Lithuania | Marijampolé | Dairy farms

On the first dairy farm we visit today, there are 10 young calves, which are individually penned or kept in groups of two. The stable is quite dark, with only a few small windows providing light. The air inside the small room is stuffy. A very young calf, only a few days old, is mooing constantly. It must have been separated from its mother just recently. We are told that the dairy cows are tethered in the stable year-round. The second farmer we visit keeps 217 bovines for both milk and meat production. The animals are all kept in one large building, which is divided in different sections. The dairy cows are loose in two large pens, where the concrete floor is covered with a thick layer of manure. There is no bedding at all and thus no clean, dry and comfortable resting place. The fattening bulls and the calves, even the very young ones, are tethered. The farmer tells us that it is prohibited in Lithuania to tether

calves, but he prefers to keep them tied than in groups so as to have them under better control. Both farmers sell the male calves when they are two to four weeks old. They are exported to the Netherlands, Spain and Israel, where they are fattened for the production of meat.