Executive from The Lands at Hillside Farms discusses humane cow care in wake of Texas tragedy
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SHAVERTOWN — Chet Mozloom, executive director at The Lands at Hillside Farms, this week spoke about the recent tragedy in Dimmitt, Texas — where 18,000 cows perished in a fire — and the business of dairy farming.
“We owe it to decency to take their welfare into consideration, rather than solely focusing on the dollars lost and how hard it will be to rid ourselves of all the carcasses,” Mozloom said. “While we consume animal products, and naturally so, the idea that we selfishly disconnect from the process for the sake of a lower price without guilt is not moral.”
Mozloom said there must be a difference between manufacturing iPhones and working in food systems that involve animals.
“Tell me it is not all about economic scale,” he said.
Mozloom said fires occur on farms of all sizes — they are devastating on many levels — for the animals, for families, the economics, the community.
“The shock in this scenario is that 18,000 cows were close enough together to die at once together,” Mozloom said. “If you search, you will find a study to support your position, whatever it might be. You might believe industrial farming is somehow better for cattle. Or that small quaint farms are the most peaceful life for cattle.
“Or, perhaps, you really don’t care, which is understandable considering how far removed we are from our farming roots.”
The answer, in Mozloom’s opinion, is really based on the herd’s ability to behave with freedom and the farmer’s ability to behave with kindness and patience.
“It doesn’t take a 10-year degree in astrophysics to observe and conclude that a cow grazing on spring grass is happier, assuming cows can be happy, than cows ‘exercising’ in a dirt lot next to a 40-acre building,” Mozloom said.
These industrial systems, again in Mozloom’s opinion, feed a disconnected hungry world at a “cheaper” price, so long as you ignore the real costs throughout the value chain of animal farming.
“Just like ‘all your eggs in one basket’ is all your cows in one barn,” he said.
Mozloom said any failure in such a system can be cataclysmic. He said large liquid manure pits germinate the conditions for anaerobic activity, leading to increased methane.
Mozloom explained that grazing cattle spread their own manure during the warm seasons, leading to aerobic conditions, reducing methane.
“Disease is clapping in the corner of these massive barns, as we witnessed recently with avian flu,” Mozloom said. “It is so difficult to imagine conditions that promote a decent life for these animals in such a large facility. Is being truly humane scalable in such mass?”
Mozloom said for those who could not care less about animal welfare and our environment, there are the topics of local economies and food security in the sense of mitigating risk.
“Local farms of all kinds are quickly disappearing,” he said. “Small family farms are falling to a consolidation in the agricultural sector that is concentrating our food systems, shifting local economies, stripping them of self-sufficiency, and making food itself an afterthought.”
Mozloom said it is easy to understand this as there is food all around us, even though not all have access to it.
“We are comfortable and unaware,” he said. “Dairy farms in Northeastern Pennsylvania are disappearing, while milk production is rising. This tells us that farming didn’t disappear, it just moved away from us, along with the security, economics and beauty that farms provide.”
Mozloom asks us to consider avian flu and its impact on egg prices. He said it seems if you put a few million birds together, things are cheap until they are far from it.
In this system, Mozloom said you start with poor animal welfare and a very affordable product and end with the death of millions of animals and a very expensive product.
“The word sustainable is used and overused lately, but, in this case, we can see that industrial farming is full of risk,” Mozloom said. “For all of us, everything we do has some level of cost-benefit consideration.”
Mozloom asks, “Is the concentration of food systems worth the risk?”
He said every time there is a hurricane in Texas or Louisiana, gas prices spike.
“That is what happens when you put seven of the 10 largest refineries in one region,” he said. “Doing the same with food is exponentially more dangerous. Why? Because it is food. It falls in the air, water, food, and shelter segment of needs.”
Mozloom said if you agree, do not be quick to blame farmers and industries. These conditions are simply a response to the demand for cheaper base products that will enable us to have more disposable income to buy more “stuff.”
Mozloom added, “In the end, the consumer creates the farming environment through the selection of products. We created this, and I am no exception. We create the demand for these intensive industrial farming scenarios that view livestock as just components of an iPhone.”
The Dimmitt tragedy
Recently, an Associated Press story reported an explosion at a dairy farm in the Texas Panhandle that critically injured one person and killed an estimated 18,000 head of cattle was the deadliest barn fire recorded since the Animal Welfare Institute began tracking the fires.
The AP story stated Castro County Sheriff Salvador Rivera has said the fire and explosion at Southfork Dairy Farm near Dimmitt was likely due to overheated equipment.
The Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office has ruled the Dimmitt dairy farm explosion as accidental.
A 2022 report by the institute noted “several instances in which 100,000 to 400,000 chickens were killed in a single fire.”
Dimmitt is about 50 miles southwest of Amarillo and about 340 miles northwest of Dallas.
Variables in farming
Mozloom said there are so many variables in farming styles, he feels the safest way to describe what Hillside does is through its certification.
“We are Certified Animal Welfare Approved by A Greener World (AGW),” Mozloom said. “Overall, AGW helps to create scenarios in which our cattle can behave naturally and are safe, healthy and comfortable.”
Mozloom said some highlights, at the highest level, include access to fields for forage, periodic and proper veterinary care, adequate shelter with specific per head requirements, feed ratios that limit grain consumption, allowing the cattle to behave as a herd, limiting medications, not selling livestock through auctions, properly managing the soil through testing and manure management, and so on.
“AGW keeps us in check through annual audits and visits,” Mozloom said. “They are kind and help with continuous improvement. I cannot say that huge farms do not consider animal welfare. They do and they must. The question is, what are the guidelines they follow. Is rotational grazing scalable up to 20,000 cows?”
Beyond AGW, Mozloom said Hillside does have a retirement program which is completely symbiotic.
“Our retired animals turned sparse weeds into lush pastures, and we are grateful for this,” he said. “We also share everything, good and bad, with the community, which is another check and balance. If we have a sick and recovering animal we do not hide it. We are a farm, not Disney.”
“We are rational and kind with our herd and we see them as much more than milk machines,” Mozloom added. “Each animal is known and deeply cared for. Cattle want grass under their feet and we do everything we can to provide it as long as possible each year.”
Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.