Quote:
Originally Posted by ballaratdragons
Some of the farmers around here still think DST is stupid because it mucks up their cows milking cycles
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Actually, there is a logic to this... let me explain.
Commercial farms that have milking cows are on a "tight" time schedule with respect to when the receiving trucks arrive to accept a load of milk at a dairy.
Because it is humans who are the dominant species and we have invented the concept of time (in the cognitive sense, not with respect to the universe)... the truck arrives everyday at *exactly* the same time (say 4am). A problem arises when DST is in effect. The cows are now milked an hour out of their normal routine, thus disrupting the milking cycle. This would not be a problem if the truck schedule were independent from DST and always used say UTC, but this would require the people working for the company to shift their entire day by one hour. Since we are the dominant species on the planet and control what we want to control, we allow the workers to clock-in at the same "chronological" time everyday.
So, humans are happy, but the cows are not. This is why you hear the argument that the it disrupts the cows milking cycle. In fact, it is humans who disrupt the milking cycle by not yielding to the needs of the cows to be milked on a fixed schedule. The dairy industry is a $4bn p.a. market, to disrupt the cows even for a short term (probably a couple of weeks to adjust to the new milking schedule?... just guessing, I'm an engineer, not a farmer)... would cause them to suffer some financial losses.
OIC!