Frequently Asked Questions
Visiting Us
- When Can I Visit?
- When Is Milking Time?
- Can I Feed the Cows?
- What Food Can I Donate for the Cows?
- What Food is NOT Suitable for Cows?
Milking
- How Long Does it Take to Milk a Cow?
- How Much Milk Do the Cows Give?
- What Do You Do With the Milk?
- Do Bulls Give Milk?
The goshalla is staffed from 9am-5pm, and that is the best time to come. We do get visitors outside of these hours and the goshalla is never closed, but please do not feed the cows when there are no staff around, except if you have previously cleared it with goshalla staff. Some foods such as rhubarb are fatally poisonous to cows and others like jaggery/goor can be harmful to their health.
The cows are milked twice a day: midnight - 6am and 12pm-5pm. These times may vary slightly, 1pm is a good time to come if you want to be sure to see some milking.
As of March 2012 we have a new policy of NO visitor feeding. This is due to the death of one of our cows, who was killed by being fed forbidden food (various fruits) by a visitor. You can, however, bring suitable foods and leave them on the donation trolley at the entrance. Goshalla staff will then sort through the food and anything appropriate will be fed to the cows in controlled portions.
What Food Can I Donate for the Cows?
Raw vegetables. Favourites are carrots, cauliflower and cabbage.
What Food is Not Suitable for the Cows?
- ANY fruit including apples and bananas. They act adversely on the cows' stomachs and can lead to serious healthproblems
- ANY cooked foods or leftovers from your kitchen. Not only is this bad for the cows, who were designed by Krishna to eat raw plants, but it is against UK law. It has led to serious outbreaks of food poisoning in the past, and the goshalla could be in serious trouble if our visitors are found to be breaching the law.
- Mouldy food, or any food which you wouldn't give to another human being. Animals are just as suscepitble to food poisoning, upset stomachs and illness as humans.
- Jaggery/goor.
- Grains, lentils or cereals including bread.
How Long Does It Take To Milk A Cow?
It depends on the cow and her milk yield, but an average is about 15 minutes. Some cows, especially older ones who have had several calves, may have thickened and toughtened teats which makes it more difficult to milk. Some cows give eight or nine litres of milk which obviously takes longer to obtain than one or two litres. Some cows (coughKunticough) like to take their time over the food they are given at milking time, and may be there long after the milker has finished.
This is highly individual. Yield depends on breed, genetics and the stage of lactation. Cows generally give the most milk in the first year after calving and then it gradually declines until the calf is 2-3 years of age when the dam will dry up. There are exceptions, like Daupadi whose milk yield steadily increased year upon year after her baby was born. The baby now weighs a tonne and she is still giving 15-16 litres daily. In contrast Aditi was giving 0.5 litres a day when her daughter was 2 years old, and became dry shortly afterwards.
Most of it goes to the deity kitchen where it is offered to the deities at the Manor. Some also goes to the main kitchen to be served hot with evening prasadam for the residents and visitors. Some goes to the Soho temple in London to be offered to their deities. The rest is taken to our dairy and is processed into cream, butter, ghee, paneer, yoghurt and cheese.
This may seem a funny question to people familiar with dairying, but is actually a very common question. Milk is the breastmilk of cows, and just as in humans, it is the females that produce it for their children. The bulls are productive in other ways - by working the land and producing cow dung.
Why Is Cow Protection Milk So Expensive?
The media love to present our milk as the "most expensive" in Britain. Actually, it is not that ours is expensive, it is that other milk is cheap. It is cheap because the cows are treated like walking vending machines and are pushed to their limits to produce huge quantities of milk, then sent for the slaughter when they are too exhausted to be profitable. Death and misery is the price that is paid for cheap milk. At New Gokul we sell for the true price of milk, which is a very precious and sacred product. It costs us much more to produce it than it costs most farms because we look after the cows for life, not just for a few short years. We feed them real food instead of concentrate, get the vet in when they are sick, and hand milk them instead of hooking them up to souless machines. You buy comfort and love for the cows when you buy protected milk and milk products.
We are very eager to sell our milk directly to the visitors of New Gokul, but at present we aren't in a position to do that. There are very stringent health and safety regulations surrounding milk, which is classed as a high-risk food (high-risk for foodbourne illnesses and food poisoning) and we need to make sure our procedures are so meticulous that our products pose no threat to consumers. We will update everyone as soon as we have clearance to supply to the public.
What is Available from the Dairy?
Again, nothing is available to sell to the public yet. We produce cream, butter, ghee, paneer and yoghurt for use in the temple and hope to be able to sell these publically in the near future.
We will do very soon! The products for sale will be almost exclusively grown/produced at New Gokul including vegetables and fruits from Holland Farm, honey from our bees, cow dung for compost and eventually, we hope, milk and dairy products.
More Questions?
If your question is not answered here please e-mail us at goshalla@krishnatemple.com. We are happy to answer any query!
