Anchor Cows

[Tigger2]

Have you seen the advert on TV for Anchor Butter, with the lovely Jersey Cow? with the lovely long tail??. Well it has been revealed to me that in NZ (on the Anchor Dairies) they cut the tails off the cows because of the flies, if this is true, it is a dammned disgrace.

Tigger2 - I thought the tails were used to swat flies??

Docking cows tails.... what ever next. Hope you are well Tigger2.

M2T, all well, calving not going well at all, lost 2 calves this week and had one heifer with a c/section, one calf born arse first and drowned and one calf a month old lying dead yesterday morning, waiting on the Vet to come and do a post mortem, as it was a sudden death.

Yes the tails are there to swat the flies, only sheep usually have their tails docked, and certain breeds of them don't i.e Scots Blackface.

My main point is really that these large companies make out that they are sooooo great and make a good job of looking after their animals that WE MUST go out and buy their product. Load of crap, maybe I should join the Farming Polis!!!!!!.

Was helping a friend on saturday (complete with Whyte and MacKay hangover!!) and I was not in the usual wellies and leggings, and had the hair up a bit of slap on and do you know......, loads of folk walked past me they didn't know me!!! because I didn't have the wellies on, didn't know wether to be offended or pleased with myself.

Oh, pleased, definitely, Tigger! You obviously scrub up well.

Sorry about the calves. Must be heartbreaking.

The lambs around here (E Lancs) still have long tails. When do they get docked usually? (At least I think the grown-ups are docked - can't tell when they are shaggy - they are blackface here too though.)

Tigger do you have a reliable source for the Anchor cows story because to be honest it smacks of one of those hoaxes which spread fast( usually via the internet) but of cource I may be wrong.
Anyone remember the KFC hoax, something along the lines there was no real chicken in their products, they grew false "chicken " in a laboratory?

Tails are usually docked within 7 days of birth (government and Farm Assurance Guidelines), BUT, on hill farms this is not usually done until the lambs are a month old.

I think that they will be Swaledale sheep round where you are, they've got really quite long tails. Our lambs at home here are done, tials docked and balls detached, but the ones on the hill are not done yet, hopefull this week if the weather would just stay dry for longer than a bloody nanno second.

Jasper, yes I do, my husband.

But why would they dock the tails? I don't understand it at all. If they can't swat flies they are more miserable so that can't help their yield so what is the thinking behind it?
I have obviously missed something. Please enlighten a thicky

Why are lambs' tails docked? Is this not as unnatural as docking cows' tails?

abbysmum: lambs tails are docked so they don't get daggy and pooey and then attract flies. The flies lay eggs...then you get maggots and then the maggots get into the flesh... It's not pretty being flyblown and a long slow death .

Jasper, they dock the tails of the cows so that when they are being milked they don't get their udders or those who are milking them covered in shit, so it had been said. They use a Pour On such as Spot On to keep the flies away or use tags in their ears to do the same job.

As said with the sheep, to stop them getting shitty backsides and then becoming infested with maggots, as said not a pretty sight. we dock the tails of our pure ewe lambs as it makes it easier to look them when they are lambing, just in case a lamb is being hung or being born backside first. Docking the tails of lambs was first introduced so that when people sold them in the back end as store (not yet fat) when they went onto Rape or Kale fields they tended to scitter a bit and their tails got very dirty, so tails were taken off to help prevent this.

There's loads on the net about it if you google on NZ cow tail docking you'll get loads of info, including that it is becoming more common in the US apparently and is almost universally accepted in NZ.

Thanks for the explanation.
Amazing what you learn on mumsnet!

Hi Tigger2 ... sorry about the calving ... must be awfully hard for you when things go wrong ... I am thinking of you ...
I live in NZ (not for very long mind you and know nothing about cows) so I am now going to do a bit of research! Sibble (another mumsnetter in NZ who came for tea only today) has in laws who are dairy farmers ... I will ask her and report back to HQ!!
Doesn't seem like a nice thing to do ....

HI Tigger2 - How are things today?

I saw a documentary about sheep in Australia a few years ago which has never left me - they don't just dock the tails, they slap the larger lambs on a sort of wheel slather some disinfectant on them and cut off their testicles and bits of their tummies too. It put me off lamb for years it was so barbaric (baaarbaric) and what about factory farmed pigs/ chickens etc. Practices of animal husbandry are often so grim we'd probably all be vegetarians if we took on board what goes on.

anyone catch the news on R4 this morning about banning Halal slaughter? Not sure of the details but it is inhumane (slit throats and no stunning first...barbaric).

DebL - I know! And there were 2 Halal butchers on TV saying it was MUCH more humane than stunning them first coz, apparently, when you go to stun them the cows KNOW that they are going to be killed, but if you just slit their throat and let them bleed to death dangling by their feet then they are blissfully unaware that they are going to die! OH PLLLLEASE! Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous??

Can I please say for the record HALAL SLAUGHTER SHOULD BE BLOODY BANNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. To stun an animal is more humane, the only moving they do after that is the nerves moving them about. Honestly I can say hand on heart I cannot stand seeing anything being put down either for humane or consumption purposes, I physically throw my guts up if the vet has to destroy a cow (doesn't happen very often). When we were taking the fat cattle to the slaughterhouse, DH had to leave me at the gates, nearly half a mile away, wretching and lurching all over the place!!

Do you know the worst thing, other people who are farmers say that I am a sad b***d, I am not I am me Tigger

Tigger, all your posts come across as being so caring wrt to your farm. Maybe farmers would have less of an image problem if they were all like you!

I actually came here to post on halal slaughtering. We were told to avoid going out in Indonesia on one of the Muslim festivals which is celebrated by slaughtering animals, manly goats, in the mosques. We had to go out and I was so worried in case dd saw something awful, but thankfully, the main bit was over by then and she didn't seem to realise what all the blood and piles of flesh were. In some ways I can understand it more here, where so many people live such miserable lives; animals suffering is as nothing compared to the human toll and they couldn't afford stunning equipment anyway. But in developed countries, I really don't think it is on. I also get het up about transportation of live animals across Europe. It seems so unnecessary.

Tigger2 - thank goodness for caring farmers like you. My dad was a farmer and he said he couldn't be happy unless his animals were happy.Having grown up in the farming world I know there are some who just don't care. Do you know 'Compassion in World Farming'?

At the risk of making everyone feel ill, I have to tell you about 3 things I saw at a food market in China. First, a fish stall where they kept the fish alive in a tray of shallow water, but sliced one side of the fish off, so you could see all the organs working - heart beating, etc. Secondly, a turtle stall, where if you cought a turtle, the stall holder would cut it alive out of its shell there and then and pop it in a bag. Thirdly, a chicken plucking machine - they put the chickens in alive, swich it on, and the chicken emerged dead and plucked (don't know which came first). I really don't understand the human race sometimes.

NQWWW, this will be the main problem if the Government has its own way with aspects of food trade coming into this country. You have experienced first hand the horrors of what other countries do to their animals, but, would you like to see meat, chicken, pork, etc coming in from these other countries?

I am not rambling on here but this is what will happen, lambs carted off to Spain for Export are killed in the most inhumane and sickening way, as are their goats. The Food Standards across here are very stringent, but we have no idea what we will be eating from abroad. Good grief the Germans have been caught a number of times with the spinal cord still in the carcass of beef.

I also don't agree with exporting of live animals, all animals that are to be exported for human consumption should be slaughtered before they leave Britain. But the import of animals for Breeding purposes in different again, they get travelling first class.

Spicy Bean Burger anyone?

Tigger2 - that's why people should stick to good quality home-grown Scottish Beef (plug plug!).