[Animals] Massages, controlled feeding or classical music: this is how cows are cared for on a family farm

[UltimaTexCS]

Friedrich Nietzsche said that it is the deepest minds that have the greatest compassion for animals. In Can Ribas, a family farm in the Catalan region of La Selva that has collaborated with Danone for more than 13 years, the animals are treated with dignity and respect, as well as frankly compassionate.

The 400 tenants of this model farm, 200 adult cows and 200 calves, receive massages and listen to classical music while feeding on forage, barley and corn and moving quite freely through the meadows or taking shelter from the morning sun in spacious roof sheds high, without tightness, discomfort or overcrowding. They are grouped by age to facilitate coexistence and so that they do not compete for food. Although they are no longer assigned names, as was customary in their day, they are identified with a three or four digit digital code that identifies them and allows, among other things, to know which cow has injured a hoof or which one is following some treatment, under strict veterinary supervision, to overcome common conditions, such as a cold.

As Josep Maria Ruiz, owner of the cattle ranch shows, his cows do not shy away from human contact or show concern of any kind, one of the animal welfare indicators taken into account by the NGO Compassion In Global Farming, whose protocols it follows Can Ribas. For Ruiz, none of this is frivolous or eccentric luxury. Neither music, nor massages, nor a diet that includes two thirds of its own pastures, to which fatty and protein ingredients are added to complement its diet, nor the complete computer monitoring program and veterinary advice. It is, in addition to an ethical requirement and a necessary act of compassion, "a good business, because it has a great impact on the final quality of the milk we produce.

More than 200 farms throughout Spain
Can Ribas has been part of the network of around 200 family farms throughout Spain for 13 years, from which Danone obtains fresh milk for its yogurts. The agreement with the company created by Carasso more than 100 years ago in Barcelona was a strategic commitment, according to Josep Maria, son, grandson and great-grandson of ranchers and farmers who have been in business since 1936: “It allowed us to make the leap qualitative to which we aspired and ensure the future, investing in aspects as important for business continuity as technological innovation, the degree of autonomy of our food supply or the reduction of our carbon footprint ”.

Antoni Bandrés, Director of Milk Management at Danone, with Josep Mª Ruiz, owner of Can Ribas.

Antoni Bandrés, Director of Milk Management at Danone, with Josep Mª Ruiz, owner of Can Ribas.
Ruiz recreates himself by showing what he considers his main heritage, the soul of his company: that society of 400 females, splendid specimens of the Holstein breed, with white skin mottled with black. Their ancestry goes back to northern Germany and southern Denmark, but almost all of them were born here, in the municipality of Maçanet de la Selva, in a corner of inland Catalonia near the Montseny massif and not far from the Mediterranean Sea. "Here they adapt well to mild winters and a little worse to dry and hot summers," says Ruiz, "and the breed continues to gradually improve thanks to an insemination program based on genetic criteria.

Although it retains colorful relics from its past, like an old David Brown 990 tractor with a Girona license plate cornered on a flower bed, the farm is a modern business that breathes dynamism and a taste for innovation. Ruiz describes that the milking process is carried out in a modern warehouse, which has an advanced quality control system for the milk obtained. “We do two sessions a day, at six in the morning and at six in the afternoon. Cows are very docile animals and they adapt well to routines, you hardly even have to drive them here. It takes eight to ten minutes to milk each one. In about two hours the process is completed. The warehouse is computerized, so that we have real-time information on the level of fat and protein in the 6,500 liters of milk that we obtain daily ”.

'Famous' for a day
In recent months, the farm has received recognition for the best Catalan farm of 2019 in the IX Livestock Awards, awards granted by Danone to family farms that are most committed to innovation and the gradual improvement of their traceability, sustainability and Product quality. Additionally, Danone turned Ruiz and his family into actors for a day, starring in his