As the sun rises and light beams over Brookford Farm in Canterbury, Shade Havens cast shadows across its open pastures.
These portable structures, equipped with wheels and a towing hitch, provide shade for animals that need to cool off in the summer heat. Cows, some spotted, others a deep mahogany, dot the field. They retreat under the Haven, then spread out to graze on grass before returning to the shade.
Luke Mahoney, the farm’s owner and co-founder, knows that the effects of proper animal treatment ripple far beyond the cow pastures and chicken pens.
“Animals need shade to be healthy in heat spells, and they don’t always have natural shade access across all the fields,” Mahoney said. “It’s a system. Everybody wins, not just the animals.”
In total, Brookford Farm is home to a 240-head herd of cattle, including 85 dairy cows, or milkers. The cows graze on “day pastures” with more natural shade during the daytime and “night pastures,” where there is less natural shade, at night.
Farm technologies like Shade Havens have proven incredibly useful at Brookford Farm. In addition to keeping the livestock cool, their strategic placement in a pasture can help spread manure across patches of land that lack nutrients, such as sandy knolls.
“It’s our responsibility to care for the animals and for them to stay healthy. It’s for the animals and for the production. If they are healthy and happy, there’s better production,” Mahoney said.
Cow milking is an intimate task that, if done improperly, can introduce harmful bacteria and lead to the spread of disease. Farmworker Casarubias Barragan prepares cows for milking, first by outfitting her hands with latex gloves before coating the cows’ udder in iodine to prevent bacterial growth.
Automatic milkers use vacuum pressure to mechanically draw milk from the cows’ udders, and after milking, Barragan applies a hydrogen peroxide mix as a disinfectant.
Technologies used to contain livestock on pastures have made major advancements over the last century. Brookford Farm uses single-wire electric fencing to subdivide pastures and keep out large predators.
The last decade has seen virtual fencing with GPS technology become more popular, with cautious concern around shock collars’ effect on animals’ wellbeing. Mahoney and his second-oldest son, Emanuel, briefly explored a new fencing system, but implementing it would be complicated.
“The cost is an important factor,” Mahoney said. “All that stuff takes a big initial investment and time.”
In addition to the high up-front cost, Mahoney weighed the question of whether he and his employees would have the savvy to implement and maintain this new system.
Change can move slowly on the farm, but in some ways, the future has already arrived.
This is one installment in our three-part photojournalism series, “Common Ground.” To read and view more, visit concordmonitor.com.
