Cows

Driving along Skinner Hollow Road, through hilly woodlands and across a tranquil stream, a motorist is about as likely to meet a milk truck as another car. The shiny stainless-steel tankers ply this scenic stretch of blacktop every day of the year, collecting milk produced by the black and white dairy cows that graze in the green pastures on the picture-perfect farms of southwest Wisconsin. Some time ago, Skinner Hollow Road was home to three of the 125 cheese factories that once operated in Green County.

El Encanto is back -- with a new spa, new ballroom and its own Holstein cow. The historic hideaway in the Santa Barbara hills hasn't gone Farmville but it has undergone a "meticulous restoration" by Orient-Express Hotels , marking the luxury brand's first property in the West. The hotel reopened Monday to guests with 92 bungalows that overlook the city and the ocean. The official public opening isn't until Friday. (Sneak a peek with this El Encanto photo gallery .) Orient-Express spent $134 million and seven years restoring the hotel in keeping with its California Craftsman and Spanish Colonial Revival styles, according to a company spokeswoman.

Irvine-based fast-food chain In-N-Out severed ties with a Central California slaughterhouse after learning that the facility is being investigated for potentially inhumane treatment of cows. In-N-Out executives said they cut off their supplier agreement with Central Valley Meat Co. on Sunday night, immediately after hearing accusations that animals at the plant were being shocked, shot and pulled to slaughter stations despite often being unable to stand or walk. The U.S. Department of Agriculture  shut the Hanford site Monday after viewing a video from animal rights advocacy group Compassion Over Killing.

Colorado farmers are in udder disbelief. The state's legislators are considering a new law that would ban farmers from taking away natural fly swatters from their dairy cows. Some want to ban dairy operations from carrying out a process called docking -- cutting cattle tails for sanitary reasons. Critics call it animal cruelty. Farmers say it produces more sanitary milk by keeping the tail from dragging in mud and manure. Not only that, but many farmers complain that the practice is rare in their state, so what's the big deal?

Re "Tip them over and they still point north," Aug. 26 I have another theory to ponder: Did the scientists ever consider that the cows may lie down facing north because they don't want the sun in their eyes? If they did the study below the equator, would the cows be facing south? Allen Hatch Los Angeles

Like many a puzzle before it, the conundrum on Conundrum Creek will be solved by being taken apart - literally. Six cows that had wandered into a remote Colorado cabin and froze stiff will be sawed into pieces, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Bill Kight. The pieces will then be spread throughout the surrounding forest, Kight told the Los Angeles Times. The method was designed to minimize the possibility of predators -- bears or mountain lions -- converging on a small area around the cabin and nearby hot springs.

In a meadow of knee-high grass framed by rugged granite peaks and pine forests, cattleman John Hunter urged his horse forward along a trail crossing a creek, frowning under a cowboy hat dripping rainwater. With the summer grazing season in the Eastern Sierra coming to an end, he was preparing, perhaps for the last time, to move hundreds of cows out of the high country and into the Owens Valley. The 30-mile cattle drive from the Golden Trout Wilderness down to the village of Olancha is among the oldest in the state — and a cherished family tradition.

Ready for something different on your family vacation this summer? Feather Down Farms offers authentic farm stays where kids and adults can learn about farm life (yes, there are chores to do) while tent-camping at sites in Illinois, New York and Northern California. In California, Chaffin Family Orchards in the Sacramento Valley will begin accepting guests in mid-August. The farm raises grass-fed cows, lamb and goats. Its orchards produce olives, oranges, lemons, cherries, plums, figs and other produce year round - fresh fruits that guests may eat. During the stay, family members can tour fields and gardens, get up to milk the cows, learn to prepare and cook meals on an open-fire stove and even take a dip in a private mountain lake.

The worst drought in modern history has destroyed more than half the nation's corn crop, pushing prices to record levels. Livestock producers across the country are feeling the pinch as they struggle to feed their herds. To cope, one Kentucky cattle farmer has begun feeding candy to his 1,400 cows. "It's so hard to make any money when corn is eight or nine dollars a bushel," said Nick Smith, co-owner of United Livestock Commodities in Mayfield, Ky. The candy, which has been rejected from retail sale, makes up from 5% to 8% of the  cattle's feed ration, Smith said.

LAS VEGAS -- U.S. Forest Service officials in Colorado are calling it the conundrum on Conundrum Creek: how to remove six cows that wandered into a wilderness cabin high in the Rocky Mountains and froze to death - stiff as boards - when they couldn't get out. For officials, here's the beef: Environmental restrictions won't let them use machinery of any kind to remove the frozen carcasses. They can't use flatbed trucks because the cabin is eight miles from the nearest road.

More than a decade after gun shows were banned on Los Angeles County-owned property, a San Francisco lawmaker is hoping to achieve the same goal for the Cow Palace in Daly City, which saw a record turnout of firearms buyers and sellers convene in January. Three bills have been introduced in recent years to ban gun shows at the Cow Palace, but two did not make it out of the Legislature while the other was vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now, state Sen Mark Leno (D-San Francisco)

The ban on beef from Brazil's Parana state is spreading. Saudi Arabia , Egypt and South Korea join China , South Africa and Japan in not buying beef from the region after Brazil revealed the discovery of a cow with proteins that cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease.  Brazil's agriculture ministry reported this month that the cow died two years ago but said the animal did not die of the disease, according to a Reuters report. Animals classified as having "atypical BSE," such as in this case, may or may not develop full-blown BSE disease.

In 2009, when I was trying to figure out why gun sales were so brisk, I visited a couple of gun shops in Riverside and Corona. Back then, part of the reason people were arming themselves, they told me, was that President Obama had recently taken office, and they feared that he would crack down on gun ownership. A Riverside gun shop owner said he wasn't sure whether or not Obama was a Muslim, and if by chance someone took a shot at him, there could be rioting. People wanted to make sure they were armed and ready for war. In Corona, another gun shop owner told me that "once private gun ownership is eliminated, there's nothing to stop the government from doing what it wants to do. " He seemed pretty sure we were headed in that direction, but gun ownership is never going to be eliminated in this country.

The last new episode of "I Love Lucy" was broadcast over 50 years ago, but the classic sitcom is still a cash cow for CBS. Speaking at Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference in New York on Thursday, CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said "I Love Lucy" is still delivering about $20 million in revenue. Reruns of the show still run on a regular basis on the cable channel TV Land.  During much of the interview, Moonves stressed the value of CBS' new and old content, particularly as new platforms such as Netflix and Amazon are spending heavily for product.

The story of a runaway cow that ran amok through downtown Billings this week has left many longtime Montana residents perplexed and frankly embarrassed: How could a cow get so out of hand that a police sniper had to be called in? Where were the cowboys? The comments section of the Billings Gazette , which first ran the story about the cow caper, is overflowing with recriminations of the what-has-happened-to-Montana type. “This just illustrates how things have changed in the ol' West.

The worst drought in modern history has destroyed more than half the nation's corn crop, pushing prices to record levels. Livestock producers across the country are feeling the pinch as they struggle to feed their herds. To cope, one Kentucky cattle farmer has begun feeding candy to his 1,400 cows. "It's so hard to make any money when corn is eight or nine dollars a bushel," said Nick Smith, co-owner of United Livestock Commodities in Mayfield, Ky. The candy, which has been rejected from retail sale, makes up from 5% to 8% of the  cattle's feed ration, Smith said.

I can't help but notice that the apologists for recombinant bovine somatotropin don't bother to address the issue of desirability or necessity. There is, after all, no shortage of milk. Those cows are out there giving their all and it's plenty. They are already overworked--and now this! The primary reason for introducing this new production technique is that Monsanto is looking for big new profits. The senior vice president of Monsanto (letter, April 4) forgot to mention that little detail but it is inescapable.

The worst drought in decades has destroyed more than half the U.S. corn crop, pushing prices to record levels and squeezing livestock owners as they struggle to feed their herds. To cope, one Kentucky cattle farmer has turned to a child-tested way to fatten his 1,400 cows: candy. "It's so hard to make any money when corn is eight or nine dollars a bushel," said Nick Smith, co-owner of United Livestock Commodities in Mayfield, Ky. The chocolate and other sweet stuff was rejected by retailers.

Federal officials shuttered a Central California slaughterhouse after they concluded that cattle had been subjected to inhumane treatment but said Tuesday they had seen nothing to indicate that the company had compromised the safety of the public's food supply. The U.S. Department of Agriculture temporarily closed Hanford-based Central Valley Meat Co. after reviewing video footage from the animal rights group Compassion Over Killing, which said it had captured images of torture and intentional cruelty to cows.

The worst drought in decades has destroyed more than half the U.S. corn crop, pushing prices to record levels and squeezing livestock owners as they struggle to feed their herds. To cope, one Kentucky cattle farmer has turned to a child-tested way to fatten his 1,400 cows: candy. "It's so hard to make any money when corn is eight or nine dollars a bushel," said Nick Smith, co-owner of United Livestock Commodities in Mayfield, Ky. The chocolate and other sweet stuff was rejected by retailers.