Someone Should Tell Dean’s Dairy Producers…

This is one of those, “wow… you really don’t see this every day in the US” kinds of posts. See this tree? It’s a banyan tree. It’s remarkable. It grows tall and strong, then it drops a sort of vine and root from its branches down to the ground. Each of these vines forms a new tree of its own, but is still attached to the original, thus supporting each other and forming a gigantic mass of connected trees. That part is way cool.

But do you see the little burlap and plastic bags that are dangling from the vines and branches? Want to know what’s in them? Cow placentas. Yup. See, here’s how the belief works here in India. If you have a cow, and that cow gives birth, you have to tie the placenta up into a bag and hang it from a tree like this. If you do that, your cow will give healthy milk for its new calf, and will produce many more healthy calves. If you do not, however, and dogs eat the placenta, then your cow’s utter will dry up, the calf will die, and will be barren. So… in terms of rural Indian dairy farming, when your entire life depends on your cow continuing to give milk… you tie up the placenta and don’t take the risk.