Discussion On Whether Modern Dairy Farming Is Cruel
Due to rising amounts of vegan campaigns farmers have are being forced to look from a different angle about animal cruelty. This has affected dairy farmers the most as vegan campaigners have targeted the dairy industry.
Due to milk prices dropping below 30p litre, farmers are being forced to try as hard as they can to get their cows to produce as much milk possible without spending money putting their herd numbers up, buying advanced super food or a specialist breed of cow. Vegans are saying this is cruel that cows are producing an unnatural amount of milk daily but if the milk buyers (generally supermarkets) paid a reasonable price for milk farmers would not have to push their cows to the maximum.
Some modern dairy farmers are now keeping their cows inside all year round and just using zero-grazing technology to bring grass into them. Cows would be happier outside during the summer if it is nice weather but farmers cannot control the cows diet the same if they are outside, e. g if a cow is too fat or too thin a stockman could give feed accordingly if it is inside which is not cruel but some may say keeping a cow inside all year on hard floor would be.
Milk robots are a good thing as the cows can just go to the robot themselves when they feel they need milked and not just twice a day as they would in a milking parlour. A robot is also good as it does not require labour as very few people want to manually milk a cow. A cow being able to be milked when it wants to be is so much more comfortable as there udder will not get full. Milk robots are also more comfortable on the cows’ udder as it is padded and a lot softer than it would be if a cow is getting milked by hand as it would be done in the olden days.
Modern day dairy farming is a lot less labour intensive as robots can milk, feed and can even tell you when a cow is going to give birth. This is very handy as very few people are willing to do the job well but if you have computers doing it automatously you know you can trust it and no cow will be stuck at labour and the cows will be fed properly without having to be checking on a worker. With the technology that tells you when a cow is going to calf you don not have to be looking over your cows during calving season so you could spend the extra time tending to the notorious amount of paper required in modern farming.
In conclusion dairy farmers are trying their best to make the life of their beloved cows as well as they possibly can on their low income jobs. So if milk buyers gave a fare rate farmers could ease the pressure of their cows and improve their life styles by providing rotating brushes to the cows can scratch themselves.
