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Dairy farmers devastated after cows ingested wire leftover from telecom project – VTDigger

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Dairy farmers devastated after cows ingested wire leftover from telecom project – VTDigger

TUNBRIDGE — On the first Friday of July, Amber Hoyt stood in the dairy barn she owns with her husband, Scott. She held a plastic ziplock bag with small, mangled pieces of stainless steel wire in her hand.?

Since December, the Hoyts have pulled the wire from the bodies of three cows that recently died after showing symptoms the farmers hadn’t seen before: sudden bloody noses, a high number of aborted calves, obvious signs of discomfort, a decline in milk production.?

Last fall, the Hoyts found the wire scattered throughout the cows’ feed, which they grew on their land and other fields they rent in the rolling hills of Tunbridge. As the weather cooled and the Hoyts transitioned the cows out of pasture, they began feeding the animals silage, which they make by layering chopped hay from several different fields in a bunker.

The Livestock Conservancy – Dutch Belted Dairy Cattle

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The Livestock Conservancy

The Dutch Belted is a dairy cattle breed named for its country of origin and its striking color pattern: black with a bright white belt around its middle. In the Netherlands, it is also known as the Lakenvelder. The term laken means a sheet or blanket around the body. The Dutch Belted has been known in the Netherlands as a standardized breed since the 1700s. It was selected as a specialized dairy cow able to convert lush pastures and little grain supplementation into 12,000-15,000 pounds of rich milk per lactation period. For centuries, the Lakenvelder was bred and kept by the Dutch who were not fond of selling their prized cattle. Never a widely popular breed, the Dutch Belted suffered a large decrease in their European population during and after World War II. By 1950 only four or five herds were known to exist in Holland. In the 1970's semen from American bulls was imported back into Holland to try to revive the breed in its native home. As of 2007, numbers in Holland are on the increase but the breed is still considered extremely rare with a population of less than 1000 worldwide.

Looking on the internet, you can definitely tell the difference between Belted Galloways and Dutch Belted, as the later looks much more in the shape of dairy animal, in the type you might recognize from any show Holstein with the angles that are typical for dairy and the sleak thin skins. 

Vermont dairy farms are getting bigger and more efficient

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Herd size: Vermont dairy farms are getting bigger and more efficient

Nearly half of Vermont dairy farms have 500 or more cows today, compared to nearly half having fewer than 100 cows 40 years ago, according to a report from the state auditor.

Doug Hoffer said he investigated trends in Vermont dairy farming "to serve as a resource for State policymakers, program managers, and the public as they consider the future of dairy in Vermont and what role public funds should play."

Could artificial insemination become illegal?

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Could artificial insemination become illegal?

For those of us on dairy farms, the thought of artificial insemination becoming illegal sounds like a dreadful story straight from the spooky plotlines of the “Twilight Zone.” Of course, that television show focused on science fiction. However, the potential of artificial breeding becoming illegal could move from the fiction to the nonfiction section should a ballot initiative in Colorado be enacted by the state’s citizens.

The current Colorado state law that the ballot initiative looks to revise then goes on to describe some despicable sex acts between humans and animals. With that scare tactic set, those with animal rights agendas take the next step: “Sexual act with an animal also includes any intrusion or penetration, however slight, with an object or part of a person’s body into an animal’s anus or genitals.”

Would that portion of the proposed ballot initiative make artificial insemination illegal?

It’s hard to say “no” to that question.