Stressed people = stressed animals

And stress on animals = stress on people.

In my time on the farm I observed that whenever the people were at their most stressed; everything was stressed. And I observed that at these times the machinery would break down, pumps would stop, things would get broken, animals would be sick, mastitis/BMCC was at it’s worst and the people (whether workers or employers) would be at their most stressed. It is kind of like your peace is the rest of the farms peace. So I would often look at what was going on for me when the Cell Count would rise and try to resolve my issues before tackling anything else. Or maybe a worker would be having a particularly hard time with something in life, or a worker was thinking of moving on. Your energy vibration is like a ripple effect that ripples over the whole farm and if you are not in a peaceful state then nothing is, which then has a snowball effect. Also a farmers body will tell them when they are not doing something in alignment with their true values or calling. We all blame a sore back on the concrete, the strenuous work we do. In my experience, when I was totally loving my work and treating it like play and caring for my animals, the Earth, the people around me and myself, I never had any sore back, sore neck, sickness and so on.

I see a lot of farmers complaining about their sore back, having hip and back operations, heart attacks, skin cancers etc. and those same farmers are ones that haven’t been enjoying what they do for so many years I struggle to remember a time when they did enjoy it. It’s a huge thing to admit that you actually want to do something else or completely change the way you do things. People might think you are crazy and talk about you. It’s what you’re good at, It’s what my family have always done, I would be a failure, what else would I do and so on. I have been there so many times. It’s high time farmers and people in general listen to their body and instead of going to the doctor for a bandaid treatment, look within at what would make you happy. And if you truly find what brings you joy and start doing those things, I bet 100% that any health issues and sore body parts will disappear.  

We also blame the milk prices or the water prices. This essentially is giving our power away to the factories and the people who control the water. I agree the milk prices in all countries is way off the mark for what it costs the farmer to produce it. The water prices in this country are incredibly high compared to the return the farmer gets on the end product too. Farmers have a mindset that they have no control over anything other than what happens on their farm. They are also too busy to add any extra work load. But, it is not empowering the farmer to sit back and complain about the milk prices and water prices and keep producing the product and sending it to the factory who pays a pittance for the product and clearly does not appreciate the product, the people who have worked hard to produce the product or the animals and land that produces the product. It does not empower anyone to give their power over to someone else by blaming others for their hardship.

There are so many things that can be done to make your product a niche product. For farmers to come together and be creative and find new ways to produce and market their product. Admittedly some of my ideas are extreme and some people around the world are doing different things and having success with much less work load. Consumers are the ones who control the market and the farmer has to supply what the consumer wants. More and more consumers are wanting ethical products and that is not just with animal products. 

I will go deeper on these ideas in my next post. For now I will touch on them as my children are wanting me and I want to get organised for the day. Like I said some of these ideas seem crazy especially for me who comes from large framed, high producing Holsteins stud cows. This is part of why I was never able to do the extreme experiments on my family farm. Also consider that if you are in a state of joy then you will be loving yourself, your animals and the land. And if the work load is less and the incoming money is more than the out going money, then does it really matter how you do it or what you do?

Consider once per day milking, leaving the calves with the cows for a 12 hour period. Either overnight or thru the day. Pasteurising your own milk, having a co op with your neighbours and between you all, you pay people to do the marketing, processing etc.

My apologies for not elaborating in this moment. I have a need to be with my children and get sorted for the morning.

Thanks again for reading.