OMG !! This makes me sick

[Lewella]

As tagalong said the Jockey Club does not permit AI or embryo transfer. One of the primary reasons for this rule is to prevent the narrowing of the gene pool even further. The Thoroughbred industry is dealing with an extremely narrow gene pool - dangerously narrow. If popular stallions could service two or three mares per collection instead of one per live cover popular stallions would soon have an even greater influence on the overall gene pool of the breed than they already do. (The top stallions are already standing 6 months in the Northern Hemesphere and 6 months in the Southern Hemesphere and breeding hundreds of mares each per year!)

Nurse mares aren't nearly as common in the Thoroughbred industry as most people seem to believe. Yes, the Thoroughbred mares have to go to the stud to be bred but the vast majority send the mare prior to foaling to a mare barn close to where the stallion is standing to be foaled out and bred back. Most foaling operations only use nurse mares as a last resort for a mare that isn't producing enough milk to raise her foal, has to be put down, or something else catastrophic.

As for synthetic HRT - it doesn't work for all women so until something is developed that works for everyone there will always be the need for PMU operations.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Like the PETA twits who released thousands of mink from a fur farm north of here years ago... they thought that all those mink would be free, free, free! Mink who did not know how to hunt and were clueless about the world. They died by the hundreds on the highway, were torn apart by dogs, fought each other, starved etc. No one cared that those mink would suffer out in the wild - they only knew that they had done a good thing and liberated them!

Just wait until they decide that it is beyond cruel for minis to be pulling us around in carts...

Actually we had that happen here and the mink did just fine, now, if we could just find a way, any way I really do not care, of eradicating the nasty, vicious little killers, as they have done more harm to the indigenous wildlife than any other single introduced species, bar, possibly, the coypu, and they were innocent vegetarians, they just annihilated the environment!

Mink are bad news, really really bad news!

I had not thought about TBs being embryo transplant free, but you can bet your boots that, were the nurse mare industry to be banned, some well to do person would find a way of getting the rules changed.

Having a string of mares that will take an extra or orphaned foal cannot, btw, be likened to the nurse mare industry. We have organisations like that over here, both ad hoc and professional, it is a whole different ball game.

There are no nurse mare farms, they would not be legal.

Dairy farmers routinely take calves away from the cows, they do not need one replacement heifer from each cow each year, and anyway the sexed semen is more expensive and if you are raising waste calves, cross bred meat calves, and bull calves to boot, are more lucrative. Please do not try to tell me dairy farmers are nice kind humane people, you may know one, or have a couple in your family, who are, but, as with any other "business" that involves animals as machines, they cannot afford to be.

On the whole I think they are OK, but the cows are machines, and once the machine starts losing production levels, it is gone, in fact the cows are normally sent to market every three to four years irrespective of their production levels as it basically easier to do it that way.

And all to put a product on your table that you do not need but have been brain washed into thinking that you do!

I do not know exactly how many people are lactose intolerant but judging by the ADHD levels in kids it has to be pretty high!

If we just stopped using all dairy products the human race would be better off, I feel.

 

[frostedpineminis]

I cant believe that a post about a couple of minis turned into this...I am really sick and tired of people trying to tell me that if I eat lettuce for the rest of my life everything would be just great. I eat meat and use animal products and always will. People should just keep their opinions to themselves, we dont rag on you that you have too many kids and they are overpopulating or that your house destroyed a habitat for squirrels or raccoons, or that you killed that spider in the tub last week or that you have a cat that eats catfood and that is animals that have been slaughtered. You can believe what you want but dont tell me that I am a monster for eating meat or keeping a cow in a warm dairy barn with the best feed you can provide, they do not go through any more pain losing that calf then your breeding horses do weaning a colt, dont flatter yourself that you always do the right thing. people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones.

 

[shorthorsemom]

I am a dairy farmer and we cut an existance out of the dirt for very little appreciation and very little money. We keep every heifer we get. I cry when we lose a cow or a calf. I know plenty of horse people that breed every year and lose plenty of babies and I see plenty of ads for minis priced at give away prices. This post is just getting mean. If you aren't a dairy farmer, then you cannot give comment on the life of one or of their animals.

All my pet animals are neutered. I slave away to rescue countless cats that morons think are better chucked and disposed on a farm. I rescue dogs that are disposed here too.

I do not breed horses, nor will I ever, but I do think the horse over population is as sad as the dog and cat and everything over population.

I eat meat, I drink milk and I wear leather. I farm

 

[JWC sr.]

Wow I did not know I was such a big fat "O" in so many folks book!!!

I eat meat (ate some venison last night), love milk, hunt, own guns, think a dairy farm is one of the hardest ways to make a living in agriculture, wear leather boots, killed a spider last night in the barn, watched a cool horse race last night on cable, believe in treating all animals with respect up until the time they are processed, have a wife that uses PMU produced products and am in general all those things some have a problem with. I am surprised some of you will even talk to me anymore!!!

All kidding aside folks, I am just trying to lighten things up a little. Peace my friends, there is a lot of hype and spin in all these subjects!!! Hopefully we are all intelligent enough to listen and then try to find the facts as they really are and only then form our own individual opinions.

Not just take for granted that those that produce videos, have ad campaign's and spend a lot of money asking for donations are always right. They do most of the time spin things for their own well being and agenda!!

 

[Minimor]

I support dairy farms! IMO life wouldn't be worth living if I couldn't ever eat ice cream again!!! I like my milk too, for that matter, but ice cream tops my list of favorite foods!

I got lost somewhere, I have no idea how this thread took the turn to bashing dairy farming?

And thank you to Lewella for pointing out that the synthetic hormones don't work for some people, and that is why PMU farms still exist, though in very reduced numbers now. If synthetic works for you, GREAT, but don't condemn those that still use the real thing!

Oh, and I do kill spiders too! Anyone wants to save the spiders they had better remove them from my property and get them well away from me (please, feel free to do so!!)

 

[Songcatcher]

I eat meat (ate some venison last night), love milk, hunt, own guns, think a dairy farm is one of the hardest ways to make a living in agriculture, wear leather boots, killed a spider last night in the barn, watched a cool horse race last night on cable, believe in treating all animals with respect up until the time they are processed, have a wife that uses PMU produced products and am in general all those things some have a problem with. I am surprised some of you will even talk to me anymore!!!

I'm with you John! Except when I drink milk, it must be buttermilk.

These OMG threads always turn out to be the same thing. Some people believe everything they see on TV (or Youtube). Some of those are isolated incidents, and some of them are actually staged by the people who claim to be against it.

Some people don't seem to understand that there is a difference in treating animals humanely and treating them like a human.

Regarding dairy farms, I was born on a dairy farm. Nice green pastures (when the water board would let us have enough water to irrigate), and calves raised (usually 4-6 at a time) on a nurse cow that was difficult to milk. My folks couldn't make a living at it and sold out. Moved to southern California and my dad went to work on a large commercial dairy.... I've seen both sides of it.

 

[shorthorsemom]

Thanks JWC and Minimor

It 2009 and 2010 have been the two hardest years for us as dairy farmers . I don't think a single dairy farmer in the US last year made money for their milk what it cost to produce it. Most of us are barely surviving, but still take excellent care of our animals and take great pride in being a farmer. My husband puts in a 14-16 hour day, so anything anti-dairy makes me just want to tell people that there are dedicated farmers out there putting in long hours and pampering and caring for their animals too. We stay up all night on calf watch just like horse breeders do waiting for a foal. We don't have money for a nice camera, we sit on a straw bale on baby watch and go without sleep sometimes. I'd give anything for one of those cool cameras people have when they are on mare stare. You can learn alot from reading these posts.. I want a camera but Santa isn't listening.

I love ice cream too. It should be on the top of the food pyramid. yum.

 

[SHANA]

rabbitfiz I don't know where you got your information about dairy farmers but not all dairy farmers are bad. We have a dairy farm, all our cows are treasured and if sick, etc we have the vet for them. Yes our calves are pulled from the cows when born but are raised on fresh cows milk daily until weaned. We usually keep 5-6 of our heifers and sell the rest, we have sold some in the past to people for there kids to use in 4-H, etc. Our bull calves we give away, a lot of the 4-H kids get them around here, they are nice show steers for 4-H and some have even been given to be used as oxen. We don't keep one replacement heifer per cow, we keep usually around 5-6 heifers a year. We have our own bull and do not inseminate cows much.

 

[minimom1]

Maybe I should not have titled my post OMG !

I did not mean to start a post bashing anyone, and how it turned out to be about dairy's I am not sure.

I am not anti slaughter, I am however against inhumane treatment of slaughter animals. I am not here to point fingers at who is to blame for this equine over population problem as there are so many levels involved you could never blame just one.

I personally do not breed any of my animals but I do have a 2 month old colt that came from a mare in foal purchased by another person at an auction. I geld / spay / nueter every animal I own just as soon as they are old enough. I choose to not be a part of adding to the unwanted animals of the world.

I give kudos to those who do responsibly breed to better their breed be it horse, dog, cow, chicken etc.

I guess I was just shocked to know that weanlings would go to slaughter but according to many here they wouldn't have. I did not ever think my origonal post would have sparked such a debate and for that I am sorry.

I too eat meat, use animal products and LOVE ice cream.

 

[Lewella]

Thanks JWC and Minimor

It 2009 and 2010 have been the two hardest years for us as dairy farmers . I don't think a single dairy farmer in the US last year made money for their milk what it cost to produce it. Most of us are barely surviving, but still take excellent care of our animals and take great pride in being a farmer. My husband puts in a 14-16 hour day, so anything anti-dairy makes me just want to tell people that there are dedicated farmers out there putting in long hours and pampering and caring for their animals too. We stay up all night on calf watch just like horse breeders do waiting for a foal. We don't have money for a nice camera, we sit on a straw bale on baby watch and go without sleep sometimes. I'd give anything for one of those cool cameras people have when they are on mare stare. You can learn alot from reading these posts.. I want a camera but Santa isn't listening.

I love ice cream too. It should be on the top of the food pyramid. yum.

As my friends know my personal opinion is "Everything is better with butter! (and bacon...)"

(And we milk anywhere from 60 to 90 cows with 40 or so replacement heifers of various ages that we've bred and raised ourselves waiting in the wings!)