Cows

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I’m vegetarian myself, but I don’t have an issue with others eating meat. I just think everyone should take a minute to think about what they’re consuming and make better choices. Try and buy locally and organic etc. This is something I thought this book might touch on a little, as the author herself owns a farm, but it was far more about what cows are like as animals, which was totally fine! Until she started anthropomorphising them to the extreme!

In Africa, cattle are bred and raised by nomadic herders who have no home base; they roam in small groups and use their herds for their own subsistence as well as for trading. [4] This is a great book for teaching young children the process of a cow’s milk production as well as what happens once it gets to the dairy and then to the stores. There is enough detail in the book for children in early elementary grades to learn something new while also appealing to preschoolers. The book opens, rather charmingly I thought, with a cow family tree. This by no means covers every cow whom Young writes about, but it does give an idea of the number of generations who live on the farm. Some lovely details have been included here; for instance, Bonnet is 'passionate about apples', Blue Devil is 'remarkably bossy', and the Duke of York drinks water like a cat. There is a brief section at the end of the book which includes twenty facts which Young feels one should know about cows, hens, pigs, and sheep respectively. An organic farmer for decades, Young has an unaffected and homely voice. Her prose brims with genuine devotion to the wellbeing of animals. Most of us never apprehend the various inner lives animals possess, least of all those that we might eat. But Young has spent countless hours observing how these creatures love, play games, and form life-long friendships. She imparts hard-won wisdom about the both moral and real-world benefits of organic farming. (If preserving the dignity of animals isn’t a good enough reason for you, consider how badly factory farming stunts the growth of animals, producing unhealthy and tasteless food.) Within a day of receiving this book, I had consumed it. It isengrossing and informative, full of charming storiesas it makes the case for regarding animals as differentiated individuals…Anabsorbing, moving, and compulsively readableaddition to one’s shelf of enlightened animal literature.” —Lydia Davis, winner of the Man Booker International PrizeThe Faber reissue comes with a very short foreword written by Alan Bennett. He comments: 'It's a delightful book, though insofar as it reveals that cows (and indeed sheep and even hens) have far more awareness and know-how than they have ever been given credit for, it could also be thought deeply depressing, as it means entirely revising one's view of the world.' He goes on to add: 'It's a book that alters the way one sees things and passing a field of cows nowadays I find myself wondering about their friendships and their outlook, notions that before reading Young's book I would have thought comical, even daft.' Young, some of whose cows are (terrifyingly) able to cross cattle grids and perform all manner of other physical feats, tells us that when an animal shakes its head, it’s giving you a warning. The message is: keep away. But she does not expand on this, perhaps because, what with knowing her own beasts so very well, she has never been on the receiving end of cow rage. Apparently, she sometimes carries a large brush with her, the better to calm the curious and the cross with a few soothing strokes across the cliffs of their flanks – not something I’m likely to start doing any time soon. Still, one fact I do know now is that cows strongly object to perfume. This, I will remember. In the future, all walks will be strictly Mitsouko-free.

At her famous Kite’s Nest Farm in Worcestershire, England, the cows (as well as sheep, hens, and pigs) all roam free. They make their own choices about rearing, grazing, and housing. Left to be themselves, the cows exhibit temperaments and interests as diverse as our own. “Fat Hat” prefers men to women; “Chippy Minton” refuses to sleep with muddy legs and always reports to the barn for grooming before bed; “Jake” has a thing for sniffing the carbon monoxide fumes of the Land Rover exhaust pipe; and “Gemima” greets all humans with an angry shake of the head and is fiercely independent. Cows have near-panoramic vision, meaning they can see in almost every direction of a 360-degree circle. [5] Author Rosamund Young runs Kite's Nest Farm, on the edge of the Cotswolds, with her brother and partner. She has lived on the farm since her childhood, and has been observing the animals ever since. Her ethos is admirable; they let the cows decide when they wish to finish weaning, allow them to live in mixed generational groups to give the younger members the opportunity to learn from their elders, and give the animals constant access to food and water. Young writes: 'We decided that the animals themselves are by far the most qualified individuals to make decisions about their own welfare and it is the decisions they make, as well as many other occurrences both humdrum and extraordinary, that I have observed, learned from and written down here.' Young then goes on to elaborate further, explaining that she and her colleagues 'have tried on this farm to create an environment that allows all of the animals the freedom to communicate with or dissociate themselves from us as they choose.' Throughout, she makes highly thoughtful points; for instance: 'Just because we are not clever enough to notice the differences between individual spiders or butterflies, yellowhammers or cows is not a reason for presuming that there are none.' In this affectionate, heart-warming chronicle, Rosamund Young distills a lifetime of organic farming wisdom, describing the surprising personalities of her cows and other animals We all know them. The dog or cat owners who find their pet's daring dos so astounding/ hilarious / ingenious / entertaining / adorable that they corner you for twenty minutes at lunch to tell you endless stories about them.I take serious exception to an author saying they are writing a book about the true nature of cows and their intelligence, personalities and decision-making ability as animals but then writes that cows huddle in a corner together to discuss an impending birth, the older cow giving advice to the younger one. Really? There was too much anthropomorphising in the book. Just because an animal is intelligent in it's own way doesn't make it like a human. A small classic.But while her book isgently humorous, it is not a spoof. Cows really are diverse characters with eventful inner lives… Drawing on decades of experience, Young hasa serious messageconcerning non-intensive, compassionate farming.” — Financial Times to avoid going into long physical descriptions of how cows greet, or scold, show distaste, etc, which would make the book much longer and far more scientific than the author intended. It wasn't an awful book, it read in part like propaganda for expensive locavore eating and to show how compassionate farming can be profitable, which is laudable. Because of that I rounded 1.5 stars up to 2. The book, though enjoyable in its way, was not what I think of as a good book. I thought too much of the 'secret life' was fanciful and not at all credible. And I speak from a point of view of knowledge. I know cows as cows who are not subject to people at all, I've been observing 'wild' ones for decades, mostly in my garden where they eat what they fancy every now and again. (They like psychedelic magic mushrooms but I've not seen if they get high or not on them). Cows are not farmed in farms here, the farmer lets the gardens of the whole island feed them and they just cull the baby bulls, the cows are free to live out their lives until old age weakens them, then they too go to the abbatoir.