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You Can Help Make "Cow Protection" Household Words.
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When you tell your friends you support cow protection and they look at you like you must be crazy, are you frustrated? You try to explain but the concept is so foreign to them that they aren't really listening.
Let's make the words "cow protection" household words and end our frustration as well as increase the numbers of cows protected. The more people who understand cow protection translates into more people who support cow protection and that means more cows protected.
Starting in April, we will be producing video clips about activities at the farm specifically ox training, the importance of cow protection, caring for the cows in all seasons and food production and preserving. These will all be shot in the living classroom setting of ISCOWP farm as we go about our everyday activities. We will upload the videos to You Tube and we can also upload to our Facebook and Cause page. Our Cause page has 6,102 members and the Facebook page has 4,521 likes and 1,500 weekly users. With the combination of YouTube, Facebook and Causes, we feel we will reach a wide audience to educate and inspire people to the spiritual and material value and importance of cow protection in this age.Eventually, we will organize these videos into educational disks for distribution.
Within the last month, we have received phone calls from people buying land in the USA and abroad with the goal of protecting cows. They are asking for advice and guidance as they do not know much of the "How To."
ISCOWP explaining cow protection to a meat based culinary class from a Wheeling WV college.
Much of our office equipment won't support video production and other office equipment is dying or out of date. We are also trying to update our database and accounting to be more efficient. We would like to have in place the equipment and hopefully some experience and understanding of the technology by April. The ISCOWP monthly e-newsletter will report how the upgrade is progressing.
The following is an approximate cost of the necessary office upgrade.
Please help spread the protection of cows by donating to this project and/or by giving your technical advice, equipment and/or money to purchase what we need to succeed.
Thank you so much for all your help in the past and with this project! You're wonderful!
Desktop computer (we have a good monitor) 1000
Laptop computer 1000
Video camera 500-1000
Camera 300
Camera 500
3 External hard drive 300
Software 1000
Total: $5,100
Please donate to this project HERE.
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| Madhava and Kesava in the Yoke |
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With Dhananjaya's help we have been progressing nicely with the training of Madhava and Kesava. Madhava has had more training than Kesava so we have been focusing on bringing Kesava up to speed. Kesava was given an obstacle course routine weaving in and out of the support poles of the barn. Not only does this train the ox how to maneuver in close quarters but it also teaches the teamster how to take a team of oxen and their load through a tight congested area without getting the load snagged on something. When the weather was better we had taken Madhava to a small wooded area and laid out an obstacle course for Dhananjaya to simulate working in the woods.
Now it was time to put Madhava and Kesava in the yoke for the first time. Kesava's position is the off ox and Madhava's position is the nigh (near) ox. As always we took our time and allowed each ox to sniff the bows before they were placed on their necks. Next the yoke was brought to them to smell so they would know what was going to be placed on their necks. As we were yoking them they were a little nervous but all in all they yoked up nicely. The real test was for them to walk together nicely and evenly. They have been walking their whole lives as a single entity and now they must walk and work as one. As expected they were a bit out of sync but as the session progressed they got more and more used to walking together. All in all the first time in a yoke was a big success.
Training will resume in April when Dhananjaya gets back from his travels. You can view more pictures of ox training at the ISCOWP farm at our Facebook page HERE.
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Dhananjaya is training Kesava how to weave in and out of obstacles. In this case we are using the poles in the barn.
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Not only are the oxen learning how to weave in and out of obstacles but the teamster is learning how to maneuver through an obstacle course. Madhava is watching from a distance.
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Kesava and Madhava are taking a brake. It is their first time in a yoke and the first thing they have to learn is how to walk together nicely.
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Dhananjaya is giving words of encouragement to Kesava during one of their brakes on their first day in the yoke.
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| Madhavi Settling In |
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In last month's e-newsletter we reported how Maddy had been saved from the dairy industry and arrived at the ISCOWP farm. She is now named Madhavi and she has adjusted nicely. She presently shares the geriatric barn with Asha and Shyama and they all seem to get along well. We keep the doors shut to the geriatric barn to keep Madhavi warm because she arrived with no winter coat. We figure she had not developed a winter coat because she never went outside of the dairy barn. Now she has grown some winter coat and we will see how her coat grows as the winter progresses. We are looking forward to allowing her to pasture as soon as possible as she has never had that joy. The present weather will not allow pasturing.
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Balabhadra is putting out hay for bedding. When Balabhadra is close to Madhavi, she licks him. Read more about a bedding pack in the next article.
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| Winter is Upon Us |
Although the average weather for this winter has been mild, we have begun to have some severe weather starting in mid January. The cows are dong well and are happy when there is plenty of hay to eat. Everyday the feeding aisle must be filled and we we also cover their dung with old hay to give them a warm bedding pack to sit upon. As the winter progresses the bedding pack becomes thicker. Chaitanya Bhagavat comes almost everyday to help do this service with Balabhadra. Thank you so much Chaitanya for your wonderful service to the cows!
You can view more pictures of the cows during this winter at our Facebook page HERE.
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A view of the barn from the road that goes to our house during a recent snowstorm.
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Some of the herd taking shelter of the barn during a snowstorm.
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