Cows

proxyindian

I grew up in Iowa, and knew a lot of kids who had cows. Those from the larger ranches never named their cows. The two kids who took cows to the state fair had named their cows. In India, do the cows have names? I mean, do any of you from India actually own a cow and what is your relationship with it? Or are cows more of a community project? I saw plenty of cows but people weren't really milking them or anything.

Am I right when I say that cows are kept until they can no longer give milk, and then they're released? When cows are sent out to live on the street, do they wander away or stay close to home? Do they have to be driven away?

Thanks for your help.

Nick-H

Cows are valuable, as well as revered, creatures ---at least as long as they continue to give milk. I suspect that those that do not become a liability and may well be sold for slaughter.

Certainly they belong to someone! i live in a fairly central city street. At the end of the street there are several cows and calfs.

There isn't a question of releasing them onto the street: that is where they live anyway! Eating any grass that grows here, or any green stuff thrown away etc etc etc.

One of them belongs to our washing lady who sells milk from it. I'll ask Mrs N to enquire if it has a name.

I've declined the opportunity to become a customer. I like the idea, but drinking milk straight from the farm made me very ill as a child in UK, I'd better not try it in India now

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proxyindian

Thank you. That was so interesting and informative. Please do find out if they have names.

I thought that when I was staying at the Hotel Ajanta in New Delhi that was recognizing the same cows and wondered if they have territory.

greenchutney

my aunts and uncles used to have cows, 3 or 4 of them in the backyard. and yes they all had names. and yes they were revered. and yes they all had personalities...and when we were kids, pretty entralled by some of them

these days, they are all shifting out...its becoming very expensive to maintain them and none of the younger generation wants to do it...this is in the middle class strata...kids are going to school, college and so many other stuff, that no ones wants to do time consuming cow maintenance. as a result, the number of families/households with cows is fast declining in second tier cities...they are already gone out of the main metros. they have large scale diaries..industrialization to thank for i guess.....

you really have to go to village households/farms to see them now... ofcoursee you will see cows roaming around the street in cities but this is will eventually go away..i think delhi outlawed it...and i think bombay basically naps (nabs) any free roaming cows in the street and takes them to a shelter....and then i dont know what they do with it after...fine the diaries i think and send the cows to a village?...they are already shifting all the tabelas (cowsheds) from the city to the outskirts...

Nick-H

Fascinating! OK GC: your test for today..... Name your uncles' and aunts' cows! How many can you rememember?

Around here they are not, now I come to think about it, that common, although there are more where we're moving to --- it is not in the least bit rural, but there are plenty of unbuilt plots, which means plenty of unenclosed grass... We'll see buffaloes fairly regularly there too.

There are plenty of goats here, though; hens as well...

Nick-H

...and it sticks in my mind, some post someone made a couple of years back, annoyed at someone's picture of India, they saidUmmm.... Yes?

greenchutney

nick..gimme the weekend ok. its hard remembering the names of my friends, my sport teams, various acroymns...there are so many!...

ofcourse transportation is still cows and buffaloes in many places in india....with fuel prices so high, i wont be surprised if more people shifted to them....a wireless antenna in my bullock cart, laptop in my hand and i am set!...

crvlvr

there are cows that are owned and stray cows. Cows that are owned are usually behind fences or on a leash(?).. Stray cows roam the streets eating handouts/trash. Since it is illegal to slaughter cows in all but 2 states in India, these stray cows pretty much have it made. you won't see as many stray cows in those states that are allowed to slaughter them

anar

in india, we were taught to always boil milk before consuming any (my family was quite strict about this). i still do this, although it comes in plastic packets now (not delivered by the 'doodhwalla').

freenote

Waste not want not, that's what my mum would say .This photo was taken in the middle of Maduri just to the left of the rubbish skip ,Cornflakes anyone ?

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PeakXV

...... it does add a whole new perspective to the "free range"
classification.

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

jhon

I'm sure all the cows had names when Krsna was living in Brindavan, hare om ,jhon

rab

My cows are:

Black Jack
Little Jack
Balti
Martha
Mesbeh
Annabelle
Isobelle

and damn, can't remember the last one. There you go I forgot too.

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ironman

I remember being sent to my uncles farm here in Ireland as a child & the bucket of warm lumpy milk straight from one of the cows being placed in the corner for us to scoop out milk from to pour over our cornflakes in the morning, needles to say being a city kid it put me off farms & cornflakes for a long time, an awful pity...

Nick-H

GC... could you devise some sort of methane-powered generator?