The Victimized Male

The male cow, better known as the ox, bull, steer, or bullock, is a byproduct of the dairy industry who is sold to the meat industry for his flesh.  The cow produces milk, but what is the value of the ox? His importance in the meat and dairy industry is his flesh for human consumption and his semen for the reproduction of more cows and bulls. Due to modern technology, only a few bulls are needed for their sperm because their semen can be refrigerated and sent to farms for artificial insemination, which is now the most popular way of reproducing cows. The horrific treatment of the bulls who are the semen providers, is a topic rarely discussed.  Since so few bulls are needed to supply semen for artificial insemination, the value of the bull remains predominantly in his flesh for human consumption.

In Vedic times the ox tilled the agricultural fields to produce grains for cows and humans. In many countries, this is still the practice. In small farm and self-sufficient farm projects, the ox provides the farmer with the ability to till his fields as the tractor may be financially unattainable and too expensive to maintain.

Therefore, the training of the ox is essential to show his abilities to those who would slaughter him for his flesh.  The video above, taken during the April 2019 Ox Training Seminar in Hungary, demonstrates the use of a simple obstacle course in the beginning training of the young ox Bhava. As with children, the early formative years are the most crucial in the development of a mature, dependable, qualified ox. Hence training a young ox kindly and correctly by voice commands is so important. For more ox training videos, please refer to our Ox and Teamster Training playlist on our ISCOWP108 YouTube channel. And please subscribe!

Every newsletter will now include information on the following topics.

Latest ISCOWP News
In case you didn’t hear, the second Matching Gift Challenge for $25,000 was matched by the due date December 31, 2019. Only due to your generosity was this possible.  We are so grateful to have friends like you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

The Meat and Dairy Industries
The primary source of meat for the meat industry is the dairy industry. When a cow is bred fifty percent of the time, it is a male. The male is useless to the dairy industry except when he is sold to the meat industry. Some males are saved for their semen. However, not many bulls are needed for giving semen. An article in the June 2019 Scientific America explains why: “In the 1940s, they began to use artificial insemination. This way, a single dose of bull semen could be used to impregnate a whole lot of heifers. Soon, technology allowed the semen to be frozen, which meant a bull could father calves for decades, even long after he was dead. When researchers at the Pennsylvania State University looked closely at the male lines a few years ago, they discovered more than 99 percent of them can be traced back to one of two bulls, both born in the 1960s.”

About the Cow

A study by University of Duisburg-Essen researchers in Germany found that cows tend to face either magnetic north or south when grazing or resting, regardless of the sun’s position or the wind’s direction. The study’s author says that magnetic compass orientation has been relatively under-studied in mammals; why cows use it remains a mystery.