Justin RhodesAbundant Permaculture, LLC · Boss

This is NOT where your food comes from

Name: This is NOT where your food comes from
Uploaded: 2026-02-04T21:30:54+00:00
Duration: 1 min 1 s
Channel: Justin Rhodes
Description: In this short narration, the speaker explains a humane dairy calf-rearing system that diverges sharply from conventional practices. Instead of separating…

4 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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1:01

In this short narration, the speaker explains a humane dairy calf-rearing system that diverges sharply from conventional practices. Instead of separating the newborn calf from its mother immediately, the calf stays with its dam for six months, receiving 24/7 nursing for the first two weeks and then an evening "calf‑share" separation where they remain in visual and olfactory contact. During winter, the mother and calf are kept on deep bedding with a heating blanket, ensuring warmth and comfort. In summer, they are moved daily to rotationally grazed pasture. At six months, the calf transitions to become a family milk cow, living a long, happy life. The narrative emphasizes the benefits of extended mother‑calf bonding, seasonal housing, and the resulting lifelong welfare of the animal, contrasting it with standard dairy operations that separate calves at birth.

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Contrary to many opinions, this calf's destiny is much different than its conventional counterpart. You see, in the convention, day one, this calf would have been taken away from its mother. In contradiction, we leave this calf with its mother for 6 months. For the first 2 weeks, it has all-exclusive 24/7 access to its nursing. After that, we do a calf share where this calf gets separated in the evening in the fence next door. They can see each other, they can smell each other. In the summer, they— well, right now in the winter, she's on a cozy— it's probably 100 degrees, this deep bedding in there. She's on a heating blanket just staying warm near her mother, near the rest of the herd. Plenty of room, plenty of fresh air. And then in the summer rotationally grazed, moved on grass every day. At 6 months old, she goes on to be somebody's family milk cow and lives a long, happy life.