In New Zealand there are many paddocks and many fences and it is actually very depressing to see if you have seen it your whole life.
I notice 90 percent of farms dont have shelter for the cows in winter or shelter from the summer heat.
Summer can be a hard time for dairy cows with the changing enviroment in particular with facial eczema.
Facial eczema is caused by a toxin (sporisdesim) produced by the spores of the fungus Pithomyces chartarum growing on pasture. The fungus grows in the dead litter at the base of pasture in warm moist conditions. Sporisdesim, when ingested by cattle, damages the liver and bile ducts. The damaged liver cannot rid the body of wastes and a breakdown product of chlorophyll builds up in the blood causing sensitivity to sunlight, which in turn causes inflammation of the skin and death.
growing up on a farm for a few years of my childhood i was witnessed to this first hand and seen the cattle suffer being eaten alive by maggots under their skin.
These cows died a horrible death and what would have made a difference in their death would have been dying under a tree and not being eaten alive in the heat.
There is no cure for FE so prevention is the only way of protecting animals.
One large tree per paddock minimum should be law because they would have many trees in their natural enviroment.
Unfortunately you reap what is sown in creation but i think the farmers could atleast give them that.
I understand you cant just plant a full grown tree in a paddock or even a small one that the cattle will destroy and eat but a small tree can be isolated from them until it is big enough and whats to stop a man made shelter until they are.
