Holy Cow

This is not meant to be irrelevant in any way but I must admit I'm not overjoyed at posting it.
I try to do a "Holy" ie religious Blip on Mondays. As I wanted to go to the knife sharpening expert to get my newly acquired sets of kitchen knives (see Friday) evaluated, ended up in the nearby village of Schlegelsberg, officially a "Kirchdorf" which means a hamlet/village with church. A "Pfarrdorf" is the same but the priest also lives there. There are a whole range of names to officially  describe hamlets, villages, towns and cities depending on their status. A foresaken, lonely, no shop, village is refered to in "common" but not officially as "Kuhdorf" - cow village.

First did the knife bit. As no one could make a living from sherpening a few knives, chainsaws, mower blades etc, the owner has to do other things. Today he was out in the forest "making wood". However one can bring/ collect all day. Located in an old farmhouse, one rings the bell at a window and the partner comes by, opens the window and takes or returns the goods. Charming lady who is confined to a wheelchair (being an old farmhouse, the window is very low, not much higher than a desk would be) Left a gleaming knife set and 3 older kitchen knives with the "when he comes back for lunch, he will have a look" and I'll call you.

It was early evening and I got the message he would work on it. I suspect that as it was such a wonderful day and snow is heading our way this evening, he wanted to crack on with the outddor work in the afternoon.

Then popped around the corner to the church. Took a walk around but it was rather boring and in so-so condition. No sign of it's name, no nice windows or plaques to Blip. So simply did the exterior. Had to Wiki to find out it is St Stephen from the 15thC. Of course RC! But in the course of Wiki'ing found out that within the Erkheim parish which Schlegelsberg belongs to, their is ..... make a sign of the cross Dear MissWF ..... a protestant church. Will be the subject of a future Monday Blip.

Then a cracking walk with the dogs. Brilliant sunshine, cold, only very slight breeze, no people, just loads of wild animal tracks in the snow to keep Luna very busy.

On the way back through the village thought I ought to photograph a bit more of the village. There is no through road but the main street is almost solely large old traditional farmhouses. In these parts 95% of farms are directly in the villages, animals, muck heaps and all. If you just drive along this you would get the impression that it is very run down and poor. Behind and at the edges however there has been lots of new house buildings. Not surprising as it is less than 5 minutes to the Munich-Lake Constance motorway and about 15km in each direction Memmingen and Mindelheim with relatively large number of medium sized businesses (work).

Loads of photos & videos on Flickr

Why I'm not happy with the Blip. On the right is a farm, directly on the main road although must point out the buildings are a bit modern compared to 99%. Behind the sliding doors is the cow shed where the poor girls spend their entire life chained up. Now from the looks of these 30-40 odd animals, they seem to be "well treated" in the circumstances. They must be so called "Allgäu Braunvieh", and they have not been dehorned. They can stand or lie and eat - thats it. Food is put on the "food table" in front of them, sileage in winter, freshly mowed grass in summer. There are different types of food table depending on the room available for machines. The hole in the room would have been used for throwing down hay. Milking is also done in-situ, the farmer taking a can from cow to cow. The can is usually then attached by pipelines to the milk tank in a neighbouring room, and the suction cups put on the udder. Mr left, side Mrs right side or more commonöy Mrs left and right and Mr drives around bringing in feed on his massive heated/air conditioned, fly free tractor and finding things to do from the comfort of the cabin until Mrs has finally done the milking. Then brief potter around to check she did a good job and hoping she has at last got breakfast on the table and is busy preparing lunch, the main meal here. Supper is a repeat of breakfast so she had time to get that sorted after she had cleared away afternoon coffee and (selfmade) cake.

I don't know the details but I think this type of barn will be banned and only "free walking" systems allowed. The down side of this is the investment in a system needing much more space but restricted space in the village centers! Will probably mean the nail in the coffin for many farmers and a way of life that I actually fully support - small is beautiful and makes much more economic and social sense. I try to take comfort from the fact that many farmers try do the best for their animals in the inherited circumstances but I am fully opposed to this type of animal housing.
Here in our region, we don't have the weather or the land and structure to have cows out for all/most of the year but there has to be a better way.

BUT WE ALL ARE TO BLAME.....if we are not prepared to pay the price as consumers. Neither the small farmer in this case or the one with the romantic bell hung alpine meadow "Milk Chocolate Bar Cow" can make a living.

I can feel a War & Peace coming on ......will save it for a non Blip day. Have to resurrect my Blog after all.