however most of history shows the dependence on the ox for transportation and agriculture. It is only due to our artificial lifestyle that we are neglecting the need to work with the oxen. Cow protection gives an abundance of workable oxen and it requires a thorough commitment to train and put the oxen into working environments. The oxen can be trained to work in pairs or even in large teams together to find suitable roles in society. Ploughing the land, cultivation, pasture management, local transportation are all good engagements for the oxen.

Countries have large numbers of their citizens unemployed and yet there is the potential to employ thousands of people in working with oxen. Not only does using oxen increase rural and urban employment but it also gives the added social benefit of animal therapy. Cow Protection works in a setting of good leadership and good laws and in the area of working oxen this is very necessary. To have cow protection part of everyday life requires oxen to play significant roles in society. Society has moved, through the power of petroleum, away from animal traction and to reposition it again in our lives takes strong leadership and practical actions and laws.

When looking to benefit the world it is practical to start with what is around us and benefit that part we can influence. The oxen need dedicated work and their drivers need supporting for their work. In our own farms and operations a question naturally arises what could be done by oxen and how can it be made to happen. What equipment is required, how much time will the operation cost and what price do I need from the fruits of that work to cover those costs plus a bit of profit. As we answer these questions the scope of working oxen increases. There are many people around the world that are dependent on their oxen for their livelihoods and this is the key for making oxen relevant again even in the countries that abandoned it years ago. Somehow design livelihood generating ox dependent systems for the farm and for the local economy.

Once the commitment to using oxen is made it will be necessary to decide the level of complementary technology to work with the oxen. We can use modern equipment but limited to the working ability of the oxen. Some of the amish communities limit their farm operations to the limit of the horse and I think this is a good position for modern ox work designers to consider also. Increased numbers of oxen in a team a person can work at once can maximize the work and hence make the labour cost reduced per acre or load.

Choose Hand Milking.

Hand milking is the most natural way of drawing milk from the cow. The proximity of the milker and cow is mutually beneficial. The milker is nestled up to the side of the cow feeling the breathing and motion of the cow. The cow feels the presence of the milker and finds comfort in it. It is a partnership of milker and milk provider. By committing to hand milking you are also working with a closer numerical ratio of cows to man. If you are milking twice a day perhaps up to eight cows is enough for a person. Modern farms can have a person milking hundreds of cows alone with suitable mechanisation, milk pumps etc but the closeness and interaction is significantly stifled. Another social benefit of hand milking is that the number of people employed will increase. This may not be appreciated by high profit hunters but it is appreciated by those who value quality of life and social benefits more or at least equally with profit. If there are circumstances that don’t support hand milking then use a milking machine but consider the elements of cow interaction and the impact that has on the cows and the milkers. The more distant the relationship with the milker moves the experience becomes more of an industrial setting. Cows are tolerant and will work with your system however it is important to work towards the best for the cows and the best for those who are working with the cows.

In the Srimad Bhagavatam 1.17.3 purport the artificial milking of the cows by farm labourers is linked to one of the reasons for the problems in present day society. This I find a very compelling reason to stress hand milking. In practice we see that there were farms during Srila Prabhupadas time such as Gitanagari that used milking machines and this was not stopped. I have experienced small scale machine milking and noted no discomfort from the cows who settle into it. The experience is certainly further away. No close snuggling during milking and you cannot hear the milk squishing into the bucket. Experientially hand milking is superior and especially if the milking cow to human numbers are not stretched. During my time as Farm Manager/Director we only milked cows by hand. In my projections and plans for cow protection I always plan on hand milking.

Sometimes there are physical limitations on the milker that might oblige a mechanical solution. The time difference for a small milking machine is not significant and consequently the labour cost is not dramatically impacted. For a large herd with hundreds of milking cows with larger mechanical solutions then that would be another analysis weighing up well-being versus profitability.

Economically there is not any pressure at this time to make protected milk more competitively priced by using machine milking rather than hand milking. The number of people waiting for protected milk is in the thousands and they are willing to pay the price for the milk from hand milked cows. The real price factor for protected milk is that you are maintaining the whole herd and all the calves for life and that impacts the cost the most and not whether you are milking a small herd by hand or machine.

The calf must get its fair share direct from the mother.

The milk is for the calf as well as for people. The cow wants to feed her calf and the calf wants to take milk from its mother. It is important to work with that natural bond and have an appropriate balance of milk for the calf and the surplus for human consumption. The key point is to make sure the calf is satisfied and growing healthily and to ensure there is sufficient milk for human use. This leads into topics of breed choice, western types/zebu types, feeding, grazing and pens, housing, farm layout etc. which will be dealt with in more detail throughout the book. As a rule of thumb, for western type dairy cows let the calf run with its mum for about two weeks and you take the surplus. From two/three weeks until the calf is about 6 months give the calf one quarter and you can take the rest. At 6 months wean the calf but continue milking the cow for human consumption until a natural stopping of quantity (after about an average of four years).

The calf wants to drink milk directly from the udder of its own mother. The mother wants to feed her calf. She may also let other calves take her milk from direct sucking of her udder.

Calves suckle until they are about 6 months old.

The milk is for the calf and for humans but in an organized way. The interactions with calf and mother cow are organized and scheduled. As part of the milking cycle the calf is allowed to be with its mother and drink and be groomed, reciprocating their natural affection for each other.

As part of the practices of ensuring there is milk for both humans and calves there is a system of animal husbandry that manages the amount of time the calf is with the mother. There is also a time when the calf has grown up too much and the milk is no longer needed and yet that milk is still needed by people.

After 6 months there is a possibility of pregnancy between bulls and young heifers and this obliges a different management system than when they are younger calves. Their size is also more demanding in terms of handling them during milking sessions. For these reasons It seems that 6 months is a good time to wean older calves from taking milk.

Extended Lactations.

This means allowing the cows to give milk for as long as they allow after the birth of their calf and not to re-impregnate until the milk yield has dropped significantly. Often this period can go up to and beyond 10 years although on average records show it is about 4 years. Extended lactations is not a principle or method of cow protection described in the Sanskrit texts or Srila Prabhupadas writings, or at least not that has come to my attention. It is a practice that has evolved from numerous ISKCON farms noting and working with the reality that cows will produce milk for significantly longer than the period the calf needs. It comes from trying to make cows as productive as possible within a controlled breeding system and specifically a system where the cows will not be killed.

With cow protection the number of milking cows in relation to the total herd numbers is more like 1:4 if the cows have extended lactations. In other words there is one cow milking and the rest are calves, oxen, dry cows, breeding bulls or retired cow. We see in the Zebu (as found in India) breeds because the extended lactation is not developed they have to impregnate a cow annually to have a steady supply of milk. If the cows are only milked for one year the ratio is 1:16. Cow Protection farms will have a limited number of cows they can keep and this number has to be planned from regular breeding to maximise milk yield and at the same time not exceed their plan of sustainability.

There is nothing necessarily un-protective about making the farm as efficient as possible as long as the welfare of the cows, bulls, oxen and calves is not compromised. Extended lactations seem to be a modern principle of cow protection that gives a practical framework to maximize milk production from protected cows. The knowledge of extended lactations must have been known by those who have kept cows over the centuries but somehow its significance and stress has not been promoted, however in cow protection systems it a very important element.

Miracle cows. Virgin milking cows. Spontaneous milk givers. Induced lactations.

This is a category of milking cows that give milk without getting pregnant. Over the years many ISKCON farms reported cows that were not pregnant but had started showing signs that they had milk and were subsequently milked. This phenomena has not been researched in depth and statistically analysed however there is enough word of mouth testimony to consider that it may be very well widespread not only within protected herds but other family farms would also have similar experiences.

It should not be surprising to hear of cows producing milk spontaneously as there is a history of woman producing milk to feed others children (wet nurse) and often this was induced specifically for that purpose and did not necessarily come from a pregnancy.

The usual verbal reports say that a dry cow or heifer was seen to have a swollen udder and when it was milked milk came out. The liquid may not have immediately been as fully thick as milk but very quickly this was the case. There are also reports were a cow that was dry was induced to produce milk. In other words she was put through the milking regime and this over a period of days stimulated her to produce milk, at first watery and then gradually full milk.

As the giving of milk as a gift from the cows spontaneously or induced is a reality if makes sense to include it in the possibilities for cow protection herd management to add to the productivity of the herd. I have put it here as a principle because it is such an important part of the overall productivity of cow protection it would be a neglect not to manage a herd for it.

Feed them naturally.

It is peculiar that I must mention that cows should be fed naturally, however there has been and still are processed animal feeds that are not vegetarian. Cows choose grasses, vegetables, fruits and grains, they don’t choose other animals. It is only an exploitative attitude that even considers the processing of animal parts and minces and hides it from the unsuspecting cows. We saw in the UK a disease called mad cow disease that came from them eating other mammalian ingredients. This was put into processed cow pellets and so the cows were not aware what was in them. The processers and the farmers did not care.

Cows like grasses, foliage, vegetables and grains so feed them what they like. Cows can eat leftover cuttings etc. as they also have a practical element in using what we cannot use ourselves. It is quicker to make compost by a cow eating it and then passing it out as dung.

When they lie down for the last time, near their end, provide their needs throughout.

It is a sign of gratitude to the cows and bulls that when they are in the last part of their life and they need closer care that care is given. Cows at this point in their life will need more time and this can be a challenge for those who are only seeing the cows for the maximum return. Cow protection is what it says it is an atmosphere of protection even though productive and even if the cows are not giving milk or the males are working. Cows are always productive, their dung, urine and gases are beneficial for the earth and even in their last throws of life they continue to provide benefits to society. Those who care for these hospice cows often express that they personally receive so much from that care.

Society provides so many facilities for its own elderly and those who are sick. In a similar way a cow protector looks to see that the cows are cared for as kindly as possible in their elderly and sick condition.

The cows can be used when they are dead.

The soul within the cow’s body has moved onto its next bodily residence and so it no longer needs the body. It can be used for all the ways that people normally use a cow’s body but without killing it. This may seem strange to say within a book on cow protection and yet we find this message a number of times within Srila Prabhupadas teachings. He is showing the practical method of cow protection and not denying those who still want to use the cows for non-vegetarian purposes. All the cows are going to die, just wait a while, you can use them then.