Herbal Medicine and Cows: A Study
I first came to New Gokul in the winter of 2009. I was not a devotee and in fact knew nothing of the philosophy except a vague notion that it was related to Hinduism. The reason for my visit was that I was in my final year of university, studying for a BSc in Animal Behavioural Science and Welfare. I conduced my thesis study here at the farm. I had already been a vegetarian for some years and I was very excited about visiting somewhere that did not slaughter their cows. My results are a testimony to how well looked after our cows are.
The topic of my study, I decided, would be how to improve the welfare of farmed cows. I had done an assignment in the previous year about the conditions veal calves are kept in, and how it produces abnormal behaviour in them as they try and cope with the stress. The research made me very sad, and I wanted to try and find a way to help those poor boys. Quite early on I began to think about using herbal medicine as stress relief for cows, and as I ruminated (pun intended) over it, it made more and more sense. Consumers of animals and animal products are becoming more and more concerned about what goes into their "food", especially medicines such as antibiotics. Organic farms are generally forbidden to give cows any routine medication unless there is good justification for it. So my idea was to find a natural herbal medicine to administer to cows which would not pose a health risk but might help them feel a bit better.
I googled "herbal medicine and cows" and one of the first hits was an article about New Gokul, which mentioned among other things that the farm uses herbal and homeopathic medicine where possible. I began corresponding with Syamasundara prabhu and eventually he agreed I could conduct my study with his cows.
The Question
I wanted to answer two main questions:
1. Do anxiolytic (stress reducing) herbs have an effect on the behaviour of cows?
2. If so, which is more effective: chamomile, vervain or lemon balm?
The Herbs
I chose three herbs which are commonly supposed to have anxiolytic (stress reducing) effects - chamomile, vervain and lemon balm. As I looked through the literature I found none of them had conclusively proven those effects in scientific study, yet every book I read on herbal medicine promoted them as good sedatives and axiolytics.
ChamomilevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvLemon balm vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Vervain
I got the herbs from Mr David Hussey of Dodson and Horrell. He provided me not only with the herbs, for free, but he also gave excellent advice and a very interesting tour of the company's factory.
The Method
At the time, the herd was divided into three main groups: the oxen, the milking cows, and a mixed group of young and old. I chose 6 cows/oxen from each group to study. For two weeks I observed them for several hours a day, recording every behaviour they exhibited. That sounds like quite a feat but cows mostly alternate between eating, ruminating, and lying down, so at times it was a bit like watching a bovine version of Big Brother at 4am.
After two weeks, three cows in each group started being given one of the herbs. The other three in the group carried out without medicine. I then recorded their behaviour in the same way for a further two weeks. Then I compared the before-and-after behaviours to see if there had been any change. Were the medicated cows calmer after the treatment? If they were, it was evidence that the herbs had had the desired effect.
The Results
However, statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the behaviour of the treated cows compared with the non-treated cows. Neither group seemed less stressed.
Despite that, I don't think my study showed anything about the herbs. The key data was aggressive behaviour, which is a sign of stress and unhappiness in cows who are naturally very gregarious. Just like humans, we get on well with each other when we're happy but as soon as we get stressed, we start to fight and bicker.
Over the course of the study, the cows and oxen spent between 5 and 30 seconds a day being mean to each other (head-butting, charging, threatening), compared with 100-200 seconds a day being nice (grooming, mostly). Unsurprisingly, 98-99% of their time was taken up with lying down, eating and ruminating.
My conclusion was that the cows and oxen were not stressed to begin with. I didn't record a single instance of abnormal behaviour called stereotypies, which are the biggest indicators of stress. It is well known that big cats such as lions and tigers pace constantly in zoo exhibits. This is an example of a stereotypy and shows that the cats are extremely stressed and can't cope with their situation through normal behaviours. Stressed humans show steretypies too: we also pace when nervous, among other things. The cows at New Gokul don't need these kinds of coping mechanisms because they are happy in their environment and have everything they need.
A study by Uetake et all (2005) compared the behaviours of cows that were kept permanently indoors in small enclosures, and cows who were allowed out to pasture when the weather is good. The cows who were confined indoors engaged in much more social behaviour, particularly grooming, and also developed oral stereotypies like chewing the bars of their enclosure. They groom, themselves and each other, because it is a calming and pleasant feeling and helps them cope with the stress of being enclosed. Cows who are at pasture groom their friends so they can stay friends, but they don't need to do it frequently because they don't have high stress levels that need to be reduced.
Veal calves are particularly prone to oral stereotypies because they are fed with powdered milk from a bucket which takes them just minutes to drink, whereas naturally they would suckle from their mothers several hours a day. They have a big urge to use their mouths and to eat frequently but they are denied that, so they turn to chewing on metal bars or licking themselves so much the fur comes off and the skin breaks. None of our cows here have any behaviours like that, because they are fed a natural diet. Grass, hay and straw is not nutrient dense, meaning cows have to eat a LOT of it to get all their calories and vitamins. That isn't a bad thing, it is good for their stomachs to have a constant flow of food and their digestive systems are designed for it as well as their strong jaws. Cows and calves who are fed concentrated food have to find another way to spend the 7-8 hours that they would usually need for eating each day. There is nothing in their environment to stimulate them so they turn to abnormal behaviour and fighting. This is perhaps another argument for the importance of working oxen; it gives them a chance to work off the excess energy of their huge muscles and spend it productively.
The study is 10,000 words long which is why I have summarised it and not pasted it! But if anybody interested in cow behaviour or herbal medicine would like to read it please do e-mail me at goshalla@krishnatemple.com and I will send a copy.