When I am presented with a new (or maybe simply an alternative) way of proceeding, I acknowledge I am cautious. That cautious approach often presents itself as hesitancy and often at looking why the “idea” won’t work. It is a great way to kill the imagination and creativity of the dreamers. Jesus ran into trouble with political and religious leaders of his day by presenting something “new”, an alternate way of doing things. You can eat and drink  with prostitutes, sinners and tax collectors. You can heal on the Sabbath. You can receive water from a woman at the well. And LIVE. (and you know it hasn’t always been done this way; only as far back as I can remember as it been done this way)My experience of farming is very limited; my experience of dairy farming is non existence, so whether this “cubicle” farming will be good or detrimental to the cow’s health or not I am unable to say. Whether the milk be significantly different from “free range” cow’s milk I have no idea. I have heard it is not so much about the cows per se as the environmental impact on the area from the amount of water being drawn off and waste products being collected etc. What has caught my attention is what is perhaps the generic question underlying this, namely, how do I react or respond to a “new” idea? Now “cubicle” or “stall” farming is not radically new. It is in fact a common practice in many northern hemisphere countries (and maybe that is why we place a cow in the crib at Christmas!) However, we in New Zealand are used to seeing cows in the padlock quietly munching and then once or twice a day making that trek to the milking shed and back. That’s the way it is done here. And just maybe that is the issue. I remember reading of the strife the Ford Motor Company experienced when Henry Ford insisted that they keep producing the Model T when other motor companies were producing bigger, brighter, cars. The company was near bankruptcy due to the intransigent stance that Henry Ford took.

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