Novel methods allow hiking among the dairy cows at the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument : NPR
The national monument of Cotoni-Coast Dairies was appointed in 2017, but was closed while federal officials planned how to integrate humans into the historic dairy grazing landscape. Their solution: high -tech necklaces for cows to keep them away from prohibited areas.
Scott Detrow, host:
A new national monument finally opened to the public this weekend. The national monument in California is rather called Cotoni-Coast dairies. President Obama has designed nearly 6,000 acres along the California central coast before leaving the office. Its opening was delayed due to the pandemic, by the fears of the neighbors on traffic and discovering how to keep a herd of nearly 100 cows which graze hikers and bikers there. It turns out that there is an application for this. Jemiah Oetting reports.
Jerimiah Oetting, Byline: Cotoni-Coast Dairies is an emblematic range of land on the Central Coast of California. The rolling hills of the coastal meadow face the sparkling peaceful ocean. There are groves of redwoods, oaks and Amerindian archaeological sites of the Cotoni people whose history dates back 10,000 years. It is a quiet place, which could be the reason why the cows peaking here are so peaceful and so calm.
(Imitating the cow mooing).
It’s me, moreover, to try to advance the cows.
Anyone? Anyone? Without comments?
As calm as these cows be, Cotoni-Coast dairies are about to become much more busy. Only 70 miles south of San Francisco, it should attract a jostling of hikers and bikers to the new trails. And that put Zachary Ormsby at the Bureau of Land Management in a little connection. Part of his mandate is to preserve the history of this place …
Zachary Ormsby: Ranching being one of these things.
Oetting: … but also to keep cows off the trails and out of catering areas without kilometers of ugly and costly fences. And that is why each cow wears a black collar of two pounds with a small solar panel.
Ormsby: And so it really seemed the natural solution.
Oetting: These necklaces are the latest bovine intelligent system of a company called Halter. The Cols system sends the cow’s contact details to a GPS satellite, which reproduces it to an application on a phone in the pocket of a breeder. The breeder sets limits around where he wants the cows to have. When a cow goes in the wrong direction, the beep.
(Soundbite of Collar Beep)
Oetting: If it doesn’t work, it vibrates. And finally, it will give a light shock.
(Soundbit of Collar Beep quickly)
Oetting: And this allows cowboy breeders from the sofa.
Spatial cowboys.
Ormsby: space cowboys or remote control cows.
Oetting: Wayne Pastorino is a cowboy of the earth.
Wayne Pastorino: I had to see him to believe it, but, you know, it’s just to be old -fashioned, I suppose.
Oetting: Pastorino’s family has been Ranch in coastal California for generations, and his daughter Paige Pastorino have rented pasture lands in Cotoni-Coast Dairies for about a quarter of a century. Paige is the one that manages the application.
Paige Pastorino: The first two days, my screen time was so above average. I just found so interesting to see where they were.
Oetting: They mean each cow, which appears as a little red dot on a map. Wayne says he is quite for any solution to keep his cows and separate visitors. But he likes the old way without a screen to do things to Cotoni-Coast dairies.
W Pastorino: I mean, you sometimes come together up there, and the whales strike, you know, going north. I mean, and you push cows on your horse, and you see it? I mean, you are …
P Pastorino: I mean, yes. Yeah.
W Pastorino: You know, you are the richest man in the world when you do this.
Oetting: Now these wealth can be appreciated by the public.
Reesa Feldsher: It’s absolutely beautiful.
Jennifer Cass: Fabulous.
Oetting: Reesa Feldsher and Jennifer Cass are during their first hike to the national monument. Feldsher says mountain bikers as they dreamed of having trails here.
Feldsher: Oh, my God, I have been waiting for this for probably more than 20 years, so it’s extremely exciting.
Oetting: And of course, the big question …
Have you seen cows on the path?
Cass: We haven’t seen cows (laughs).
Feldsher: No. We have not met any cow.
Oetting: Zachary Ormsby, with the Bureau of Land Management, says that many cows are pregnant, so their invisible fence is ready to allow them to walk in large spaces here so that they can find a perfect and isolated place for Calve. For NPR news, I am Jeremiah Oetting at the National Monument of Dairies of Cotoni-Coast.
(Soundbite of Music)
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