Dairy Don’ts [Re “‘Get Big or Get Out,'” May 31]: Kirk Kardashian addressed the abuse of migrant workers and the pollution problems of industrial dairy production in Vermont but left out a central element in the equation — the animals from whose bodies the 300 million gallons of milk is extracted annually. As Vermont dairy farms have increased in size, animal welfare has necessarily declined. The photo of the milking barn at Blue Spruce Farm says it all: hundreds of heifers on elevated metal platforms hooked up to automatic milking machines with zero opportunity to engage in any natural behaviors. Each one of those cows gave birth to a calf destined for life as a veal calf or an equally awful life as a heifer cow. A heifer’s life on a dairy farm is a cycle of pregnancy, birthing and milking until her life ends at a slaughterhouse. Cows are sentient beings who experience grief and despair after the loss of their newborn calves. Cows are ruminants designed to graze for seven to 12 hours a day. Cows are social animals and bond with others in their herd. They are not machines. Despite millions in taxes that Vermonters pay to clean up after Vermont dairy farms, the government shows no signs that it will support small organic dairy farms, like Canada does, and federal regulation/national market forces wouldn’t allow the state to do so anyway. The only real solution to the problem of giant dairy farms befouling the Green Mountain State is to stop promoting dairy farming as a Vermont brand. Lucy Goodrum Reading Farmer Brown [Re “How Now?”: The Dairy Issue, May 31]: I find it interesting that in developed countries such as ours, the preferred use of the term “farmer” is to apply it to the landowner or individual with an ownership stake in the farm business. The people hired to help nurture and harvest the crops and do other agricultural work? Farmworkers or farmhands. Why is this? I prefer the older definition, where anyone laboring to grow plants or raise animals is a farmer, whether they happen to be fortunate enough to own the business or not. Jill Andersen St. George Kudos and Criticism Kudos on your dairy industry cover story [“‘Get Big or Get Out,'” May 31]! We simply drive by every day without much thought as dairy farming in Vermont has gone from “more cows…