to a barrister who s handled many animal abuse prosecutions. so that s hitting a cow with a shovel? yes, quite clearly, that would constitute an offence and we would prosecute something like that. it s basically an assault against the animal. it s quite a hard watch, that, actually, isn t it? it is. there s no good reason for kicking the animal while it s stricken. it s going to cause, especially to the stomach, some unnecessary suffering and pain. so a likely breach of the law? yes. a hip hoist is a valuable tool for a farmer to use to get a stricken cow back up on its feet. the circumstances in which it s been used here are quite inappropriate. is it likely to be something that might be prosecuted? potentially, yes. what s your overall view of what you ve seen? we ve got a, a number
instead of letting her calm down and maybe try to pull her in a gentle way, the first reaction was to kick her forcefully in the flank, in the stomach. the second reaction of other worker was to kick her in the back and the consensus was that to pull her tailforcibly is the right thing to do. the kicking only stopped once the cow was finally freed. what s your view? that what he was doing was totally unnecessary and unwarranted. you would certainly do something to encourage her to stand up.
they re growing more than twice as fast because they re consuming loads, loads of their own mother s quality milk. last year was profitable and this year will be more profitable again. unlike the ethical dairy, many dairy farms have to try to make a profit selling only liquid milk. prices have been kept low for years. typically, farmers are paid between 31p and 38p a litre. that means making the cows as productive as possible. we have invested a lot of money in genetics and we have invested a lot of money in health and those two hand in hand just mean we can bring out the best in the cow. the average yield for a dairy cow daily is about 23, 2a litres a cow, which is about 40% higher than it would have been about 30 years ago. a lot of the market is exceptionally price competitive, particularly the sector that we re in, which is the liquid market. and there s a massive range within dairying of those who are making good money
colostrum is the first milk from the cow and that first milk from the cow contains very high levels of antibodies. it s essential for the calves early development, but farm workers will then feed it to the calves by hand. by the time their mother returns from milking, they ve been moved to another part of the farm. they could be given that by hand and then returned to the mother. they could, and if you did that, you would increase the amount of bonding between the mother and calf, and when the separation comes, then there will be, in my opinion, a greater amount of trauma when the separation eventually comes. once separated, the calves are unlikely to see their mothers again. james griffiths has run
consuming loads, loads of their own mother s quality milk. last year was profitable and this year will be more profitable again. unlike the ethical dairy, many dairy farms have to try to make a profit selling only liquid milk. prices have been kept low for years. typically, farmers are paid between 31p 38p a litre. that means making the cows as productive as possible. so we have invested a lot of money in genetics and we have invested a lot of money in health and those two hand in hand just mean we can bring out the best in the cow. the average yield for a dairy cow daily is about 23, 2a litres a cow, which is about 40% higher than it would have been about 30 years ago. a lot of the market is exceptionally price competitive, particularly the sector that we re in, which is the liquid market. and there s a massive range within dairying of those who are making good money and those who are really,