New Blog
Just a reminder guys, the new blog is @dairyfarmher. About to post some pictures and videos over there!
almost home
Misplaced Lens Cap
hello vonnie
styofa doing anything
ojovivo

oozey mess

❣ Chile in a Photography ❣

tannertan36
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"

@theartofmadeline
Monterey Bay Aquarium
sheepfilms

roma★
Claire Keane
trying on a metaphor

Kaledo Art
i don't do bad sauce passes

JVL
art blog(derogatory)

JBB: An Artblog!

seen from United Kingdom

seen from Maldives

seen from Malaysia

seen from Malaysia

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Spain

seen from Germany

seen from Malaysia

seen from United States

seen from Australia

seen from Germany
seen from Singapore

seen from United States
seen from Türkiye

seen from Türkiye

seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from T1
seen from United States
@cowcentral
New Blog
Just a reminder guys, the new blog is @dairyfarmher. About to post some pictures and videos over there!
This is the new Cow Central blog!
Since I can no longer log onto Cow Central on my laptop, I have created this new blog. Same content, just a different name! I will not delete Cow Central, but I will no longer be posting new content from there.
Goodmorning Splat!
this is my cow, Splat.
The name fits so perfectly!
Effective Animal Behavior Research
“Educate yourself!” A phrase we eagerly throw around when someone we deem ignorant is saying something we disagree with. And it’s true, some people really need to educate themselves, in particular people who have taken it upon themselves to educate others.
But how do you educate yourself? I’ve seen the self-education a lot of people come up with… and it’s not pretty. I don’t think anything infuriates an educator more than writing something informative based on science and facts, only to have someone contradict them with isolated-incident anecdotal “evidence”, as if that means all their research and science is wrong on that basis. It’s a bit like saying, “well I’m still alive, so clearly death is a myth.”
That is not someone who has educated themselves, but rather someone who has never evaluated anything critically, from all possible angles, before coming to an informed conclusion.
So, again… how do you educate yourself?
Read. But don’t read indiscriminately. Use discernment. Be critical. Don’t just look at the best seller list, or Oprah’s Book of the Month. Take a look at 1) what topic the book is discussing and 2) who is writing about it.
Before you even start reading the book, ask yourself:
Who is the author?
What are their qualifications to write on this subject?
Is this an anecdotal book or a scientific book?
How old is this book?
What do the author’s peers have to say about this book?
For example, I picked up the book “Animal Cognition: The Mental Lives of Animals” by Clive D.L. Wynne. I then turned to the back to read the summary.
“Can ravens count? How do pigeons find their way home? Can chimpanzees use language in a human-like fashion? These are the kinds of questions that occupy scientists interested in understanding animal minds. […] presents a fascinating account of animal intelligence and abilities, covering a wide range of key topics from language and communication to sensation and problem-solving. […] Clive Wynne reviews research on species ranging from fire ants to dolphins […] complex reasoning (do cats understand that objects hidden from view still continue to exist?), balanced by a critical stance towards some of the wilder claims found in the popular media.”
Now, what does it say about the author?
“Clive D.L. Wynne is an Associate Professor in Psychology, University of Florida, and studies cognition in species from pigeons to marsupials. He worked previously at universities in Australia, the USA and in Germany, and was educated at University College London and the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of numerous scholarly papers on animal learning and cognition, and is the editor of a book on models of animal behavior, Models of Action: Mechanisms for Adaptive Behavior.”
So, the author is a professor of psychology who has made numerous contributions to the scholarly world, and the book is handling a topic he is familiar with and has professional experience with. That’s already a good start. The publishing date is 2001, which is somewhat older, so the reader should be critical of the studies being referred to and make sure they are still considered valid.
The book contains several reviews from his peers—other professors and researchers from various universities—who agree that this book is an excellent source of information, which further indicates the author has a lot to offer on this subject.
With this information in mind, you can start reading, and as you read, continue to ask yourself the following questions:
How old is the study they are referring to? Is it still considered a valid source?
Are they even referring to any valid studies?
Are they using science and logic to make their argument, or relying on emotional manipulation?
Use critical thinking while reading. Don’t look for reasons to disagree or agree with the author, but simply pause and ask yourself, “is this a logical conclusion? Does this make sense?” To the best of your ability, try to put aside personal feelings on the subject, whether it’s about the author or about the subject matter.
When reading a book like this, I take notes. I make note of undeniable truths as they come, and I make note of the author’s personal musings and hypotheses. I also make note of my own personal musings based solely on the information provided.
Toward the end of the book, I look to see if I reached the same conclusion the author did, and if not, I ask myself why that is the case, and, if necessary, go back and re-read certain aspects that may have confused me, or that I simply may have misunderstood within the context of the book.
So, now I’ve read an educational book on a subject. I’ve worked through it, and fully understand the logic and science behind it. Am I done now? No. Now it’s time to move on to the next book, the next study, the next journal, and then another, and then another.
Also, I can’t just read books on animal cognition and call it a day. There are other book focuses that are closely affiliated that have to be studied as well: physiological behavior, ethics, animal science, and animal communication.
A book on “The Biology of Animal Stress” may have a stronger focus on overall animal welfare, and a book on “Animal Play” or “Principles of Animal Communication” may focus on overall body language and inter-species norms, but they all come together to create one big picture.
Educating yourself is a never-ending process. There will always be a new study to read, and a new theory to work through, and they may end up disproving something we previously regarded as fact.
Anatomy and physiology changes as animals evolve, and animal behavioral norms change as they adapt to an ever-changing domesticated life. We must always be willing to put aside what we once embraced, and acknowledge the truth.
That, is how you educate yourself, and it’s how you educate others.
Fantastic explanation of how to vet sources!
It’s also possible to find good sources that are not written directly by researchers. You want to look for one more thing before taking them as a credible source of information - citations. Unlike academic papers, books don’t often have in-text citations, but they do have page numbers, quotes, and the citations associated with each statement in the back. The presence of those is imperative, because it tells you how thoroughly researched the work is and what it’s primary sources are.
This can be applied to so many topics. 👍
Hedgehog’s lake cows, by Christof Dehling
I would imagine most of you have heard about Tumblr making you change your password...
Yeah well they asked me to do that and then sent it to an email that I can no longer access. I can only get on mobile now and if for whatever reason I get signed out, I am locked out of my tumblr for all of the foreseeable future. So if I completely stop posting, YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! 😤
Who Is She?
list o people i trust with my cows
1.
ready, set, go!
I recently saw a video of a young woman talking about all of the reasons our generation, the Millennials, sucks and that’s she’s sorry for what we’ve become. Here is my, a fellow Millennial, response:
You say we’re just ‘existing’ and not ‘contributing anything to society.’ The oldest Millennial is 34, the youngest is 12, we haven’t had time to contribute anything yet. We’re trying to survive in a world that no other generation has had to grow up in, with a tanked economy and most of our childhood hearing nothing but war in the Middle East on the news while also being profoundly connected. We didn’t do that.
You say we’re no longer polite, we don’t say ‘no, sir’ or ‘no ma’am’ anymore and we no longer hold the door open for our elders or women. We also don’t expect low-paid workers to break their backs for us, or at yell at them when they make a mistake, like my 60-year-old grandfather does. We say ‘no problem’ when there’s a mistake in order, and politely stand by while the 40-something-year-old soccer mom huffs and rolls her eyes as the new girl struggles to punch in the correct code.
You say our music objectifies women and glorifies drugs and criminals. There has been no significant change from the songs that were once sung or the singers who sang them. Many of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s performers were drug addicts, womanizers, and criminals in their own right. Elvis Presley was child abuser, John Lennon raped his many girlfriends and most of the music I grew up listening, which was 80’s rock, were performed by habitual drug abusers. Let’s not pretend like human nature took a drastic turn when 1983 rolled around.
You say we cuss to prove a point. We, as a generation, have learned it’s not the words we fucking use, it’s the passion in them that we care about. As a generation, we’ve become more interested in politics and the world around us, cursing is minor problem when we consider the political climate the older generation has plunged us into.
You say we use ‘bae’ to describe the ones we love. Bae, originally, means ‘before anyone else’ which is incredibly romantic in my opinion. Bae is also hardly ever taken seriously, it’s a jokey way to talk about someone you love. Language changes, I doubt people were happy when we changed ‘wherefore’ into ‘why.’ The greatest injustice we can do to our language and culture is not allow it to evolve and grow with us.
You say we idolize people like Kim Kardashian and shame people like Tim Tebow. Kim Kardashian is a business woman who had a private video she made with a lover illegally revealed. Instead of fading into obscurity, she stood tall and did not let the sexual shaming she endured stop her and now runs a multi-million dollar industry, is married to one of the richest men in the world, and had two beautiful children. Tim Tebow is a Christian who was criticized by a few people for praying in an open stadium while most people just wanted to see a game.
You say we’re lazy and entitled, we want to make a lot of money and get a free education but we’re not willing to put in the work. We are not lazy. I cannot tell you how many people I meet who have gone to school full time while working a part or even full-time job just to make ends meet. We’re not entitled, we’re bitter. In the 70’s, you could work a part time job over the summer and pay your way through four years of school because tuition was $400, now just to walk in the door of your local community college you need to drop $14,000. We have kids who aren’t even old enough to drink, yet are already $20,000 deep in debt. Debt that won’t go away because even filing for bankruptcy won’t erase it. And even with that education, there’s no guarantee you’ll find something in your field. I have a friend who has a degree in microbiology and she’s making $9 an hour selling $15 candles. I have another friend who has a masters in Sport Psychology and Counseling. She’s a bartender. My parents bought a three bedroom house in the suburbs in the late 90’s while my generation is imagining apartments with breezy windows and trying to get enough money to get food while we scrounge up less than $8 a week.
You say we spend more time online making friends and less time building relationships and our relationship’s appearance on Facebook is more important than building the foundation that relationship is based on. We are a generation that is profoundly connected and no other generation has seen this before. We have more opportunities to meet people from all over the world and better chances to understand other worldviews and lifestyles. Being able to stay home and talk to people over the internet is cheaper and more relaxing than having to force yourself to interact with people in public settings after a long day of minimum wage labor. The people I talk to more over the internet are people I have been friends with for years. It’s easier to talk about the day’s events over Skype or Facebook Messenger than arrange a day to meet in person when you have conflicting schedules. I truly don’t believe most people care what others think of their friendship or how their relationships ‘look’ on social media. Most often what you are calling ‘our relationship’s appearance on Facebook’ are documented and searchable memories.
You say our idea of what we believe in is going on Facebook and posting a status on Facebook. Not everyone can join in with the crowds of protesters. It’s easy to see what others have to say through the comments and argue back without the threat of violence. And when this generation does organize events to stand up for ourselves, it’s met with childish name-calling or being reduced to a ‘riot.’
You say we believe the number of follows we have reflects who we are as a person. It’s nice knowing there’s 20 or 50 or maybe even 100 people who care what you have to say or think. We live in an age where we can and will be heard.
You say we don’t respect our elders, that we don’t respect our country. Our elders grew up in one of the greatest economic booms in history and in turn made it the worst economic situation since the 1930’s all while blaming kids who were only five at the time for it. We stand on our flag because it means nothing, it’s a pretty banner for an ugly lie. We’re a country that says you can make it if you just work hard enough while, in the end, that will almost never happen. We’re a country that becomes irate at the idea of 20-something college kids standing on some canvas dyed red, white, and blue but seem to shrug off the millions of homeless, disabled veterans.
You say we’re more divided than ever before. Ever before what? When black folk couldn’t drink from the same fountain as white folk? When women couldn’t vote? When white southerners fought for the idea that they could keep black people as slaves? We’re a generation that is done with injustice and when you fight for social change, you will divide people.
You say everything that was frowned up is celebrated. What does that mean? We frowned up gay marriage. We frowned upon wives being able to say no to sex with their husbands. We frowned up interracial marriage. We frowned up black folk being allowed to go to school with white folk. We frowned upon women being allowed to vote. Are those things not worth celebrating?
You say nothing has value in our generation, that we take advantage of everything. We value friendship more, we value the fists of change, we value social justice and family and the right to marry those we love. We value the right to be yourself, wholly and fully. We value the right to choose and we value the idea of fighting what you believe in, even when everyone older than you is telling you you’re what’s wrong with the country.
You say we have more opportunities to succeed than those before but we don’t ‘appreciate’ them. We are a bitter generation. You can finance a boat for 3.9% but you have to pay back college tuition plus 8.9%. We may have more opportunities but those opportunities cost money we don’t have.
You say you can see why we’re called ‘Generation,’ but we’re not Generation Y, we’re Millennials and we do feel entitled. We were promised a strong economy and inexpensive education. We had the world in our hands and we were going to make it better. And it was ripped away from us because of incompetent rulers, illegal wars, and greedy corporations and we get blamed for it. Crime has gone down, abortion and unintended pregnancy has lowered, people are living longer, people are more educated, people are less likely to die from violent crime or diseases, yet my generation is touted as the worst generation and for what? Crimes that we’re accused of that happened before we could even wipe our own ass? We were raised better, and we were raised in a society that treated, and continues to treat, us like garbage. And we are done. We are not sorry, we did nothing wrong.
[Bae does not mean Before Anyone Else, it’s AAVE and just short for “babe” or “baby” which is just a cute pet name that black people use and the people who are annoyed by it are showing their internalized racism- a better reason to defend it than someone’s re-imagining and appropriation of a term that didn’t belong to them in the first place.]
I agree with most of this. Speak for yourself you dumbass! (Directed at the woman who made the video.)
when your morning shift starts by chasing loose cows back in the cow barn 👌🙆🌄
Let’s file this one under the same level of ‘more education needed’ as the people who push seal pups back into the ocean because they think deals need water to breathe.
The official Yellowstone National Park facebook just shared this story again, and added this commentary.
“News has been circulating on social media about people putting a bison calf in their car. The story is true, and its sad conclusion highlights the importance of keeping a safe distance from park wildlife. Here’s the full account:
Last week, visitors were cited for placing a newborn bison calf in their vehicle and transporting it to a park facility because of their misplaced concern for the animal’s welfare. In terms of human safety, this was a dangerous activity because adult animals are very protective of their young and will act aggressively to defend them. In addition, interference by people can cause mothers to reject their offspring. In this case, park rangers tried repeatedly to reunite the newborn bison calf with the herd. These efforts failed. The bison calf was later euthanized because it was abandoned and causing a dangerous situation by continually approaching people and cars along the roadway.In a recent viral video, a visitor approached within an arm’s length of an adult bison in the Old Faithful area.
Another video featured visitors posing for pictures with bison at extremely unsafe and illegal distances. Last year, five visitors were seriously injured when they approached bison too closely. Bison injure more visitors to Yellowstone than any other animal.Approaching wild animals can drastically affect their well-being and, in this case, their survival.
Park regulations require that you stay at least 25 yards (23 m) away from all wildlife (including bison, elk and deer) and at least 100 yards (91 m) away from bears and wolves. Disregarding these regulations can result in fines, injury, and even death. The safety of these animals, as well as human safety, depends on everyone using good judgment and following these simple rules.”
Leave wildlife alone.
This shit is what I’m talking about when I say don’t fuck with wild animals
One time I saw a woman on the beach with a crab in a cooler (no water) trying to feed it chicken. Because “it would drown” if she put it back.
Don’t interrupt wildlife. So very rarely do they ACTUALLY need our help.
a summary of our cows’ first time outside since last fall 🙆🌱🌻
#Meillä pitää ajaa lietettä ennen ku saa isot ulos#mutta pikkuipanoiden aitaus on melkein valmis niin ne saatanee alkuviikosta ulos#vasikat on vaa vaikea viiä ku ne on ihan AAAAAARGH ku on niin paljo valoa ja ääniä ja hajuja ja kaikkee#ja joukkopaniikki iskee jos yks säikähtää jotaki#Eka tunti kaks pitää sitte olla vahtimassa ettei ne pärskäytä aidoista läpi tielle tai jokeen#kolmea pienintä ei varmaan laiteta tosin samalla ettei isommat 7 möykkää niitä#pitää tehä niille oma johonki
vähä ois cool jos meilläkin ois peltoja nuorisolle asti, mun pitää aina asioikseni käyttää niitä lehmien laitsalla, jos haluun että nekin pääsee joskus pihalle
#goals
Horse Milo meets Cow Milo
Ag Terms: Bovines
Cattle: Domesticated mammals of the genus Bos, multiple bovines.
Cow: A female bovine who has given birth.
Heifer: A female bovine who has not given birth to a calf.
Heifer calf: A female calf.
Bull: An intact male bovine.
Bull Calf: A male calf
Steer: A castrated male bovine. In older terms, it can be a future ox that is less than 4 years old.
Calf: A baby bovine, either gender. This is used from the time of birth up to about 6-10 months of age when the animal is weaned.
Fun terms found on the Livestock Conservancy website:
Ox: A castrated bull that has been trained to work and is at least 4 years of age.
Oxen: Plural of ox.