THE ISCOWP NEWS Volume 9 Issue 2

Milk, A Gift From Mother Cow

Draupadi, our milking cow, is giving us 3/4 gallon of milk a day. We are making curd, ghee, yogurt and selling the milk we can not consume. Our garden, cultivated on land plowed by the oxen, is yielding tomatoes, kale, sweet peas, beets, lettuce, zucchini, crooked neck squash, potatoes, beans, bitter melon, and coriander. Watermelon, corn, hot peppers, winter squash, bell peppers, carrots, and cucumbers will mature soon. Our daughter Lakshmi has canned tomatoes, kale, and beans and dried zucchini for our winter consumption. Canning and drying will continue throughout the summer. The quantity of foodstuffs produced from our 1/3 acre garden is beyond our needs and we are therefore able to sell the produce we can not consume.
Although we are experiencing, a drought, (the hillsides are brown due to very little rainfall), we are thankful our well has been able to provide for the cows, oxen, our family and garden. Due to good fortune, with an abundance of milk and vegetables, we are beginning to experience the wealth of simple living and high thinking.

Inside This Issue

Letters

101 Uses of Cow Dung, Milking Machines Suck, Blood Milk

Dung is Gold Mine

Meet the Cows and Oxen at Vrajapura Farm

ISCOWP UPDATE

Nose Rings? The Experts Say No!

Belgium Cow protection

Protected Cows in Serbia Need Your Help

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Letters

101 Uses of Cow Dung
Special thanks to the members of The Cow Conference, specifically Niscala dasi, Krsnendu das, and Rohita das, for contributing to "101 Uses for Cow Dung." Send in your uses and let's finish the list!

From: Krsnendu (das) BCS (New Varsana - NZ) Krsnendu.BCS@bbt.se 
To: Noelene Hawkins niscala99@hotmail.com ; Cow@bbt.se  
Subject: 101 Uses of Cow dung
Date: Monday, July 26, 1999 3:40 AM

[Text 2505736 from COM]

Excuse me if this has already been discussed. I have only recently joined this conference.
Here's a start for others to add to. Please feel free to correct any mistakes or add further comments. Perhaps we could add cow urine uses to the list also?

1. Fuel - Cow dung patties (gootte) can be used for cooking.

2. Fertilizer- Composting makes it even more powerful.

3. Seed Protector- Covering seeds in dung before planting helps to protect against pests.

4. Disposable Camphor Lamps for use during fire sacrifices.

5. Heat Source - Cow dung is naturally hot. Composting makes it hotter. It can be put in a glasshouse to heat the glasshouse or run pipes through it to get hot water.

6. Purifier - It has natural antiseptic qualities.

7. Floor Coating - Dung can be mixed with mud and water and placed on floors in mud houses. It improves water absorption of mud. It also prevents muddy puddles resulting from spilt water.

8. Mud Brick Additive - It improves resistance to disintegration.

9. Cure for Boils and Skin Rash - Mixed with crushed neem leaves smeared on skin, it is good for boils and heat rash. Srila Prabhupada used it for heat rash in Mayapur.

10. Cure for Psoriasis - mix with fresh water till you have a paste and apply it to skin diseases. It seems to work to ease the itching of Psoriasis.

11. Cure for Athlete's Foot - If you soak your feet in cow urine it will cure Athlete's Foot.

12. Cure for Pimples - Fresh, less than a few hours old cow urine seems to have some helpful effect on teenage pimple eruptions. Wipe on face before going to bed. Wash off in the morning!

13. Cure for Insect Bites - I also use cow dung on insect stings, let it dry and then wash with hot soapy water.

14. Cure for Kidney and Gall Stones - Cow urine can be used for stones (kidney, gall etc.) shot glass full first thing in the morning fresh from the cow for 21 days (uric acid in cow urine dissolves these stones to a manageable size.

15. Cure for Bright Disease - Fresh Cow urine taken thirty days straight is an Ayurvedic remedy for Bright disease.

16. Mosquito Repellent - smouldering cow patties keep away mosquitoes.

17. Vision Enhancer - The smoke from Cow dung or coal actually increases our eyelids to close and open so many times and therefore lots of water from the eyes comes out and the advantage is that it increases the eye vision of a person to old age, i.e. even my grandmother who was 100 years old could see my mischief from a great distance in the village at night.

18. BioGas - Enclose a volume of cow patties and urine and add enough water to cover. Stir and stir till you make a creamy mixture. Then put on a tight lid with a pipe screwed to the lid somewhere, attach a hose to the pipe, add a valve, and on the other end of the hose going to an inner tube, add warmth. Presto. Three to fourteen days later the cow pies are magically transformed to BIOGAS. It is suitable for cooking, or running a generator (it's only half as hot as propane so you need twice as much). Fortunately cows are free with their organic Frisbees so there seems to be lots of it. When the last smidgen of gas has been wrung out, open the lid and the sludge in the container is an essentially sterile, odourless, excellent fertilizer. Add to needy plants where they will do the most good.

19. Bleach - Cow urine (any urine actually) is useful in bleaching cotton fabric. That is how the British bleached their cloth. But they used sheep urine. Sheep being smaller were housed in pens over a large vat and the urine fell through the cracks that the sheepberries couldn't get through. Cloth was boiled with soap and water to clean the fabric then soaked in urine for a period of time (no I don't know how long). The urine was wrenched out and the fabric was sun dried.

20. Gunpowder - Saltpeter is the white stuff directly under dried cow pies, used as one of the three ingredients of gun- powder.

21. Valentine Gift - Gather up a fresh cow pie shape into the form of a heart. Cover with tiny hand picked flowers - violets and other flowers are excellent. And offer to a gardening sweet heart.

22. Sun-Dried Organic Recreational-Aerodynamic-Device-cow patty Frisbees.

23. Fan for fire - Large cow patties can be used as make shift fans.

24. Deity worship - Cow Dung is an ingredient in panca gavya.

25. Seed Raising Mixture: While I was attending an organic farming course I noticed one fanner was raising his seedlings in a very interesting seed-raising mixture. "Doesn't cost a thing," he said, "100% organic, and she delivers them for free. You guessed it; cow dung!" -  Well I didn't want to put this into the com until I had experienced some success with it myself, as I wasn't sure if it was just cow dung he used. Maybe it had sand mixed in. So I took some old cow dung patties I had put aside from my glorious days of cooking with this glorious product (I guess you'd call it a souvenir), soaked them in water for about a day, scrunched them into little bits, put seeds in and now its a few days later, and I tell you I'm in so much bliss to see those little heads come tip. Do not spend another cent on seed raising mix, or go to the trouble of getting river sand etc. (you still have to pay for the peat moss anyway). This is just SO easy, and another way to use the product of mother cow.

26. Pot Cleaner - Cow dung is recommended for contaminated pots and the like. But how exactly does one do that? Comment: Pots can be cleaned using cow dung in the same way one uses brass polish or soap. You let it dry and then rinse with water. If the smell is objectionable (to some it is) it may be washed in soapy water. A small amount maybe put in the water when washing the floor. It must be fresh (still warm and preferable before it touches the ground).

Ash - from patties used in cooking. -

1. Pot Cleaner - used dry it absorbs oil and fat wet as a general cleaner.

2. Brass Polisher - Tamarind removes oxidation, wet ashes polishes.

3. Fertilizer - alkaline - Cow dung ash is basically lime with a few other minerals mixed in.

4. Mud Additive - Cow Dung dries up slippery mud puddles.

5. Mud Brick Additive - Mud and lime and cow dung ashes becomes like cement.

6. Pond pH Balancer - Thrown into pond it neutralizes acid.

7. Tooth Polish.

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Milking Machines Suck
From: Madhava Gosh ACBSP Madhava.Gosh.ACBSP@com.bbt.se 
To: Cow@com.bbt.se 
Subject: Milking machines suck.
Date: Tuesday, January 06, 1998 8:00 AM

We hear a lot about the tractor being the killer of the ox. But I think in many ways that milking machines are the killer of devotee farm projects. The tractor idles the ox, and by separating our feet from contact with the earth, desensitises us to the Way and Wisdom of the Ox, thus leading to a lack of utilization, and neglect. The milking machine, however, is actually a more diabolical machine, in that just like cancer, it leads to a rapid proliferation of growth that eventually engulfs the host and requires extreme measures to counteract the effects, without which the host surely perishes.
When you milk by hand there is a logical limit to growth. Hand milking requires more time than milking machines as you can only milk one cow at a time, whereas with machines, one person can keep several machines going. At NV, the barn that was constructed had the capacity to milk 24 at a time, requiring only an accomplished technician with a helper.
Although the milking herd peaked at 150 cows, and only required the use of 12 machines, the potential capacity was there (Krsna's mercy that that goal was never achieved). Without getting into the depersonalisation of the cow that comes with slapping on a machine as compared to milking by hand, the removal of the physical restraint on milking capacity leads short sighted managers to breed more for the short term benefit of increased production.
Devotees are "freed" from agricultural production and diverted into other activities, inevitably urban in nature. Agricultural workers become a minority in the community, and the urbanites, by benefit of their easier access to capital, come to predominance in the community. The cows become just another department competing for resources, and become relegated to a secondary position, both emotionally and financially. Eventually the non-producing population of cows, calves and oxen outstrip the ability of the milk producing cows to support. It is at this point that the "cancer" of over-breeding begins to show unmistakable symptoms to even those who had chosen to look away, but it is already too late. Now the cows come to be viewed as a burden, and the vision of an independent community, dependent on the land and the cow, is near death.

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Blood Milk

----- Original Message -----

From: Rohita (Dasa) ACBSP talavan@com.org 
To: Varnasrama development Varnasrama.development@com.bbt.se 
Date: Friday, May 22. 1998 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: Already Vaisnavas?

COM: Jatukarnya (das) HKS (Oslo - N) wrote:
Dear Madhava Gosh prabhu,

Can you give your exact definition of blood milk? Is it any milk coming from farmers who slaughter their cows? If so, we are in pretty bad shape here in Norway. I don't know of ANY farmers here who 100% sure don't slaughter their cows.

On 20 May 1998, Madhava Gosh wrote:
I would be very surprised if you could find a single farmer who didn't slaughter his cows. Economic pressures are such that it is impossible to sustain a commercial dairy without slaughtering the no longer productive and the excess replacements. Exact definition. Hmmmmm. Blood milk is milk sold at a low price subsidized by the blood of the cow when she is slaughtered after her production falls below economic thresholds. Also the blood of her calf.
A broader definition would include subsidized by the blood of Mother Earth (Bhumi) in the form of oil pumped out to run the machines of agribusiness that drive the peasants from the land into the cities (the problem here is that it is hard to be brief because one thought connects so obviously to the next.) I would also include in the definition of blood milk - milk produced by devotees where after the milk dries up, the cow is neglected and dies an unnaturally early death. Where the calves are given minimal care and calf mortality rates exceed 1O%. Not only are you in bad shape in Norway, we are in bad shape everywhere, even in India.

Comment 21 May 1998, Rohita dasa: Yes I have also seen this here in America and in India also. It has ramifications beginning from milk and progressing through out all sections of society so that every person is affected not just on one front but from all sides. Entanglement, this is the goal of Mayadev and in Kali yuga the age personified has a mandate and he is not slack in keeping his domain ever expanding.

Note: Further discussions on the meaning of Blood Milk and its relationship to Cow Trusts will continue in the next issue, as there is not enough remaining space in this issue.

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Meet the Cows and Oxen at Vrajapura Farm
View the Adopt-A-Cow section to see a full listing of all cows and oxen for adoption.

Brown dry hillsides surround us. Little rain has fallen this spring and summer and green grass is a premium. Since the land is not nourished sufficiently, we are pasturing 27 cows and oxen instead of last summer's 64. Our neighbor, who owns the farm right next to us, is hauling water. Watching him trucking water reminds us how fortunate we are (so far) that our well still has sufficient water for our cows, oxen, garden, and family.
The heat and high humidity have made working outside more of a challenge this summer than in previous summers. However, the cows seem comfortable and unaffected. They are intelligent and during the hottest part of the day they can be seen taking shelter in the barn. Then they venture out to the pastures as the weather cools. In the evenings they sit on top of the hills and enjoy the cool evening breeze.
The last ISCOWP newsletter did not include all the cows and oxen at Vrajapura Farm. In this issue we are introducing a few more members of the herd. Since the last issue, Bhima, Gaurangi, and Saraswati have been adopted. In this issue we would like to introduce you to Saraswati, Gauravani, Big Shyam, Draupadi, and Mommy Cow.
How Draupadi became part of the herd makes for a nice story which we would like to relate to you. It was early April and wee just had a tremendous thunder and lightening storm for most of the night. In the morning we received a phone call from our neighbor informing us that one of our cows was over at his place. We went over to see who it was and we didn't recognize her. However, we remembered that one of the cows from the temple had been taken up to the old Vrndavana Farm to supply the family there with milk. During the storm she walked through the forest to our neighbor's place (almost one mile). We brought her over to Vrajapura Farm and now for 4 months. During milking she will turn and took at you and likes her nose to be rubbed. She has been milking now about 3 years and is giving 3/4 of a gallon a day. Because of the draught, the pastures are weak. If she had stronger pastures she would give at least 1 gallon per day. It is so wonderful having Draupadi staying with us at Vrajapura Farm. She is a great help in remembering Krsna's pastimes. She has blessed us with fresh milk, curd and yogurt. When we make curd, we use the whey for soups or dahl. Such opulence. During the hot summer days we have made some really nice lassi drinks with Draupadi's yogurt. We call her milk "Draupadi Drops." Thank you Mother Draupadi.

Saraswati
Age: 3 years old
Breed: Holstein & Black Angus
Herd Status: Honest cow
Description: She has beautiful black bangs.
Nature: Whenever you walk up to her, she will rub her head on you. She likes very much to be hugged and rubbed. At times she can be a big rascal, but in general she is a very well behaved cow.

Draupadi
Age: 6 years old
Breed: Holstein
Herd status: Queen
Description: She is of medium size and has a very beautiful face.
Nature: Her disposition is very sweet and loving. During milking she will turn and look at you and likes her nose to be rubbed.

Mommy Cow
Age: 7 or 8 years old
Breed: Holstein
Herd Status: Matron
Description: Mommy Cow has been at Vrajapura Farm for 2 ½ years. The first year we had our cows and oxen on the property, she kept jumping the fence separating the New Vrndavan herd from the Vrajapura herd. Judging from the size of her udder, it appears she has never been milked. She is almost solid black with to small white marks on her forehead. She never makes any trouble and is always a joy to be with.
Nature: She is a persistent cow, and also very, gentle. Due to her determination to be with our cows, we decided to leave her with out herd.

Big Shyam
Age: 3 ½ years old, he was born during the month of February.
Breed: Holstein & Black Angus
Herd Status: Honest worker
Description: He is solid black with a touch of white on his belly. He was a very large calf and will be very large when he is full grown. He is partially trained and his partner's name is Radhe.
Nature: He is so very strong and adorable that one can't help but fall in love with him. He is also very handsome.

Gauravani
Age: 10 Months
Breed: Holstein & Semintole
Herd Status: Princess
Description: She is very pretty and is brown and white. She has been at Vrajapura Farm since May 1999 and is the youngest of the herd.
Nature: She is very friendly and has a very peaceful demeanor.

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ISCOWP UPDATE
Garden

Starting from the right corner to the top: kale, squash, and sweet peas.

Cultivating one third of an acre produces a great deal of vegetables. We have an abundance of potatoes, beans, tomatoes, kale, beets, squash, zucchini, sweet peas, coriander, and bitter melon. Carrots, corn, green peppers, cucumbers and chili peppers are now just becoming ripe for harvest. Watermelons will mature soon. Our grocery bill has been greatly reduced because our lunch and dinner consists mostly of garden produce.

Potatoes on the left, tomatoes, corn, squash, peppers, bitter melon, carrots, and kale to the right.

Lakshmi, our daughter has been canning tomatoes, beans, and kale. She has dried zucchini and is planning on drying other vegetables. If we can get our new home (see construction) "dried in" by winter, the root cellar to the side of the main living quarters will be the storage area for the canned and dried produce. The potatoes will be placed in barrels in the root cellar. This winter we plan on utilizing the preserved produce. It will be interesting to see how we will reduce our winter grocery bill. In addition we are selling some of our produce to the temple snack bar, individuals, and the local farmer's market.

The garden area was plowed last fall and then again in early spring. Then cow manure was hauled from the barn and disked into the soil in the spring. Harrowing was done before planting. Vraja and Gita did the plowing, disking and harrowing. Padma and Ghanda pulled a cultivator to clear the potato rows of weeds.

So far, we are happy with the taste of all the vegetables, particularly the potatoes. The type of potato we planted was Yukon gold and red, and they are delicious! Of course, any vegetable without pesticides and preservatives will not only taste better, but, will also be better for your health.

The apple orchard was replanted in the Spring since the deer and cows managed to eat most of the trees. Thirty new trees were planted bringing the total to 40 assorted apple trees. We have 10 varieties. It will take approximately 3-5 years for the trees to produce mature fruit. The 3/4 of an acre for the herb garden received its initial clearing by hand. A sight evaluation was made for landscaping leaving aesthetic areas of crab apple trees and bushes where benches and paths can be placed.

Due to the drought, the water hose is a common sight in the garden. We are experiencing very little produce loss this year due to adequate fencing in this area and Mela, our watch dog (see Mela between the corn and the squash on the following page). We have tried planting water melons and other vegetables outside this garden area and these have been devoured by animals. In this picture you can see the potatoes and tomatoes on the right, corn in the middle (it is much taller now), squash, peppers, beans and coriander. Balabhadra is weeding, but now harvesting, preparing and utilizing has become the main garden activity.

The Previous fencing was not strong enough to prevent animals access to the trees. This time Bhakta Dirk put up an 8 foot high fence with 6 rows of wide electric fencing. The new trees have survived the deer and cows which were this time unable to gain access. However, the locust made some damage even after all the trees were covered with mesh to prevent the them from accessing the trees.

Mela is continually killing groundhogs: often we find dead carcasses at our front door as an offering. She barks and chases the deer and any stray animals. The big garden is near our house, and this is where Mela likes to be. She is trained not to chase the cows, so when Vraja sneaked into the garden one night and ate a good amount of the corn, we didn't know till after the fact.

ISKCON Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture
We have come to the conclusion that without funding from ISKCON, we can not efficiently and competently fulfil the duties of this ISKCON Ministry. A proposal will be presented to ISKCON at the next Mayapur meeting for an operating budget and the results of that proposal will determine our service in that area.

Internal Management Changes
To secure our young adult children's participation in cow protection, we have embarked upon two constructions. One will be our (Balabhadra and Chaya) modified Earth Shelter on the adjoining parcel. The other is a simple stick frame cottage on the second adjoining parcel. Our property consists of three parcels totalling 137 acres. These construction projects are described in more detail in the following construction topic heading.
At present we are living in our son's basement home which is the beginning of his strawbale home to include another 1 1/2 stories. To give him room, Balabhadra and Chaya have begun their modified Earth Shelter on the adjoining parcel. Since the whole family is presently living in Baladeva's basement home.

Lakshmi , our daughter, is building a small cabin on the second adjoining parcel. It will be a simple stick frame (wooden frame)
These separate constructions will allow all members of the family to build their own projects and future within the greater project of Vrajapura Farm. As you may remember, Vrajapura is the name for Nanda Maharaja's residence where there were many residents.
To achieve the completion of these construction projects, all members of the family now have full time jobs. Three of us have a salary slightly above the minimum wage level. But since we live simply, this will greatly help us achieve our construction goals. Chayadevi has been the sole office worker responsible for the correspondence, newsletters, fund raising, accounting, WEB page. Because of an 8 hour work day her ISCOWP activities will be prioritised to newsletters, correspondence and accounting.
Each year we need approximately $15,000 to provide the maintenance level operations of ISCOWP. We had planned a campaign to improve the barn conditions, but Chaya can only do so much because of housework, working an outside job, and carrying on with ISCOWP office work. We have no scarcity of desire nor ideas of how to increase our service at Vrajapura Farm and internationally, but we feel our present path of action is necessary to build a firm foundation to our project. We can not fund raise for our personal homes and since we have never saved any money for ourselves we must acquire it by working at outside jobs. We wish to use all funds coming to ISCOWP to maintain the cows and oxen at Vrajapura Farm, continue with the garden, herb, and land and barn improvement projects and maintain the prioritised ISCOWP office work. Our desire is that in a few years when the constructions are complete, we will be in a position to widen our service.

Construction
The modified Earth Shelter will be a duplicate of Baladeva's basement home. However, it will be somewhat larger with an adjoining root cellar and larger laundry room. We decided on this type of construction because it is quite energy efficient building into the hillside with cement walls. This summer it has not been as cool as we expected, but considering the extreme heat and humidity and the fact that we do not have air conditioning nor fans, we are much cooler than if we were living in a traditional house construction. Since we (Balabhadra and Chaya) will not build up from the basement level, we will have some skylights in the roof. This and ceiling fans will allow our basement home to have a more cooling capacity during extreme heat than Baladeva's basement home. In the average summer heat, Baladeva's basement home has been very comfortable. Excavation has been done, the cement has been poured in the Polysteel forms creating all the walls, and the French Drain has been completed. In addition a 700 feet road was excavated to the house from the old, original farm house where we created a road that surrounds the old house and gives access to the site for the Ox Power Herb Company. The new road to the new construction connects with this road. To make a firm foundation we first laid large stones the size of a fist, then on top of that we laid stone 2 inches in size, 4 inches thick.

Modified Earth Shelter construction in the beginning stages. The root cellar is to the right with a cement wall separating it from the living area. The back is into the hillside and the front faces East to the rising sun.

As we did with Baladeva's basement, Mukunda das from Prabhupada Village stayed with us a few days and was in charge of the Polysteel construction. In North Carolina, he has his own business constructing homes with Polysteel Forms. We'd like to offer special thanks to the workers; Partiben (Malaysia), Dirk (Belgium), and Dave (Baltimore), Srivatsa (Russia), and Mukunda (Canada). We will keep you informed as to our progress with this construction.

700 feet of new gravel road to the new house site

Ox Work
In the late spring. the rose bushes cut during the winter were moved by the oxen to a burn pile and were ceremoniously torched. We cleared approximately another 5 acres located near the site of the new modified Earth Shelter. We made a sled out of scrap lumber so we could haul firewood easily from the forest this winter. In the spring, this sled was used to haul manure from the barn to the present garden.

Bhakta Dirk (Belgium) and Bhakta Chris (Prabhupada Village) training with Agni and Shyam.

Agni and Shyam is the training team of choice due to their small stature. They are 3 l/2 years old, of Holstein and Limousin breed, fully trained, very intelligent and sweet, very handsome (Agni having beautiful red markings) and both mind their own business and get their work done.

Bhakta Dirk with Agni and Shyam hauling rose bushes to be burned.

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Nose Rings? The Experts Say No!
For many years ISCOWP and the ISKCON Ministry for Cow Protection have recommended training oxen by voice commands and has discouraged the use of nose rings.

From: Hare.Krsna.dasi@bbt.se 
To: Cow@bbt.se 
Subject: Drew Conroy on Ox Reins
Date: Saturday, July 03, 1999 7:00PM

Drew Conroy on Ox Reins

Rural Heritage: The Evener 1999, vol 24, no. 2 p. 102

DRIVING OXEN WITH LINES
by Drew Conroy

"I am interested in driving oxen from the wagon, as you would a horse," writes Leo Canuel of Somerset, Massachusetts. "I have seen it done with a nose ring, but I wonder if it can be done any other way?"

Oxen may be driven with lines or without lines. I nearly always train my oxen to drive from behind, by using a longer whip and teaching them to pull a cart on a back road. I usually begin the training by allowing them to walk home, which they do willingly. You must be careful that they don't get away from you, though, as young oxen tend to run on the way home.

In Tanzania most ox teamsters do not use lines. They do just fine plowing beautifully straight furrows, as well as driving on the road. Their cattle are trained to move over to the side when they encounter automobile traffic. They are quite responsive to the voice and directions given by a stick tapped on their rump.

Why do you want to drive oxen with lines? If your goal is to have a hobby team that drives with lines, so be it.

If you want to plow and drive the team while riding in a cart, my answer would be that half the ox teamsters in the world drive from a cart with one person and no lines. Are you not willing or able to train your animals as well as a 12-year-old boy in Tanzania plowing with six oxen? The key to his success may be his need to ox-plow an entire farm. The mount of time his animals spend in the yoke may be more substantial than you are willing to give this endeavor.

If you want to drive with lines because you think you will get better results, don't do it. I judge ox cart obstacle courses every summer and fall, and I have a feeling the results of using lines would fall short of the outstanding performances I regularly see. I have never seen a team with lines that was as well trained as teams I have seen without lines. Most teamsters who use lines spend a lot less time training their oxen, and a lot more time restraining them physically, rather than psychologically. And, if you ever log with your oxen, you'll quickly see no advantage to having lines - I hate jumping out of the way of rolling logs.

As you can see, I am not keen on driving oxen with lines, as doing so is not customary in New England. ***Oxen are not allowed to compete in our shows or fairs with any type of bridle, bit, or nose rings.*** [Emphasis added.]

Yet I have seen people successfully use bits, halters, hackamore bridles, and nose rings. Any of these will work, provided the animals have been trained accordingly. Most of the oxen I have seen with lines are poorly trained. The reins become a crutch for both the team and teamster. Once the animals learn to expect a yank or a tug to turn, other cues become secondary and are usually ignored.

I am convinced that cattle respond more readily to visual cues than to voice or whips. Both the voice and whip, however, work well to reinforce the teamster's will. Since driving lines replace the cues given by the teamster's body position and movements, the teamster must train the animal to respond to the reins rather than to body position and movements.

How do you do it? At some point you must force your animals to move ahead of you and respond to your cues from the lines. This training is similar to any other ox training technique, in that you must be consistent in your requests and directions; the animals must be responsive (not wild and unruly); and you must put in lots of time practicing. The less time spent practicing, the less
you can expect from your team. You could follow any manual for training horses, taking into consideration that cattle are slower than horses and are less tolerant of hot weather. They are also less likely than horses to shy or run away if they are familiar with people and the implements.

Cattle can wear bits. At the Midwest Ox Drovers Gatherings in Michigan, I have met a number of people who train oxen with bits. Most of them are more familiar with horses than with oxen, and find the transition easy. Some are older teamsters who do not like the idea of walking beside their team. As is true for any ox training program, training a team to wear bits is easier when they are young.

Using nose rings is my least favourite method. Although nose rings offer an effective method of control, animals that have their noses yanked on too much become head shy and hard headed. Nose rings are a severe method of restraining. The oxen I have seen with nose rings had little choice but to obey.

In Uganda I saw a rope, instead of a ring, run through the nose. Many of the oxen there learn to lie down in the yoke to resist working, a result of having their noses yanked and of being rushed in the training.

The reason a bull is controlled with a ring is because this system of restraint causes pain - not the best technique for working cattle. At an ox training workshop in Missouri in 1995, I saw oxen that had been trained to drive with nose rings. At first they seemed to go pretty well, but as the day wore on, they became tired and despite the desires of the teamsters, walked right through a fence while pulling a buckboard wagon.

Halters with reins attached to the nose can give good clues as to what you want, but they offer little control for stopping animals that do not want to stop. A hackamore-type bridle applies pressure to the nose chin, which can be difficult to do simultaneously when you are driving animals.

If you are going to use lines, my advice is to give it a try and stick with it. Oxen act reluctant no matter what training method you introduce, lines or otherwise. I know many horse people who have become frustrated trying to train oxen. Just keep in mind that they are a different beast.

If you go ahead with this control technique, please share your results with us. Few people in the world of oxen use lines - maybe you could teach us all a few things.

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Drew Conroy, author of the Oxen Handbook, is one of the America's leading experts in ox training. He teaches dairy science at the University of New Hampshire, and conducts ox training course at Tillers International, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He also observes and trains African farmers in ox training as part of Tillers' outreach program. http://www.wmich.edu/tillers/ He is a regular contributor to *Rural Heritage.* http://www.ruralheritage.com/

Raised in New England, he is accustomed to seeing some of the most expert ox teamsters in the world, even on a junior level. At our local Topsham Fair, I have seen a 16 year old girl get her team of oxen to walk sideways for about 20 feet, without even touching them. She used only voice commands in a calm tone of voice. That was in addition to many other required maneuvers such as having oxen turn right and left and back up into a small space. The children are not allowed to use a rope of any kind on their teams. They must control them with voice commands and a small stick only.

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Belgium Cow protection
Text and pictures contributed by Dirk Vansant

The herd happy in the pasture. Such a joy!

Dirk Vansant spent two years caring for the small herd at the temple of Radhadesh in Belgium. Radhadesh is a growing spiritual community situated in the scenic Ardennes of Belgium. The community has 80 devotees (including families), gurukula (day school), restaurant, cafeteria, boutique, museum, 15 hectares of land and much more. The presiding Deities are the exquisitely beautiful, Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha, Sri Sri Jaganath, Baladeva and Subhadra, and Sri Sri ..

Nandini, the naughty child of the herd

We corresponded with Dirk for over a year and then he came to Vrajapura Farm for training. As any cowherd will tell you, by caring for cows you get to know each cow very well and appreciate their varied personalities. The following is a description of the small herd as told by Dirk. If you would like further information about the cow protection program in Belgium, please refer to the following address:
Cow Protection Benelux
c/o of Dirk Vansant,
Petite Somme 5,
6940 Septoon-durbuy,
Belgium. Or e-mail to Dirk.Vansant@bbt.se 
Nandini is 17 years old. She thinks she is a bull. The naughty child of the herd, she likes to fight and fool around with you. She is very affectionate towards the other cows, and you will always find her licking the others. She's very attached to her mother and a real joy to observe.

Bhima the fatherly ox

Gaura Mata is 19 years old and the mother of Nandini and the oldest resident of Radhadesh. She is a real mummy, always concerned with her daughter. Despite her old age she still looks good and young. She moos a lot.
Bhima is 17 years old and the father of the herd. A real sweet fellow though he's suffering from old age; arthritis amongst other ailments. I have tried to keep him as comfortable as possible. He is real peaceful and loving. He exemplifies the beauty of the father image, lovingly caring, courageous, and peaceful. Who could eat and kill such a creature?

Gaura Mata, the mother of Nandin

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Protected Cows in Serbia Need Your Help
A family of four cows protected in Serbia by Gopal, Inc. need your help due to economic stress from the war.

Thank you so much for your help. I have managed to collect enough money to cover the two months debts. One friend of ours from Hungary gave DEM 200 in donation and the other 200 I have collected partly in Hungary on the street and partly here from my mother. I have also contacted our donors. Many of them are not any more here, since the Belgrade temple has fallen apart, many of them have no money for donations, but some of them are ready to give as much as they will be able in this heavy economic situation. I will inform you around the end of every month how much money I have collected, so that you could send accordingly. I will try my best that this service does not stop, but that it develops and helps all of us to continue to serve the Lord. Please be so kind and pray for all of us who wish to serve the Lord further, that we have enough strength to continue.
I think that Syamala is now 8 years old. She is actually a refugee from Bosnia. When the war started there 6/7 years ago she came along with a family of refugees to Serbia. She is a mixture of Bosnian Busha and black Holstein. A very nice black and white cow. On her back leg she has a big heart-like black ornament. When we bought her, everyone who knows something about cows said that she is a very good cow. She gave first year about 15 liter milk, and second time about 18 liter milk. In our home she gave birth only to Nandi. Madhu and Surabhi were bom on the farm in Subotica, so I have asked the cowherd to tell me something about them since he knows them better than I.
For Syamala he told also that she is very faithful and modest and that she adapts to every situation very quickly, that she accepts everything.

Of her offspring, Nandi is our dearest. He is 5 years old and very, very beautiful, full of strength. He is a real mongrel, he brings the best characteristics of both of his parents. We think that his father was a Busha. He behaves as a leader, he is very playful and likes to be in the center of one's attention. He is unbribable and likes very much to be caressed. The cowherd said that he is a very diligent animal.
Madhu is now 3 years old. His breed is a mixture of Bosnian Busha and red Holstein. He is very reserved, a little bit timid, emotional, quiet and likes only one person to take care of him.
Surabhi is 2 years old. A very nice black-white cow. Her breed is the same as Madhu. She is playful, sociable, modest and somehow peaceful inside. When they were in the herd at the farm in Subotica, I have heard they behaved as if they knew that they are special and that they are a family. When they went to the pasture they were always together. One day I was there waiting for them to come from the pasture. The farmer told me that they come at the end, and when all the cows are back in the barn. I then saw Syamala, Madhu and Nandi come very slowly. Surabhi was little and she didn't go out to the pasture. She was with the little calves in one ring. Madhu stopped there and started to lick her as if he knew that she is his little sister. They were never together in the barn and because of that it was very unusual and wonderful for me. At that time Madhu was very afraid of Nandi when they were together in a ring. Nandi was the emperor and Madhu managed somehow always to go out of the ring and live on the other side in the rear. Now they are both in one barn and Madbu is not any- more afraid of Nandi. Syamala is in the second barn with the cow of the cowherd and his calf. Surabhi is alone in one little barn and whenever she hears a voice she starts mooing. She seeks association.

$120 a month provides for Mother Syamala, and children Nandi, Madhu, and Surabhi. If you would like to help, please refer to the enclosed form. All pictures were taken in 199. Text is written by Paramesvari dd, founder of Gopal, Inc. Any contributions will help.

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