Cow Bliping

I had written a long scribe a few days ago and somehow managed to hit a button deleting it all. So now a shorter version (I heard that "Thank goodness")

Farmer Blank in the village held a morning "Open Stable" to help promote the work of the organisation he is heavily involved in to maintain a breed of cattle known as "Braunvieh" (Brown Cattle) first bred in the 15thC in Switzerland, a triple performer: milk, meat and cart/plough puller. Over the years it was cross bred and used for instance widely in the USA as the basis of he "Brown Swiss" breed which yielded more milk. In turn this now mainly USA breed was reimported to Europe and is nowadays what one mainly associates with postcards of the Alps showing brown cows with bells around their necks. These cows along with the Holstein breeds victorious march through Europe, basically meant the end of the "Original Braunvieh". Andreas Blank and a number of other farmers in southern Germany are keeping this breed and indeed even managing to export all over the world. But it remains small, the numbers in the hundreds rather than tens of thousands.

There was a lot of activity with cars showing all sorts of number-plates from southern Germany. A snackbar wagon to look after the human stomachs and Andreas' "Milk Filling Station" room  filled with packed beer tables but I didn't look closely as to whether they were drinking warm milk (it was cool & drizzly today), beer or Glühwein.

Some of the girls were on display in the yard along with a couple of calves which seemed not to want to pose for what I assume was a Bliper. Later saw a lady with a much bigger camera who must have been from the press. Also the local conservation group, which I mention from time to time on my "Schickling Walk" Blips with the dogs, had an information stand to promote their work which includes a herd of Original Braunvieh beef cattle which are kept on the protected area to encourage the return of wildlife and plants to the area. This herd's meat is sold locally and the project has received awards from the UN and is supported by SlowFood. This rather interesting SlowFood/European Union funded video explains why biodiversity and the maintenance of a broad range of breeds and plant forms is so important. As they point out 60% of our calories come from 3 plants (rice, wheat and maize) and 90% of the seeds sold to grow these are patented hybrid sorts owned by a handful of multinationals. Or 90% of our apples worldwide come from 4 sorts! The 19thC Irish potato blight which killed millions was due to reliance on one sort.

So while we may think keeping these no longer commercially viable animals and plants is a waste of time, it is in fact our key to survival.


Was an interesting if short visit - Thanks to Farmer Franz family for the tip.

Back home set about finally cleaning and refilling the pond. Horribly messy but by midnight it was all but done and I risked putting the fish back in, relying on Lidl's pond chemicals to have done their work. I can now report that went fine without any loss of life. A few newts, frogs and toads were rehoused in to the ditch alongside the house. I know they will soon return but hopefully for a summer or two the fish will have reasonably clean water.

I am too depressed about what I hear/read/see about the antics in the UK/EU referendum to comment but would point out that those that think the EU bans the sale of raw milk to the public, Andreas and ever increasingly more farmers here prove that is not the case. It has been the UK Govt that has been against it in the UK.