Cattle Early

As a baby, I could peer out of my pram and see cows in the field adjoining our garden. Was it brainwashing?! If so, I’m most grateful! I relish contemplating cattle.

As a toddler, as soon as I could stand up, I was to be found leaning on a small gate that ran from our Derbyshire garden into the adjoining field full of cows. I spent hours watching them and apparently described them when going in to be milked to my grandmother as ‘going de’ords’. It was my first ‘sentence’, and I suppose it was ‘going forwards’, the plodding line falling in behind the boss cow for milking. They were not just any old cows but cattle being traded – even, like foreign stamps for child collectors at the time, being offered ‘on approval’ by the late Kenneth Beeston of Burley Farm, Allestree, Derbyshire. Many were either Ayrshires, Friesians or Shorthorns but other breeds featured as well, notably Channel Islanders – Jerseys and Guernseys. With Robin Beeston, who was a couple of years older than me, we foraged around the cattle troughs and moved among their chained heads seeking locust (carob) beans, the tastiest ingredients of their rations. It was before the days of rendered offal inclusions! Leaning on that Garden Gate was also rewarded by observing horses, including Ladybird, June Beeston’s pony, and her father in hunting gear training with his hounds in pursuit around him. But it was the cattle that riveted my attention – and still do.

Cattle Coaching

From the age of 7, I spent part of all school holidays, and some weekends, at my aunt’s farm where we originally had two dairy herds of Ayrshires and Shorthorns, subsequently replaced by beef cattle, largely horned Herefords at first, then polled and cross-bred Herefords. I travelled at first by train in the Guard’s Van under his charge for the 22 miles down the line from Derby to Tamworth, where I was met by my aunt – frequently with a calf confined in the back of the vehicle in a Hessian sack with only its head peeping out. From the age of 12, I cycled the 30 miles from home to farm, going over some seven level-crossings through Burton-upon-Trent where trains supplied breweries’ transport. Much of my cattle moving duties as a child revolved around TT testing, and I gained the impression that this was the full-time occupation of vets! How far we have slipped since the success of that campaign with TB now the scourge that it is among cattle and farming communities. I was early instructed in the points of good beef cattle by Lord (Henry) Plumb’s late uncle, Mr Mander, who stressed ‘not too much daylight underneath’ and ‘a leg at each corner’! We suckled our calves on several cows, including old Joanie (an Ayrshire/ Shorthorn cross) – who we had taken to market several times but couldn’t bear to part with her despite her unpredictable temperament! My favourite to hand-milk was Gertie the Guernsey. Like the Masai today, with whom I work in Kenya, we shared the same udder for house-milk with suckling calves. And, yes, I caught TB in the form of a very heavy cold probably through milking fresh milk straight into my mouth when thirsty in summer!

My 1st form School Book Prize was Kenneth Russell’s version of Fishwick’s Dairy Farming. However, the only question I can remember from my entire schooldays was one from our Ethics and Civics Master in the VIth form:- ‘When did you last lean on a gate and contemplate a cow?’ – Everyone laughed out loud, except me who took the question literally and tried to decide in my mind whether it was Mrs Richardson’s Jerseys up in the village, or someone else’s Herefords that I had last contemplated over a gate! I have since had many occasions to reflect on how profound was that question.

I worked one summer with Nigel at the late John Arnold’s Dairy in Shuttington, North Warwickshire. I’m not sure how helpful I proved but he did give me the accolade of downing six successive large mugs of tea faster than anyone he’d ever seen before! When arriving at the University of Reading to study agriculture in 1965, I met John Arnold, his open brown smock flying either side as he drove his bull down Friar Street in Reading for the Reading Bull Sale; ‘What are you doing here lad?’ said he. ‘Trying to learn something’ said I! ‘But what are you doing with yon Bull?’ It is difficult to imagine driving a bull down Friar Street in the heart of Reading today! One of the memorable early facts I learned in Reading was that it typically takes 400 litres of blood to flow through the udder to produce one litre of milk. Working at Highclere Estate after Reading, I had to count cattle on the hill. ‘How many should there be?’ I asked. ‘I’ll tell you when you get back’ said the wise farm manager.

Cattle Consolidation

As we contemplate the changes of the past fifty years in cattle breeding and care, with a global perspective, let’s try to celebrate the positives and beware the potential negatives. It’s good to peer over our shoulders to contemplate cattle worldwide . . .

In my Nuffield Farming Scholarship studies of factors affecting dairy farm survival in seven countries from 1988 (thanks to The Trehane Trust), I discovered that the main threat to survival was over-borrowing while the main hope of continuance was diversification to tap into additional income streams, including valueaddition to cattle products. During the quarter-century from 1989–2014, the UK, Ireland and France lost over 71% of their dairy farmers, while Spain and Portugal lost some 93% of their dairy farmers.

During FMD, while I was Chairman of FCN (now Farming Community Network) many farming families drew comfort in their anguish from Biblical pronouncements about cattle and God’s care for them – as the ‘Owner of the cattle on a thousand hills’ (Psalm 50:10) and as telling Jonah (Ch.4:11) of His care for the ‘many cattle’ in Nineveh (near modern day Mosul) and His recognition that to lose cattle – ‘to have none in the stall’ – is a devastating blow to a cattle breeder (Habakkuk 3:17). In FCN today, we are very aware of the particular impacts of TB movement restrictions on cattle breeders, and on farming in general.

Cattle worldwide

Of some 1.4 billion cattle in the world, around 260 million are dairy cows and around 150 million families are engaged in milk production worldwide (FAO, 2014). India is the world’s leading milk producer with 16% of the total from some 45M dairy cows, followed by the USA, China, Pakistan and Brazil. While milk production has increased, number of producers has rapidly declined, especially in N. America & Europe. England & Wales lost 7,000 of 17,000 dairy farmers between 2003–2013. However, India has a National Milk Day (November 26th) in honour of the late Dr Verghese Kurien, Father of ‘The White Revolution’, popularly known as ‘the Milkman of India’ (John, A., Sathyan, A., Rehman, F. & Marydas, M. (2014) A Day for the Milkman of India. Indian Currents XXVI (49) 32–34). India’s self-sustaining dairy industry stems from Kurien’s belief and practice in nurturing the capabilities of farmers for socio-economic transformation. Kurien’s innovative social entrepreneurship driven by his integrity, fearlessness and perseverance, led to establishment of the dairy cooperative movement, starting in Anand and replicated elsewhere as Amul. He also founded the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) to promote equitable and sustainable development. This successful collectivisation led to formation of India’s National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to replicate the Amul model nationwide. Operation Flood in 1970 was the world’s biggest dairy development project and made India a milk self-sufficient country. Kurien was passionate to ensure farmers gained control of primary production, processing and marketing. He deplored political hijacking of some cooperatives, believed in democratic control of autonomous cooperatives freed from government interference with farmer sovereignty over resources managed.

In India, sacred cattle wander everywhere and were said in bygone days to be perhaps the biggest depositors at the Banks! On the international impact of cattle, in 1997 a Japanese Fishing Boat was sunk by a falling Russian Cow! Some cattle had been rustled by Russian soldiers in a transport ’plane but once airborne they moved around, so to avoid crashing they’d jettisoned some cows through the rear door of the ’plane, one of which had sunk the boat. The fishermen were unhurt but were arrested since the boat-owner didn’t believe their story; however, it proved to be true. The Americans said it illustrated the appalling state of Russian air safety, while a German diplomat said it rained ‘cats and dogs’ in England, so why not cows in Russia?!

Cattle Contemplaters

These have included poets and writers. Thus, William Wordsworth ‘The cattle are grazing, their heads never raising; there are forty feeding as one’. While Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in the 19th century, ‘The friendly cow all red and white, I love with all my heart: she gives me cream with all her might to eat with apple tart’. Ogden Nash (The Cow, 1931) concluded, ‘The Cow is of the bovine ilk, one end is moo, the other milk!’ For the instruction and perhaps challenge of the more adventurous British Cattle Breeders, Gelett Burgess wrote, ‘I never saw a Purple Cow, I never hope to see one, but I can tell you anyhow, I’d rather see than be one!’ When asked about his authorship of this ditty, he replied, ‘Ah yes, I wrote “The Purple Cow” – I’m sorry now I wrote it, but I can tell you anyhow, I’ll kill you if you quote it!’ I think we’re safe now, Burgess died in 1951! Another farmer using AI wrote, ‘The calf was so ugly it should have come without a passport but with an invoice to the AI Company instead!’ An anonymous writer, poking fun at Damien Hirst’s wellknown pickled cow and calf, wrote:- ‘A Cow and Calf are cut in half and placed in separate cases; to call it Art, however smart, casts doubt on Art’s whole basis!’ But in that instance, it’s been more profitable than keeping live cows.

Cattle Developments

On the breeding front, we wrestle with the pros and cons of:-
• Cross-breeding to blend productivity with resilience for harsher climes and diets (such as the Jersey x Nguni for KwaZuluNatal, RSA; and the Jersey-based Jamaica Hope)
• AI – ‘top of pops’ bulls and ‘Holsteinisation’ as leading breed worldwide
• MOET (Multiple Ovulation and Embryo Transfer) and ‘top of pops’ dams
• Sexed semen – Cogent since 1995 (up to → 93% reliability of female progeny)
• Cloning – the issue is not its safety to consumers per se but loss of gene pools tapped and of breeders’ selective skills and intergenerational knowledge transfer
• Genomics – and the precision it offers albeit within reduced parameters?
• ‘Smart’ collars and precision monitoring of all key factors of welfare and productivity.

Cattle Farming Viability

Cattle farming is not simply about improved breeding and feeding to maximise production but rather it’s about optimising farming systems. Kenya will illustrate what I mean. Kenya has some 2.75 million farmers around 650,000 of whom produce milk. Some 80% of Kenya’s milk producers have fewer than 5 cows, and these small ventures (including those started by entrepreneurial youths) have been increasing since the 2003 restructuring of the Kenya Dairy Board and revival of a new KCC (Kenya Co-operative Creamery) together with import/export adjustments. Send-A-Cow charity helps Post-election violence in 2008 disrupted dairying in the Rift Valley. The concentration of milk processing as in other countries has the potential to encourage larger herds leading to displacement of small ones, and this trend could soon outstrip the welcome expansion of dairying in Kenya during the past decade to meet growing population and rising consumer demand for dairy products in situ locally. Loss of dairy farmers begs the question, what alternative productive activity can they engage in to contribute to Kenya’s real economy rather than boosting unemployment and its community/ geopolitical instability threats? The same question applies to China’s current drive to dismantle its legendarily energyefficient farming systems and consolidate their cattle and other ventures into large, input-hungry industrialised operations . . . Through AFCP (Agri-Food Charities Partnership) in the UK (www. afcp.co.uk), we can help to collate funding for appropriate charitable research and initiatives towards improved cattle systems pioneered here.

Viability of cattle farming is challenged at present product prices by contrast with pricing in other sectors. A farmer who had recently replaced his vehicle decided to get his own back when his car dealer came round to buy a cow from him (Figure 2; US material, adjusted for inflation/exaggeration!).

Conclusions

Contemplating Cattle has at least 7 applications, of which the first is perhaps the most philosophical and applicable for all, while the other 6 are for cattle farming folks:-
• Relaxation & Stress Therapy – cattle metabolise slower than we do; their cudding/rumination can soothe us in an increasingly fastpaced world
• Stockmanship – cattle keepers must regularly observe the behaviour and condition of their cattle for their welfare, beyond the nowadays routine ‘conditionscoring’
• Health & Well-being – vital checking for signs of health and early disease detection
• Breeding management – from detailed observation as well as precision-monitoring
• Breeds conservation and retaining farmer/breeder control over their futures
• Reviewing selection criteria for changing circumstances and markets; future-proofing
• Pure Joy – viewing to relish the fruits of one’s past breeding or stock-care decisions

There’s a strong association between rumination and meditation (‘chewing over thoughts’) . . . Please take more time to lean on those gates and contemplate cattle for their good and yours!