Green Group discussion
Animals
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Domestic animals / livestock
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https://gizmodo.com/worlds-oldest-che...
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One theory is that some butter barrels were left as a tribute to nature gods.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/butte...
https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/bo...
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Walking With Cattle: In Search of the Last Drovers of Uist
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Rotational grazing for maximum fertility and soil health
Joel Salatin
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Without fences animals seek their own equilibrium with the world. Put in fences and property lines which having nothing to do with reality and everything goes out the window.
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https://www.care2.com/causes/rescued-...
When fur farms were still legal in Northern Ireland - but not in Ireland - there was a fur farm next to a battery egg farm. The old hens were ground up and fed to the minks. When the minks were killed only the fur was useful so the body was ground up and fed to the chickens. That is where the battery eggs came from.
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Peace, Love, Goats of Anarchy: How My Little Goats Taught Me Huge Lessons about Life
The author says she became a vegan on the instant of reading about factory farming on her phone.
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https://www.care2.com/greenliving/dog...
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http://janilousdairygoats.blogspot.com/
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Livestock: Food, Fiber, and Friends
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https://www.independent.ie/business/f...
And this is a trailer which feeds 30 or so calves milk replacer at once, in the field. Cleaned in three minutes.
https://www.independent.ie/business/f...
A general look at how tech and increased automation will change farming - including family farms which may be more viable and attractive, but would require sunk costs.
https://www.independent.ie/business/f...
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The cattle don't look quite like the ones I'm used to, because they were crossed with the humped Indian Zebu cattle.
This is an article and photoessay from a year ago. Well worth a look.
https://www.theguardian.com/environme...
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This is South Sudan.
https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/mo...
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How Much Direct Suffering Is Caused by Various Animal Foods?
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https://www.care2.com/causes/10-thing...
Not mentioned, the black sheep was not popular with shepherds as its fleece could not be dyed. Also, the black or brown sheep got hotter on a sunny day than white sheep, so it would move to shade, maybe becoming hard to spot and keep an eye on, or maybe looking as though it was unpopular or a loner.
That's where we get the term 'black sheep of the family'.
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https://blog.visitcairngorms.com/meet...
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The message is for sustainable and better quality farming, with sustainable and more biodiverse forestry.
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
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https://www.orkney.com/news/sheep-dyk...
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https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0417/113...
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https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020...
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I've just read this book about a micro-dairy and organic artisan cheese. Lovely!
Christmas Cow Bells
This was first in the series and the author has also written other non-farming mysteries.
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Guinea fowl have long been domesticated and in this case they are being used to help understand dinosaurs.
"The work involved filming several guineafowl with high-speed cameras as they walked across a variety of surfaces, from hard to granular to firm and semi-liquid so that the action could be seen in slow motion. The researchers also X-rayed the tracks left behind by the birds."
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-looping...
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https://phys.org/news/2014-12-x-ray-v...
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"To do so, they attached sensors to the animals in an earthquake-prone area in Northern Italy and recorded their movements over several months. The movement data show that the animals were unusually restless in the hours before the earthquakes. The closer the animals were to the epicenter of the impending quake, the earlier they started behaving unusually. The movement profiles of different animal species in different regions could therefore provide clues with respect to the place and time of an impending earthquake.
Experts disagree about whether earthquakes can be exactly predicted. Nevertheless, animals seem to sense the impending danger hours in advance. "
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-sixth-a...
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"I’m not alone in my joy, either. Standing by the goats’ enclosure yesterday, I was around dozens of other smiling people of all kinds. We all looked on at the fuzzy animals in awe, tickled by their simplest actions.
“This is easily the best part of my week,” I said to my partner, basking in the goats’ glow.
Cailin McGough, president of the board of Friends of Wyman Park Dell who spearheaded the park’s goat grazing program, said the response to the goats has been overwhelming. The group paid for the goat foresters through a GoFundMe campaign and were easily able to meet and surpass their goal. She said people have flocked to check out the goats since their release and local news has also been quick to pick up the story of the ruminant clean up crew."
https://earther.gizmodo.com/i-hung-ou...
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This article looks at the situation and how the cattle, methane and feed are a problem for climate change - one that is being worked on at present.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/cl...
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This was created in Ireland, I am posting a version from The Register UK here as the Irish Times is subscription based now.
https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/2...
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Another chicken keeping handbook and poultry breed guide.
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Enjoy.
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2020/...
"The calming technique is one of several eco-friendly practices that Mr Hayden, a married 60-year-old father of two, employs at his 360-acre farm in the Wicklow Mountains close to the village of Tinahely.
"We play music to the cows and that has been scientifically proven to help the cows to relax," said Mr Hayden, who explains that the tunes release a hormone that lowers stress levels leading to better milk.
"Remember, they are a very, very sensitive creature, they are a beautiful creature.
"I've been working with the dairy herd here for over 40 years and the love relationship is as strong as ever. Like any ladies in our lives - what you give, you get back twice."
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"Baileys, a Dublin-based company that has production facilities on both sides of the border, is seeking to encourage more sustainable farming practices as part of a ten-year project to reduce greenhouse emission in its supply chain by 50%.
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"These include increasing the days his herd graze on grass to 300 a year; a greater reliance on slurry as a fertiliser; using the natural warmth of fresh cows' milk to heat water used to clean the milking machines; and bringing up cold water from a well to cool the milk.
He says the results are not only good for the environment but also for his bottom line.
Mr Hayden, who in pre-pandemic times welcomed thousands each year to a visitor centre on the farm, says greater reliance on natural methods has increased profits while the improved health of the herd is evidenced by a two-thirds reduction in vet visits."
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https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2021...
While sheep like this grow massive fleeces, this is because the Merino breed was introduced. A more primitive breed like the Soay sheep has a much thinner fleece which would be pulled off or broken by briars in its native Scotland.
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"Research involving scientists from the University of A Coruña has succeeded in sequencing the oldest mitochondrial genome of the immediate ancestor of modern cows that has been analyzed to date. The remains, some 9,000 years old, were found next to a woman. Why were they with her if cattle had not yet been domesticated? Do they belong to ancestors of today's Iberian cows?
Humans have maintained a very close relationship with aurochs (Bos primigenius) since their beginnings, first by hunting them and then by breeding and selecting them. This extinct species of mammal is little known in the Peninsula because its skeletal remains are difficult to distinguish from bison. In fact, there have been references to the presence of "large bovids" in many sites because they cannot be differentiated. At a European level, there is also a lack of genetic data.
An international team of scientists has managed to extract mitochondrial DNA from ruminants from different periods in Galicia. They have analyzed the remains of B. primigenius from the Chan do Lindeiro cave (Lugo). These remains were found in a chasm together with the human fossils of the shepherdess of O Courel, "Elba", dated at around 9,000 years old. The aurochs analyzed are not the oldest ones discovered, but they are the oldest ones whose mitochondrial DNA has been sequenced so far. Interestingly, although they were found together, they are genetically very different."
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-dna-aur...
When reading that article it may help to know that during the Ice Age, there was a landbridge between the British Isles and the Continent.
However, a 'fossil' is strictly a mineralised version of a bone with no biological material left, and it looks to me as though the scientists are using actual bone, not fossil.
More information: Marie Gurke et al, Insight into the introduction of domestic cattle and the process of Neolithization to the Spanish region Galicia by genetic evidence, PLOS ONE (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249537
Journal information: PLoS ONE
Provided by Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT)
From 2015:
"The ancestry of domesticated cattle proves more complex than previously thought, reports a paper published today in the open access journal Genome Biology. The first nuclear genome sequence from an ancient wild ox reveals that some modern domestic cow breeds, including the Scottish Highland and Irish Kerry, had wild ancestors that were British, as well as Asian."
More information: Stephen D E Park et al. Genome sequencing of the extinct Eurasian wild aurochs, Bos primigenius, illuminates the phylogeography and evolution of cattle, Genome Biology (2015). DOI: 10.1186/s13059-015-0790-2
Journal information: Genome Biology
Provided by BioMed Central
"An international team involving Hervé Bocherens of the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen has studied the effects of environmental changes in the Holocene on the megaherbivores, i.e., European bison, moose, and aurochs. The researchers concluded that the aurochs was unable to adapt to the altered conditions—the increasing spread of forests and humans—and therefore went extinct. The study was recently published in the scientific journal Global Change Biology.
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"The researchers determined the carbon-nitrogen isotope ratio in the bone collagen of 295 fossils from 14 European countries. The results show that all three species of herbivores were forced to alter their feeding habits. According to the study, the European bison was most flexible in this regard, followed by the moose. However, the aurochs with its specialized diet had a hard time coping with the changes.
Bocherens and his colleagues presume that the animals were unable to find sufficient food in the forests, and yet could not leave the woods due to the increasing hunting pressure brought about by the spread of humans. "Ultimately, this led to the extinction of the aurochs in the early 17th century," concludes the scientist from Tübingen."
https://phys.org/news/2019-09-effects...
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https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2021...
"It is thought they were kept mainly for their long wool, as opposed to their meat, before the Famine.
But in the 1850s, British breeds were introduced to the mountains, where they thrived, pushing native Cladoir sheep towards south Conamara. They survived around the coast in small numbers.
An agricultural researcher studied them at a research station in Maam in the 1980s, but the small flock was dispersed after he retired. There was no sign or record of them for several years, until a number of sheep were gathered in south Conamara by another farmer, who had made inquiries about the Cladoir breed.
These were bought by the National Parks and Wildlife Service in 2019 and 2020. Now DNA samples have confirmed 56 of these sheep are a distinct breed - the Cladoir.
Efforts are under way to regenerate the flocks by assembling breeding groups.
The NPWS will now try and regenerate flocks by assembling breeding groups. They are seeking the assistance of other farmers in the coming years.
And in a nod to the breed’s past, fleeces shorn from the sheep will be used to make wool, for local craft spinners and weavers."
Cladoir is an Irish word, so it would be pronounced nearer to Cladoor than the French sounding Cladwire.
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Today, the hogs are ubiquitous and causing endless damage to plants and ground-nesting birds, and other wildlife. In general, they are large and troublesome, breed rapidly, and don't have natural predators.
Now science even says the hogs are contributing to climate change.
https://gizmodo.com/feral-hogs-pollut...
A previous article on this topic in Florida.
https://gizmodo.com/if-you-think-30-5...
A comment under that article (slightly edited for family friendliness by me) on whether the hogs are edible. As with pork meat in supermarkets, kill parasites by thorough cooking.
"They are very edible. They have a gamier flavor than typical corn-fed domesticated pigs. However, you better cook them all the way through, as trichinosis is no joke. In Texas, you’re required to get the brain inspected before consumption."
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"Historic graves have been uncovered at a cemetery in Co Cork after sheep were "hired" to make over the cemetery by eating the overgrowth around headstones.
Last summer Fianna Fáil Councillor Audrey Buckley brought goats in to St Matthew's graveyard in Crosshaven after seeing the potential for "goatscaping" when she was on a trip to Wales.
The usage of goats and sheep is perfect for old graveyards which have delicate headstones. Sheep which are being used this summer recently brought to light the grave of a two-year-old girl who died on 7 October 1872."
A grave is seen with seashells pressed all around the cement cover.
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with many fascinating facts.
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"Among the cranes and containers of the port of Rotterdam is a surreal sight: a herd of cows peacefully feeding on board what calls itself the world's first floating farm.
In the low-lying Netherlands where land is scarce and climate change is a daily threat, the three-storey glass and steel platform aims to show the "future of breeding".
The buoyant bovines live on the top floor, while their milk is turned into cheese, yoghurt and butter on the middle level, and the cheese is matured at the bottom.
"The world is under pressure," says Minke van Wingerden, 60, who runs the farm with her husband Peter.
"We want the farm to be as durable and self-sufficient as possible."
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"The Netherlands is one of Europe's largest per capita emitters of climate change gases and faces a major problem with agricultural emissions, particularly in the dairy sector which produces large amounts of methane from cows.
Those emissions in turn fuel the rising waters that threaten to swamp the country, a third of which lies below sea-level, and further reduce the land in one of the most densely populated nations on Earth.
The floating farm therefore aims to keep its cows' feet dry in both the long-term, by being sustainable, and the short-term, by, well, floating.
"We are on the water, so the farm moves with the tide - we rise and fall up to two metres. So in case of flooding, we can continue to produce," says Minke.
In terms of sustainability, the farm's cows are fed on a mixture of food including grapes from a foodbank, grain from a local brewery, and grass from local golf courses and from Rotterdam's famed Feyenoord football club - saving on waste as well as the emissions that would be required to create commercial feed for the animals.
Their manure is turned into garden pellets - a process that helps further cut emissions by reducing methane - and their urine is purified and recycled into drinking water for the cows, whose stable is lined with dozens of solar panels that produce enough electricity for the farm's needs."
https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2021...
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https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0908/124...
Green Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Butter: A Rich History (other topics)Walking with Cattle: In Search of the Last Drovers of Uist (other topics)
Livestock: Food, Fiber, and Friends (other topics)
Peace, Love, Goats of Anarchy: How My Little Goats Taught Me Huge Lessons about Life (other topics)
Radiant: Farm Animals Up Close and Personal (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Joel Salatin (other topics)Sue Campbell (other topics)
Goats for instance, have evolved to cope with eating some quite noxious weeds.
https://www.care2.com/causes/is-using...
Please post more fascinating facts here!