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Agriculture
5:50 am
Fri September 21, 2012

Here's the short story on cow tails

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Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson/Harvest Public Media
Scott Poock, veterinarian for the University of Missouri Extension, demonstrates an alternative to cow tail docking at Foremost Dairy: trimming the switch off of a cow's tail.
Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson/Harvest Public Media
Here a cow with a docked tail stands alongside a cow with a tail whose switch has been trimmed at Foremost Dairy in Columbia, Mo. The dairy, which does not dock tails, acquired several cows with docked tails for a research project.
Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson/Harvest Public Media
The cow on the left has not yet had its tail trimmed.
Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson/Harvest Public Media
A close-up of the docked tail.
Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson/Harvest Public Media
Foremost Dairy has a herringbone style milking parlor. Milkers stand three feet below the cows during milking, which means a slim chance of being whacked with a cow tail.
Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson/Harvest Public Media
A line of Holsteins at the Foremost Dairy in Columbia, Mo. The cows' tails easily get dirty.
Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson/Harvest Public Media
The cows at Foremost Dairy use their tails to flick off flies
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Many people who haven’t stepped foot on a dairy might think milking a cow is a sort of Emersonian back-to-the land moment, where a milker bonds with his or her cow while communing with nature. Just milk her for a while and voilà: fresh, creamy milk. But the truth is, milking can be a very dirty job.

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