Potty Training Cows and Kids

While scraping the lots today...



I momentarily gave thought to the idea of potty training our dairy cows. Maybe it was from lack of sleep, maybe it was from what seemed to be sheer volume our girls seems to put out, I still thought about it in spite of the fact that I know that by spreading it on our fields it makes a good fertilizer. Again, it was only momentarily.

Then I reminded my self of my success rate of potty training at home. This is the kids' bathroom toilet. Study this photo well because one of the most important features is hiding.

Here it is! I call it the "handle."

The handle is for flushing. Flushing the bad, the stinky, the....well, it takes it all away. I can only assume that the "handle" has magical properties because those below the age of two can find it with their fingers faster than finding the holes in their nose. And they know what to do with it. Flush. Flush. Flush. Evidently between the ages of two and twelve the handle mysteriously vanishes, and thus it is never used.

The two year old, the young bull of the house, is as trained as the cows in herd. What is the difference in relieving one's self in the middle of the pasture and the in hallway of your house? Unlike the cows, who leave their mess for someone to find and scrape away, he does inform the household of the great deed he has done.

As it turns out, I am not the first to imagine potty training cows and calves. Alison Vaughan, who studies at Western College of Veterinary, is doing research on potty training cows. Her idea is that if they do their business where they don't lay down then they will stay cleaner and healthier. Sounds like a good plan and she has had some success.

Me potty training the cows? I guess I will let cows be cows and kids be kids.

Changing Dairy On The Go

I wrote a post a week or so ago about how dairy needs to capture more of the on the go market and how they need to innovate to do so. After a bit of brainstorming I came up with three ideas.

Better Milk Containers For Kids

Let me go ahead and admit something, something that might seem terrible: I don't often buy milk for my kids when we go out unless we go to a restaurant. If you've ever had to clean up two pints of chocolate milk soaked into the carpet and seat of your car you might have some sympathy. My main two reasons of not purchasing the milk is because of the size and the lid. While I have found one pint containers of milk at convenience stores, more often than not it is the two pint size with a big lid.

 Milk's competition for on-the-go drinks for kids is in an approximate pint size and has an easy open push up to open push down to close lid. For the kid that doesn't need a sippy cup anymore but is still too small for a big drink these are perfect! Why can't milk be packaged like that?

Diet Milk

You can buy low calorie or no calorie sodas and other drinks, but not milk. Someone on a diet may look at milk and the calorie counts in the two pint container and think it will totally blow their diet and choose a Diet Coke instead. Obviously I know they are missing out on all the nutrition that comes with the natural goodness milk has, but isn't there a way to meet the wants of this consumer too?

I propose Diet Milk, all the nutrition with less calories. I'm not a food scientist so I can't say how to make this, but I do know that the dairy industry is asking to be allowed to add non-nutritive sweeteners to milk, like Stevia, for instance. My friend Dairy Carrie has a great post on the facts on this. This would allow flavored milk to be of lower calorie counts as well as doing my proposed Diet Milk.

Milk Is For Adults

I think adults have the opinion that milk is a kid's drink. When you go to a fast food restaurant the combo meals comes with tea, soft drinks, or water. No option for milk. How often do you see a photo of a meal for adults in restaurant's menu with a tall glass of milk to go with it? Maybe on the breakfast menu, but not the lunch or dinner menu. 

I think we should remind people that milk is beneficial for adults as well as children. The research proving how chocolate milk is a great recovery drink for athletes has been good for this and so has the coffee and milk drinks being sold. Still, what's wrong with a serving of milk to go?

So good ideas? Bad ideas? Room for improvement? How would you innovate dairy on the go?