Horrible ride today (this is long - and graphic)

[Nanci]

As long as the clippings are spread out thinnly, they should be fine. Hey, cows can't founder like horses, can they, when they get into green grass after not having been on it? (Don't think so.) (Reminds me of this patient of mine, the one who told me how they do c-sections on cows [standing up] who said God made horses first, and worked out all his mistakes before making cows.)

[Bicyclette]

Thanx for all the concerned replies...

RoadRaven - geez - I didn't know that - I'll be cautious - usually once the cows get the idea they're following us around when we mow to get the grass and usually it's gone the same day ...

Honestly we're talking about a herd of maybe 20 cows in this field - no big numbers - these people just do not seem to take good care of the livestock - our field has 7 cows in it - no shelter - no fresh water - barely any shade -there is a stream - but it's not a flowing stream and in this heatwave it has to almost dry!! weeks go by with no one coming to check on these girls. Every year it's like this. I was riding on the towpath by the river one time and a calf fell in and couldn't get out again - there is no fence separating their field from the river - luckily someone was out at the nearest house and I talked to him ( as well as I am able - my French is atrocious ) and he had already called the police...

they just don't seem to care - and the fields where you see the cows are many times not the owners fields so the owners live somewhere else - I have no idea who these cows belong to.

I also have no idea about the regulations here in Belgium - I am a guest of this nation (we're American military) so I really have no idea as to how these things work here - if I see a neighbor I will drag them down there to show them - I'm sure they probably know who owns what around here...

Thanx again for letting me air my concerns. Like I've said before... I love this place

[Kimmyt]

If they only have 20 cows then they probably live with a very low (very, very low) income. Put yourself in these folks shoes, and while I don't condone it, I do understand it. They probably don't even have health insurance, I know several of my friends from rural areas didn't. A cow gets sick, ok we'll keep an eye on it. But if it's still producing milk, why pay the money to put the cow on medication (when you won't be able to use it's milk during treatment and lose the money from that too) when you can just let it recover on it's own and still get the milk from it.

1 cow may not seem like it produces a lot of milk, but if you think that these people are relying on only 20 total, then it's a bit more understandable.

Sad, nonetheless.

K.

[Nanci]

BF went on a call a few weeks ago, about a place where the cows were starving to death. Apparently _many_ had died, like 30 or 40?, before the neighbors thought to call in the authorities. The cow owner had died, and the relatives were trying to well off the property, but didn't know how to/didn't care to feed the cows in the interum. Nice...