Guest guest Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 Please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada, Dear Vaisnavas, 1. Could you please tell me what is the cow to bull ratio on ISKCON's farms. Is there some Ideal ratio? 2. Could you also inform me about the ideal cattle to Land ratio. (Cows/acre)? 3. Finally what is the quality of ideal farming land in terms of soil, geographical location, landscape, stream on property, climate etc.? Thank you for your consideration into my inquiries. Your servant, Arya Siddhanta dasa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 Dear Arya Siddhanta Prabhu, PLease accept my humble obeisences. All glories to Srila Prabhupada 1. Could you please tell me what is the cow to bull ratio on ISKCON's farms. > Is there some Ideal ratio? Land Capacity or Carrying Capacity of the Land: This 1st paragraph is from the ISKCON minimum cow protection standards The number of cows the land can support. Supporting the cow adequately means to provide grazing and/or produce fodder for year-round maintenance of a specific number of cows, using local or intensive natural agriculture practices. By talking to local farmers or government agencies, carrying capacity of the land in the local area can be determined. This can vary widely from area to area. If the carrying capacity of the land is 5 acres per cow x 3 bred per year x 12yrs (average life span) =180 acres. Right now on the ISKCON farms in America the ratio of cows to bulls is running about 40% cows and 60% oxen. This ratio is alright as it indicates that the bull calves are not being given away. Closer to 50/50 is better but 40/60 is alright. The real problem is that even though the bull calves are not being given away there is virtually not training of the bull calves so consequently when they become of working age they are just sitting idle with no training and no service. Part of the reason that this fact exists is that the temple management really dosent include the animal powered agricultural aspect of a Krsna conscious lifestyle into the activities of the temple. A few years back a young man was coming from the temple everyday and was really into working with the oxen. This went on for a couple of months until one day he came for his training and he was very depressed. He told me that the temple management wanted him to go on book distribution. Distributing Srila Prabhupada's books is very inportant. However, this young man was told that he should have a well rounded and balanced service experience. My question to him was, "If the temple wants you to have a well rounded and balanced service experience, when will the book distributors come to learn how to work with the oxen and cows so they can also have a well rounded service experience"? This question has never been answered. In speaking with the temple managers in ISKCON temples in India, the problem is that many of the young men are coming from the villages and actually have some experience in working with the cows and oxen. When they get into the temple schedule and scheme of things they dont want to service as cowherds. In the temples it is considered as lowclass service and 99% of the service to the cows in ISKCON goshallas in India is rendered by hired help from the local villages. Some are good at what they do but they also bring the village standard of cow care to the temple goshalla and are not trained in the devotional features of cow protection. > 2. Could you also inform me about the ideal cattle to Land ratio. > (Cows/acre)? Land Capacity or Carrying Capacity of the Land: This 1st paragraph is from the ISKCON minimum cow protection standards The number of cows the land can support. Supporting the cow adequately means to provide grazing and/or produce fodder for year-round maintenance of a specific number of cows, using local or intensive natural agriculture practices. By talking to local farmers or government agencies, carrying capacity of the land in the local area can be determined. This can vary widely from area to area. If the carrying capacity of the land is 5 acres per cow x 3 bred per year x 12yrs (average life span) =180 acres. Here at New Vrindavan the caring capacity of the farm has been calculated at 5 acres to 1 cow or ox. At Gita Nagari we always figured that the carrying capacity was 3 acres for each cow or ox. There are many variables that are figured into the equation to come to this conclusion. Once this ratio is ascertained it can also change from year to year based on rainfall. If the rain is good then pastues will florish and the cows can be kept on pastures for more time in the fall. If the conditions are draught then the pastures dont grow as abundantly and the feeding of hay starts sooner in the fall. We like to be able to keep the cows on pasture at New Vrindavan thru October if the pastures will carry them. There have been some years when some of the cows had to be taken back to the barn and fed hay in August because of lack of rainfall creating weak pasture conditions. In draught situations like this most times the 2nd cutting of hay is also weak or non existance which causes the same land to have a lower carrying capacity for that year. Other factors are soil fertility,fertilization and manure management, crop rotation. Rotational grazing is a good program but to set up an intensive rotational grazing program can be a bit challenging on hillside farms. It is much easier to set up on flat land farms. 3. Finally what is the quality of ideal farming land in terms of soil, > geographical location, landscape, stream on property, climate etc.? A nice loam soil is good or a mild clay/loam soil is alright. Soil with to much clay is hard to work and is hard for the plants to send down roots as it is so tight. Sandy soil also has it specific types of problems such as lack of moisture retention to name just one.Each piece of land will have its own set of characteristics and mini ecosystems. Streams are always good unless they are polutted by upstream users. Different crops like differant climates and soil ph so it would depend on the crops that you wanted to grow what would be the ideal conditions. Also soils can be ammended to change soil ph so that differant crops could be facilitated. Sunlight is also an important factor. How much or how little depending on crop requirerment. With some crops wind circulation is also important. These are general and basic answers. I hope they will be of help to you. ys, Balabhadra das Visit us at: www.iscowp.org > [Original Message] > Arya Siddhanta (das) DG (Los Angeles, CA - US) <Arya.Siddhanta.DG (AT) pamho (DOT) net> > Cow (Protection and related issues) <Cow (AT) pamho (DOT) net> > 6/5/2004 6:40:04 PM > A few questions > > Please accept my humble obeisances, > all glories to Srila Prabhupada, > > Dear Vaisnavas, > > 1. Could you please tell me what is the cow to bull ratio on ISKCON's farms. > Is there some Ideal ratio? > > 2. Could you also inform me about the ideal cattle to Land ratio. > (Cows/acre)? > > 3. Finally what is the quality of ideal farming land in terms of soil, > geographical location, landscape, stream on property, climate etc.? > > Thank you for your consideration into my inquiries. > > Your servant, > Arya Siddhanta dasa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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