The little I learned about cows and dairy farming... was what I needed to know

The reason why I wanted to work on a farm with dairy cows was to see it from up close and then be able to decide if I want to keep eating dairy of not. I know factory farming is unethical and against animal welfare and already do not support it, but what about small farms? I love cheese and butter so much! So I needed to go on a farm, see it, experience it and work with the animals to be able to make up my mind, fully aware of what goes on 'behind the scenes' of a small organic dairy farm.

Haven sprain my ankle I had to cancel the dairy farm where I would have been working full time with cows. But I did find Martin's farm with medicinal plants and herbs harvesting, but also some cows. Perfect because there is almost no work (for the volunteers) with the cows but I can still learn about it.

Martin keeps 17 cows of a dairy farmer. They are here on his land to graze and grow and then, those who are old enough, to 'get pregnant'. He keeps them until they are ready to delivery their babies and then they go back to the dairy farmer they belong to to give birth. During the summer, the cows are always outside in the pastures. Martin's father takes care of building the fences and once they are ready, we can all go to help 'move the cows' from one pasture to the next - a fun and beautiful experience that I will share in a video!

What I saw that disturbed me was: the pregnancy testing. I have a video that I will not show (unless you ask me to share). But basically the way to do it is going through the anus of the cow, a whole arm length, and at the very end there is a way to feel if the cows is there is a fetus in her or not. While it was done in a small scale way with good care for the cows, I still saw how disturbing this intervention is for the cow and saw it as a very intrusive method. From my point of view, the cow seemed disturbed, wondering what is going on, agitating a bit but then quickly surrendering and just eating hay. It was for me very painful to see, I felt she was just drowning her pain and discomfort in eating. The same with the other 4 cows that were being checked that day. I really trust Martin and his father, saw and felt their good intention, good care for the cows and their efforts to reduce their stress to a minimum. What I see that really is the problem is the method itself, how intrusive it is and how the cow is really defenseless to what is being done to her without her consent. I personally just went through a colonoscopy and in France they automatically put you to sleep and the patient comfort measures are extensive, for a good reason! Unfortunately, for cows this it is the easiest/cheapest/fastest way to know if a cow is pregnant or not, if the insemination has worked or if she needs to get inseminated again. Insemination is apparently done is a very similar way, although I haven't seen it done.

I feel I only saw the tip of the iceberg about dairy farming and that even in this small scale with good care for the cows, this method cannot be avoided for insemination and then following up. I don't really want to imagine what the rest can be and especially on a larger scale. This experience was sufficient to make me decide to cut down cow dairy products to the minimum until being able to stop completely one day.

But I love cheese! Apparently, I heard, goat and sheep dairy farming is feasible in a small scale ethical way without such measures... so this is now the next step for me: finding a goat milk farm and working there!

In the meantime, I still really appreciate the good way that the cows are kept here the rest of the time. And it for sure it really beautiful to see them graze outside in the various pastures.