James: < When even a SINGLE cow is lost, it is a
sad day for the area, and sympathy cards are mailed.>
Having grown up on a family dairy farm, I agree with James. We knew each cow, and years after I left, I could spot lineage lines of daugthers and grand-daughters of cows that I used to milk (for over a decade). They not only inherited similar physical traits, but many had similar personalities. Every herd has timid cows and bullies.
If a cow got sick and we couldn't resolve the problem, we called in a vet. We rarely, but sadly, lost a calf during birthing or shortly there-after. I don't remember that we ever had a mature cow die, although a couple required intensive treatment, and then were culled. We did cull aggressively. Any that failed to meet a satisfactory milk production level was sold as beef. And, we had a couple of pets that we kept long after their prime, either because they were still good breeders (off-spring top producers) or we just couldn't part with them any earlier than necessary.
Similarly, we sold our crops and rented pens to top-off the weight of grass-fed cattle. We had one that the vet fistulated - chronic, severe bloat. The 'vent' made her stand out in the herd - steam cloud over her back on cold winter days. She put on weight and went to sale. That year, we had 1000 cattle, and none died under our watch.
That's nothing like bee die-off. Dad prided himself on winning county-wide awards for average (per cow) productivity and low bacterial counts in the milk we sold to the dairy.
Jerry'
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|