Picture in your mind, it’s a Thursday night, you’re tired and hungry and you’ve maybe had a few beers. You want pizza and you are luck enough that your husband is still in town, where pizza is a carryout option. You have options, there is a new Little Caesar’s, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, two local places and a Domino’s. How do you pick?
Recently, when presented with a proposal from HSUS (Humane Society of the United States, not the same as your local animal shelter) to ban gestation crates in pig barns, the board members of Domino’s said no. Instead they said that they would reach out to the folks that produce their ingredients the farmers and ranchers across the country and ask them what the best management practices are. Why would they do that when so many other companies have gone along with the demands of a very vocal group? Because they count the folks that work with the animals everyday as experts. So tonight we had Dominos.
A little pepperoni, mushroom and pineapple action on hub’s Domino pizza.
I am a sucker for veggie pizza so I tried the Pacific Veggie Pizza, with extra mushrooms. It came with feta, provolone, roasted red peppers, spinach, onions, black olives and of course mushrooms and the crust has a nice dusting of parmesan cheese.
So to be honest, I can’t remember the last time I had Domino’s pizza. I don’t remember liking it very much and while I know they had responded to customer feedback and improved their pizzas from their commercials, I hadn’t taken the leap to try it again until tonight. I have to say, it was really good! But the box, I must say, stole my heart.
This is what I was loving.
So not only does Domino’s choose to listen to the true experts when it comes to animal welfare, they give a shout out to my cows. I think that is pretty awesome. Of course I am not the only one applauding Domino’s decision. There are many other farmer’s and rancher’s that want to say thanks and a few of them came up with a plan. This weekend help us out and say thank you to your local Domino’s by joining the “Ag Pizza Party”. You don’t have to be a farmer or a rancher, all you have to do is appreciate a company trusting the folks that are the experts in their field and order a pizza. I would also suggest printing out the thank you note that they have here and giving it to the manager so that they know why you choose their business over the other options.
I also took this opportunity to find out more about pork production practices. To be honest, I really didn’t know exactly what a farrowing crate or gestation crate was. I really liked the video that Chris Chinn posted showing her facilities and I know that if I have questions about pork production in the future I can ask her.
Meet Brandi the calf. In this picture she is about 4 hours old and is getting her first meal of colostrum. As I was feeding her I realized that one of my favorite things in life is the moment that a brand new calf takes it’s first willing drink. In a calf this young the suckling reflex is all instinct. Sometimes the calf will fight you like you are trying to kill them when you put the bottle’s nipple in their mouth. Sometimes the instinct part doesn’t kick in very quickly and the calf can’t seem to figure out what to do with it’s tongue. It can be frustrating and tries the patience of even the most saintly calf feeder. But then all of a sudden the gears click, they take a little drink, they taste the milk and go to town. I swear you can see the calf “get it”, they relax and all of a sudden I’m not some scary thing, I am transformed into the nice lady with the food. I can’t imagine my life without this simple moment in it.
With all of these cows and heifers due to calve in the next few months I will get to experience lots of these moments. Good thing I got vacation out of the way.
So I am little behind on posts but I didn’t want to let this one slip through the cracks! A few weeks ago I was twittering away when I got a tweet from @PalmenKia offering me some tickets to the Kenosha Beer Fest. I am a true Wisconsin girl so there is no way that I could possibly pass up a beer fest and after all of the fun we had at the Isthmus Beer and Cheese Fest in Madison (IB&C) I figured that I couldn’t possibly think of a better way to spend a few hours on a Saturday. So we called a few fellow dairy farmer friends and made plans to check it out.
Of course before we went I had to check out the details and I was truly impressed. First, when I got the tickets I thought I was going to a beer fest but after checking out the fest’s website I realized it was a Beer & CHEESE fest. Then I found out the the proceeds from the beer fest go towards the Kenosha County Boys and Girls Club. So a Saturday afternoon spent tasting beers and eating cheese all for a good cause? It just keeps getting better. Oh and music! Live music… Sweet! Oh and did I mention it was held at the Brat Stop so really it was a Beer, Cheese and Brat fest?
Full House!
So the Kenosha Beer & Cheese fest was very different than the Isthmus Fest. In Kenosha the beer was from everywhere, not necessarily just the local breweries. While I love my state and our beer it was nice to try some different beers than those I had at IB&C. Loved getting some Bell’s Oberon, one of my favorite Spring brews. The Hard Ciders from Angry Orchard were very tasty. I’ve been on a big apple kick since I ran out of New Glarus Brewing’s Apple Ale, but many apple beers and ciders are way to sweet. The cider from Angry Orchard is sweet but not as syrupy sweet as some of the others out there. I was also excited to try some more beers from Alaskan Brewing Co. Early this spring I tried their Winter Witt and really liked it. I was also impressed with the beers that were showcased here. Blue Moon, my default beer when I am outside of the cheese curtain and can’t get my beloved Spotted Cow had a few seasonal varieties that were tasty and very easy to drink. I really enjoyed Avalanche from Breckenridge Brewery and look forward to finding a store where I can pick some up.
I will admit that while one of my favorite cheese makers, Sartori, was well represented at the fest, overall the cheese seemed to be an afterthought. While you could could get a beer in less than a minute, the cheese was only served at three spots and the lines could be long. I also wish that there were more cheese varieties and companies available. That being said I loved introducing the friends that were with us to the MontAmore from Sartori and it seemed like the cheese curds were very popular.
I have to admit, after a few beer samples I was considering if I could smuggle this wheel out.
Samples!
The booths were manned by volunteers from different local companies. So they could give you the base info on the beer but if you had an in depth question you were kind of out of luck. I was disappointed about that at first until I found out that all of the beer was donated to the cause and that changed my perspective pretty quick. I also give them huge props for offering a special discounted ticket for the Designated Drivers. They also had a special room full of home brews but we didn’t find it until the end of the day so we missed out. All in all we had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves. If you’re in the area you should add this day to your 2013 calendar for sure.
Live music and a dance floor. There was more dancing later in the afternoon after more sampling had happened.
I have always been a voracious reader. As a kid I remember going to the library in the summer with my Grandma and checking out huge stacks of books and then reading the hot summer days away while she read and watched golf. Of course there was Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, Every Laura Ingalls Wilder book, all of the Boxcar Children books, Marguerite Henry and every book in the library with a horse on the cover. I remember the Scholastic book fair days at school and being heart broke when I was only allowed to pick out 2 books instead of the 20 I wanted to take home. I can tell you the layout of the library in my elementary, middle and high school as well as several of the public library branches with ease even after more than a few years since setting foot in them. “Take a look it’s in a book, Reading Rainbow….” plays in my head without the need to youtube or google.
I was raised as an only child and the characters in the books were my friends, always there for me to play with. I read fast, it was nothing for me to finish a few books in a single day. I was reading way past my grade level and tested in the top percentile for reading all through school. I was good at reading and considering I never seemed to be very good at anything else, I was proud of my reading abilities. What I never could explain was how a book could hold my focus when nothing else in the world could. Now being an adult with ADD I know that the books provided my brain the stimulation it craved. As an adult I don’t read often enough. I still love to read, but when I find a good book I simply can’t put it down. That makes getting work done very difficult.
For the thousands of books I have read, I can still remember reading my very first book, cover to cover all by myself. Twenty-Five plus years later, I don’t just remember the book, I remember sitting in my bed and reading it out loud, I can still see the words on the page and the drawings, I can hear myself reading it. I remember as a Kindergartner sitting cross legged in the Frank Allis Elementary School library hearing about what the shiny gold sticker of the Caldecott Award meant and that’s when I picked up the book that made such an impression on me. I’ve always been attracted to shiny things.
I heard that Maurice Sendak passed away today. I wanted to write this post as a thank you to him. His book opened the world of reading to me and reading opened the world to me.
So a friend that I have never met in real life is a finalist in a really neat contest for the 2012 Farm Mom of the Year. While hubs and I have no kids and no plans in the foreseeable future to go down that road, I have an idea how difficult running a ranch and running a good sized family can be. But what really sold me on voting for Debbie is that she stays home each day and runs the farm while her husband works in town. Now that doesn’t mean that he works less than her but it does mean that she is unique. Most farms around here have either both spouses on the farm or the wife works in town.
While I hate doing it, I often have to call Hubs at work during the day when something breaks and I admit to calling him to ask what gear I should have the tractor in for whatever field work I am attempting to get done and we aren’t even farming full time. So my hat is off to you Debbie! Her kid’s hijacked her blog and posted a bunch of great reasons to vote for her, so check it out and take a moment to put your vote in for an exceptional farm mom.
So this isn’t a contest to see if you have a perfect husband. Instead this is a caption this photo contest… the perfect husband part comes into play when I explain the photo. We spent this last week in Vegas where I turned 30. My husband decided to make my birthday extra special by surprising me and shipping some of my favorite cheese to our hotel. I said he was perfect and I meant it! So yesterday this happened and I need a good caption for it….
So put your captions in the comments or put them on the DairyCarrie facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/dairycarrie I will pick the winner next Friday and they will of course win cheese!
By the way, the curds in the photo are bacon and horseradish and they are were amazing!
P.S. If my husband is reading this, you got the perfect husband award for this, it is not a permanent title.
I recently had someone send me a message on the DairyCarrie Facebook page. In her message she included a link to a disturbing video made by the Animals’ Angels group. This group is an Animal Rights group and the video contains some images that can be pretty disturbing. The person who sent me the message said that while she wasn’t a dairy farmer she knew this video was “missing something” and that she would like me to explain some of the footage in this video.
First I would like you to know the difference between Animal Rights and Animal Welfare.
Animal Rights- The rights of animals, claimed on ethical grounds, to the same humane treatment and protection from exploitation and abuse that are accorded to humans.
Animal Welfare-Is the physical and psychological well-being of animals. It is measured by indicators including behavior, physiology, longevity, and reproduction.
Let’s go through this video with some truth and some knowledge, shall we?
Not exactly... In areas where a warmer climate prevails cows may be found in open lots like this because they keep the animals cooler in the hot temperatures. You can see the sun shades in this photo that the cows can stand or lay under. That being said, the majority of dairy cows are housed in free stall barns. A free stall barn or a dry lot like this allows cows to lay down, eat and chew their cud whenever they want to. In fact this photo shows the cows in the background standing at the feed rail eating. As far as the cow in the front. Yes this cow is dead. I have no idea how or why she died. Without knowing the circumstances surrounding her death you can't make an opinion about the care on this farm. Cows are living animals, sometimes they die, those are the worst days as a dairy farmer.
Cows only produce milk after they have a calf. The gestation period of a cow is 9 months, the same as humans. After a cow gives birth there is a waiting period before a farmer can breed the cow again. On our farm and most other farms a cow will not be bred again until she is 60-90 days out from having her calf. In the wild a cow would be bred back sooner than that if there was a bull around.
This one made me laugh out loud and shows how clueless the people who put this video together are. Artificial Insemination (AI) is the the process of using frozen semen to impregnate a cow instead of using a bull. Using AI instead of using a bull to breed cows has zero to do with a cow reaching peak production. This is like saying using a wrench will make your car's gas mileage increase.
Hey! It's a baby calf! Notice the cow licking the calf is not the one that had the calf. I can tell because the cow that just gave birth has afterbirth hanging out of her. I talked about why farmers separate the cows from their calves in a post the other day. This part of the video shows exactly what I was talking about.
This is video of a dairy farm worker "pulling" a calf. Sometimes a calf gets stuck in the birth canal and you have to step in and help the cow give birth. Sometimes this can be done by reaching into the cow and straitening a leg or making sure the calf is positioned correctly. Sometimes the calf is just stuck. This is when we use the tool pictured in this part of the video. I don't know the technical name of the salad tong looking thing or the vacuum thing that OB doctors use on humans but sometimes babies get stuck, human or calf and need help getting out. By using downward leverage against the stuck calf we can help the cow deliver her calf. If this doesn't work the next step would be a cesarean to deliver the calf surgically.
Unfortunately the calf was born dead. Because this calf was stuck it's likely that the umbilical cord had severed or was pinched off before they got the calf out of the mother. It's always a hard decision to know when to assist in a calving. You want to allow the cow enough time to have her calf in her own time and not rush her but you also want to help a cow who is having problems as soon as possible. It takes years of experience and sometimes just luck to know when to help or when to let her be.
Yes, dairy farms raise heifer (girl) calves to one day join the herd. Bull (boy) calves are sometimes also raised on the same farm or sold to beef farmers. The majority of bull calves are not sold to become veal, they are raised as steers and become beef when they reach the proper size.
Wrong! A calf can stand within 2 hours of being born. Umbilical cords fall off after a few days- a week or more, just like a human baby. That being said we sell our bull calves at about 4 days- a week old. They are strong, they run and are drinking their milk well before we sell them. If any calves are showing signs of being weak or ill we don't sell them until they are feeling better. So why don't we keep the bull calves? Because we are setup to be a dairy farm not a beef farm. Keeping bull calves and raising them as steers would mean we would have less space and feed for our dairy cows and heifers. Because we want to focus on dairy instead of raising beef, we sell our bull calves to farmers who want to focus on raising beef.
These numbers must be based on all of those wild Holstein herds out West?
So now that we have gone through the first part of the video about a cows life, let’s talk about the end of a cows life……
So are they saying that the trailer ride to the auction gives cows mastitis, laminitis and make them limp? The truth is that a cow with mastitis doesn't produce high quality milk. Farmers don't want to sell anything less than the highest quality milk so if a cow has severe mastitis or has a chronic mastitis infection that has not been cured with treatment, the farmer will sell the cow for slaughter after any antibiotics have been flushed from her system. As far as the limping and laminitis, a cow that is in pain and can't be fixed shouldn't be forced to suffer.
When a dairy farmer sells a cow for slaughter they get paid for her meat. A cow that is "down" or can't get up is not allowed to enter our food supply and the farmer will not be paid for the animal. Dairy cows are very valuable animals so an animal that can't be sold is a good amount of money lost. Sometimes a cow that walked onto the trailer can get bumped and knocked down at the auction because she already has an issue, which is why she was sold, she may have a hard time getting up or may not be able to get up. Again the cows at auction are at the end of their lives because of an injury or a different reason that makes them unsuitable as dairy cows.
Here is a cow that can't get up. A cow that can't get up can not be sold. Here is a little known fact, cows have to get up with their back end first. A cow weighs 1,000-2,000lbs. If you are trying to get a cow to stand you either have to lift the back end or the whole cow. This part of the video shows a worker using a skid loader to lift the back end of the cow. He is being gentle but also trying to get her to want to get up.
This shows a worker using a cattle prod to try and get the cow up. A cattle prod gives an electric shock similar to the shock from an electric fence but nowhere near the shock from a Tazer that are meant for human use. So why would you use something like this? Because a cow that doesn't want to get up can't be persuaded by asking her to pretty please get up. This isn't something that gets used on a cow everyday, it's a tool that is used as an almost last resort.
After an animal dies there will still be twitches, movement and even breaths. These are all part of the dying process. It's not pretty no matter what species of animal we are talking about or how they died.
This guy may be a jerk but I don't think the cows took offense to his statement.
Again, trying to lift a very heavy cow sometimes means using equipment. When you watch this you can see that the driver is being very careful to get the pallet forks (these are flat pieces of metal, not spears) under the cow to try and lift her.
This is from the Animal Angels website…
Animals’ Angels Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization incorporated in Maryland with a team of investigators working nationwide. Our mission is to improve conditions for farm animals. We work primarily in the field, inspecting livestock trucks on highways, visiting markets, collecting stations and slaughter plants.
Our documented reports and video footage are provided to news media as a public service. We present our investigation results to auction and slaughter plant management, to encourage positive change in the way farm animals are handled during transportation, at auction, and at slaughter. We share documentation of cruelty with law enforcement to ensure that violators of animal protection laws are being held responsible for their actions.
So you be the judge, are they all about Animal Welfare? Making sure the animals are taken care of well as animals. Or are they about Animal Rights and working towards ending all animal agriculture?
I hope I was able to explain some aspects of this video. While the images are not pretty and are hard to look at a little information about what is going on sure sheds a different light on what you are seeing. If you have any questions or comments please leave them below and I will try and answer them. Remember, if this is your first time commenting on my blog your comment will have to be approved before it is posted.
