cow blowing

{{MCN|date=January 2025}}

{{Short description|Dubious process to induce a cow to produce more milk}}

File:Cow Blow.jpg

Cow blowing,{{cite web | author = Clancy, Shae | date = 1999 | url-status=usurped | url = http://www.applewarrior.com/celticwell/ejournal/beltane/cattle_early_ireland.htm | title = Cattle In Early Ireland | work = Celtic Well | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110717032802/http://www.applewarrior.com/celticwell/ejournal/beltane/cattle_early_ireland.htm | archivedate=2011-07-17}} Kuhblasen,{{Cite journal |last=Sierksma |first=F. |date=1963 |title=Sacred Cairns in Pastoral Cultures |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062065 |journal=History of Religions |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=227–241 |doi=10.1086/462462 |jstor=1062065 |s2cid=162204945 |issn=0018-2710|url-access=subscription }} phooka, or doom dev{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/11237/1/the_prevention_of_cruelty_to_animals_act%2C_1960.pdf|title=The Prevention of cruelty to animals act, 1960 (paragraph 12)}} is a process in which a farmer forcefully blows air into a cow's vulva or anus to supposedly induce her to produce more milk. A tube may be used to provide some sanitary separation between the blower and the cow, although not every culture that practices cow blowing does so.

Information on the origin, spread and efficacy of this practice appears to be quite scarce.

Cow blowing was the reason why Gandhi disliked dairy products, stating that "since I had come to know that the cow and the buffalo were subjected to the process of phooka, I had conceived a strong disgust for milk."{{cite book|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas K.|title=The Story of My Experiments with Truth|year=1927|pages=part 5, chapter XXIX |url=https://archive.org/stream/AnAutobiographyOrTheStoryOfMyExperimentsWithTruth/autobiography#page/n241/mode/2up/search/phooka}}

The practice has been illegal in New Zealand since 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2018/0050/38.0/LMS22821.html|title=Animal Welfare (Care and Procedures) Regulations 2018}} In 2020 the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards revoked their 'Share Farmer of the Year' award over a dairy farmer's tweets about the practice.{{cite news |last=Taunton |first=Esther |date=July 10, 2020 |title=Dairy farmer stripped of national title after offensive tweets surface |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/122102488/dairy-farmer-stripped-of-national-title-after-offensive-tweets-surface |work=Stuff |access-date=October 7, 2024}}