The Hardest Working Mother On The Planet

Sleeping, resting for a while, her baby safely by her side,
Contentment reigns, the sun is shining, mother looking down with pride.
A vision of peaceful bonding between a mother and her child.
In two days time all this will change; her pride filled heart will soon turn wild

She hears them coming, it’s familiar, somehow she’s been here before,
Raising prods and raging voices, how can she save him?…. she doesn’t  know.
Square and solid she stands before them, hoping they won’t beat her down,
The young one whimpers as they circle, infant gone, she’s grieving now.

Into the milking barn they take her, relieving her, the load so great,
Five times a day she’d feed her infant, offloading twice daily that’s her fate.
Mastitis due to over milking, walking is not so easy now,
Udders bulging through her back legs, lameness inflicts this heartbroken cow.

A year will pass and she will suffer; antibiotics and hormones given every day,
Time for her insemination, another baby is the only way.
As the baby grows inside her, massive milk production like no other,  
One hundred pounds of  milk required from this worn out expectant mother.

Ten times what’s needed to feed her baby, that’s what she produces every day,
Baby born again in spring time, two days later he’s taken away.
Physically exhausted infertile too, four years living on the land,
A low milk yield within her fifth year will mean slaughter at the workers hand.

That’s the fate that meets and greets our very favourite farmyard mum,
What a world have we created to think that this is a compassionate one.
Extract our heads from the sand and rip the blinkers from our eyes,
Look in the mirror and ask yourself ‘Is this a usage I despise’?

By Anita Menzies-Udale
anitamenziesudale@hotmail.com