Every time a cow dies on a dairy, it could cost that cow's owner $115 for a rendering company to pick up that cow.
Because of the cost, many dairies have kept the old way of dealing with dead cows: a "dead pile" out on the backside of the dairy, where no one can see it, and the dead animals are dragged there to decompose.
This is the way most beef producers deal with their dead cattle out on the range. While there are few people or water wells on rangeland, there are a lot of animals and birds that make short work of a dead cow. Everything from bald eagles to coyotes will quickly clean up a dead animal, long before it decomposes.
At a dairy, that's usually not the case. Dairies keep their cattle more confined, with more cattle per acre, and dead animals are a major problem.
There are people working on a solution for both the environment and for the dairy producers.
Read the complete story at mercedsunstar.com
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