Cattle cruising can solve fresh milk dilemma

YOUR article ‘Cattle cruising on the rise’ in the ZO of 13 February refers.

This story made me green with envy.

I live in Empangeni and have not seen any cattle in Empangeni suburbs yet. Maybe I should move to Richards Bay.

I would love to keep a cow or two in my backyard like the people of Richards Bay, and let them graze in the greenbelts and on the sidewalks.

With all this load shedding it is a problem to keep milk fresh in the fridge without electricity. The best place to keep milk from spoiling is in the cow.

As I grew up on a milk farm, I long for real fresh milk that doesn’t come out of a plastic bottle.

Furthermore, it is such a waste of energy to mow a lawn with electricity or petrol machines, while a cow can do it in relative silence and you will have

milk and/or meat as a byproduct.

Jokes aside – as far as I know you are not allowed to keep cattle in town. It seems, however, as if this is a problem and the people enforcing the bylaws cannot/won’t deal with this problem.

Sooner or later there will be a very bad accident. If all the cattle that wander around in town can be marked in the ear and then let each owner pay an amount per month and use a herd man to look after the cattle properly, not a young boy as they should be at school.

It is very easy to keep cattle from going places with a mobile electric fence that can be put up in the morning and taken down in the evening, to prevent overgrazing of an area and to keep cattle from wandering the streets.

This will also help in handling the risks of disease as the State Vet and Department of Agriculture can be involved.

This situation needs to be managed as it is not going to go away.

I call on entrepreneurs to take this idea and run with it.

Years ago it was a normal thing in smaller towns for each household to have a cow and during the day all cattle grazed together.

I might even really move from Empangeni to Richards Bay to be able to keep a cow to milk.

FRUSTRATED FARMER