If Cows Could Talk, Here's What They Would Say . . .

Dear Hopeful Cow Owner,

Before you decide to bring me home and keep me as a family milk cow, here are a few things you should know about me . . .

1) I am a ruminant. I eat my food quickly and burp it up to chew my cud. When I swallow, my cud goes to my rumen, a large “stomach” full of good bacteria that help me ferment and digest my food. My rumen produces gas, which I burp up.  This means I have different needs than horses and other animals you may be used to.

2) I am a herd animal and do not like to be alone.  I’d rather have other cattle for company, but even a sheep or a goat will do.  I also hope to be treated kindly by you because I depend on you.

3) I need some basic infrastructure—at least a fenced pasture, a shelter if you get bad weather, a small pen to confine me when needed, and a way to hold me still in case I need treatment. 

4) In most cases, I need free-choice hay. Even out on pasture, please keep hay available for me. The fiber helps me digest my food. No matter what some people tell you, please don’t feed me moldy hay. If you wouldn’t feed it to a horse, don’t feed it to me.  All pastures are not equal, so my “good green grass” might not be as good as you suppose. And those clumps of long, green grass? That’s where I pooped, and it’s not on the menu!

5) Avoid abrupt changes in my feed, whether grain or spring grass.  Change it gradually and keep it that way for several days before another change. This gives my rumen time to adjust.  And by the way, PLEASE keep all feed double-locked.  If I can, I will sneak in and gorge myself—and that could kill me.

6) I need plenty of water, and if my tank runs dry I will suffer. I use a lot of water for digestion and even more for producing milk. Even in cold weather I need water, and if it’s too icy I won’t drink enough.

7) I need free access to minerals. What I need depends on what part of the country you live in, so please find out what I need. Salt is only one of the minerals I need, and horse salt blocks aren’t sufficient for me.

8) I need shade, enough to lie down in to comfortably chew my cud--trees or a shed, I’m not picky.

9) Think about pests. Flies really bug me. They bite my udder and teats and can give me mastitis or pink eye. Please control the flies! Sometimes I get worms, even though you may never see them. Try to rotate my pastures, and take fecal samples to the vet twice a year. He will tell you what wormer to use for me.

10) I need vaccinations against various diseases and probably a rumen magnet, too.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

11)  Think about my love life.  When I'm in the MOOOd for love, I can bellow loudly, day and night!  If I don't have secure fences, I just might go looking for love in all the wrong places.  I won't produce milk indefinitely; I'll eventually need a new calf, which means either getting a bull, sending me off to a bull, or AI.  How will that work with milking me?  

12) If I should get sick or hurt, PLEASE call the vet if it’s beyond your skill! I can have calving problems, mastitis, milk fever, ketosis, bloat or other things that could permanently hurt or even kill me. If you want me to take care of your family and provide you milk and meat, please care for me in return.

13) And finally, if I’m ever suffering from sickness or injury or old age and not even the vet can help me, PLEASE give me the final gift of love, a peaceful death.

Now let me tell you what I will do for you . . .

1) I will look beautiful in your pasture, giving you joy just by being there.

2) I will give you a calf every year and raise it for you.

3) I will give you affection in return for scratches.

4) I will teach your children responsibility and where their food comes from.

5) I will keep you in tune with nature and the cycle of life.

6) I will give you manure to compost for your garden.

7) I will keep your pastures and your lawn mowed.

8) I will let you be the boss of me--or at least let you think you are.

9) I will give you a reason to get up and go outside every day.

10) I will even be your friend and companion, if you so wish.

11) With care and good management I will share with you the milk that God intended for my calf.   I will not begrudge it, but will give it generously.

12) And when my life is over, I will feed you one last time if you so desire

. . . for I am a cow.

I, the undersigned, do agree and covenant to fulfill my responsibilities toward you, my owner—

The Cow

Will you, Future Cow Owner, agree and covenant to fulfill your responsibilities toward me?  If you do, I have one favor to ask:  Before you bring me home, please buy a copy of Keeping a Family Cow, by Joann S. Grohman and read it from cover to cover!

Hunkering Down: The Ice Man Cometh!

For you "Oldies" fans out there, the theme song of this post is "Limbo Rock" . . . you know that line, "How LOW can you GO?" ♫

Monday it's supposed to start raining, change to snow (although around here it could end up being freezing rain), and get down to a low of 4° with a wind chill of -10°.  BRRRRRR!  Tuesday is supposed to be relatively balmy with a high of 23° and a low of 13°.  After about 36 hours of the Ice Man, we're supposed to get back our more normal winter temps of low 40s during the day and about 27° at night.

Although Dexters and horses routinely do well in even more severe temperatures, our forecast deep freeze can come as a shock to livestock that aren't accustomed to it.  So this afternoon we did some hunkering down to get ready for the Ice Man.  (Herb will be seeing counseling clients till late Monday evening and won't be here to help me get ready.)

Herb got out a new round bale for the animals in the pasture.

While Herb took care of the round bale, I collected turn-out sheets from the tack room and took them down to dress Angel and Brandy for freezing rain, just in case.  Once the rain is over I'll probably take the blankets off so the girls can fluff back up and stay warm in the cold.

The horses are old hands at wearing blankets, but Julie wasn't quite sure about this.  I tried our smallest one on Julie, but it was still too big.   So poor Julie will just have to tough it out.

Herb brought down the Rubbermaid tank and filled both tanks in the pasture.  In case the ice freezes solid, it's easy to remove it from the Rubbermaid tank by whacking it with a heavy rubber mallet.  Tomorrow I'll run down there with a big log to float in each tank, which helps to prevent solid ice forming.

Boudin has been banished to solitary confinement in the Back Pasture ever since Cameron caught the big galoot trying to nurse Ebony over Christmas vacation.  We let him back in with the horses today so he can get to the hay and so that we don't have to go to the Back Pasture to break ice on the pond for him.   The less scattered our animals are, the easier it is for us to keep an eye on them.  Boudin still wants to be with Ebony, so we weren't taking any chances.

Herb led Ebony up to the barnyard (it is SO great dealing with halter-broken cattle!) where she promptly dug into the manger full of hay.  She is Boss Cow, so the others left her in peace, although Macree ventured to eat from the other side.

Next we got a pile of clean hay that had been strewn in the hay barn and we built a comfy nest for Misty in the feed area.  She may or may not choose to use it, but at least she'll have a dry, warm place to go.

We plugged in the electric dog bowl to keep some water warm for the chickens, ducks and Misty.  It's safely inside the feed area where the cattle won't mess with it.  (Let me add here that putting electricity in the barn is one of the smartest improvements we've made!)

The water tank got a de-icer plugged in, and we drained and hung the hose.  The proximity of the tank to the chicken coop allows us to run one extension cord up high out of reach of mischievous horses so that we can safely plug in the tank de-icer and a heat lamp for the chicken coop.

A new salt block encourages the animals to get plenty of salt and stay thirsty enough to drink the water, even though it's cold.

Next we got some exercise stripping the stall we use to separate Siobhan and Macree overnight for milking.  I'd gotten behind on this, so Herb helped me.  Between the two of us we were able to lift the loaded wheelbarrow enough to dump it into the manure spreader, saving us from having to shovel everything twice or carry each shovel load clear across the barnyard.  (I will not be milking Tuesday morning in near-zero temperatures!  It's better for the animals to share warmth when it's that cold, and I can very well imagine the milk freezing as it hits the pail--I have no need to see it!)

After filling the water bucket and stuffing the manger with hay, I spread lime over the wet spots on the clean floor and carried in lots of loose hay the cows have spilled around their manger and hay nets.  They won't eat it once they've dropped it, but it makes a nice clean bed for Siobhan.  (Since Sir Loin has joined the barnyard gang and has decided he should get to nurse like Macree, I need to put Siobhan in the stall instead of Macree.  That keeps Siobhan away from everyone who still has nursing on their minds!)

We turned on the heat lamp in the chicken coop as usual in the evening, and we'll just leave it burning until things warm up.  I added fresh clean hay to the nest boxes before covering them for the night.  (You can see our high-tech nest box covers here:  two door mats with handy holes.  I just drove nails in appropriate spots so we can hang the mats over them.  During the day they are propped on the folding door that covers the nest boxes.  The mats are heavy enough and just the perfect size to cover the nest box openings and keep the chickens out of them at night, thus cutting way down on chicken droppings in the nests.)

That's it--we're all hunkered down for the Ice Man.  Everything and everyone is as ready as we can get them . . . except poor Boudin, who is hanging out near the gate where he bid Ebony farewell!  Herb thinks we might find him frozen there Tuesday morning, but I have faith that he has enough sense to head down for some hay and shelter once his hunger overcomes his broken heart.  Meanwhile, he's making quite a racket letting everyone know how upset he is!  Moo away, Boudin--it'll keep you warm! 

Hay! It's That Time of Year

Right before I went to Virginia, we finally got our hay delivered.  We ordered 20 round bales to start with this winter, which would have meant five trips for Herb on five different evenings since he can only take four at a time pulling our trailer.  So we just decided to save him some time and get it delivered.

Scott, our hay guy, can get the whole load on his trailer in one trip.  He doesn't live far away, so he brings it over with his tractor, uses the tractor to unload the hay, and takes off.

It's up to Herb from there.

It's a job Herb enjoys, but it's always a bit of a rush to get the hay into the barn before dark since Scott can't deliver until supper-time.

Herb has mastered the skill of stacking bales on top of each other to save room in the barn.  He puts the bottom bales up on pallets to keep them away from any moisture that gets in the barn.  Since we had the front and back of the barn replaced a few weeks ago, the transparent panels are new--no more rain coming in on our hay!

About the first thing we had to do when I got home from Virginia was to put some hay out for the animals.  Although we were 20 inches ahead of normal annual rainfall up through the end of September, the spigot dried up in October.  We were lucky if we had half an inch for the whole month, and the grass is just not growing.  Here Herb is loading the hay ring into the pickup.

It's heartening to see a supply of hay in the barn, but we know 20 bales won't be enough for the winter when we have to start feeding it before the end of October.  However, we'd rather feed hay to supplement the grass that's left instead of letting the animals overgraze the pastures.

It goes a lot quicker with two of us.  I drove the truck down to the pasture while Herb followed with the hay on the tractor's hay spear.

He took the hay over to the run-in shed.

Watching Herb plop the hay down where we want it reminded me of our first year here when we had to manually roll round bales off our trailer and into the barn because we didn't have a tractor.  The only way to get hay to the animals was to tear it off in chunks, stuff it in a hay net, and carry that to the barnyard.

With the hay ring around the bale, there's room for multiple animals to get access to the hay from all around it without them being able to stand in it.   The hay stays dry from the weather and clean from the animals. Everyone gets plenty to eat without us having to stuff and haul hay nets.  I call that a win-win situation!  

Up on the Rooftop, Slick, Slick, Slick!

There's a lot of hammering going on around here right now.  In fact, our neighbor called to ask what was happening!

It turns out our roof was damaged by hail, so the insurance company is replacing it.  The puppies are terrified of the noise, but fortunately it won't last too long--if the weather will cooperate.

Like St. Nick, these guys are quick, quick, quick!

After one good, sunny day when they got the whole back part of the roof done, we've had misty drizzle that makes the roof pretty slick.  But these guys keep on working anyway.  They have fun while they work.  Occasionally I hear a whoop or holler or shriek, and I cringe in case it means someone fell off.  But so far it's just been good spirits, thank heavens!

You can see how much nicer the new roof (in back) looks than the old.  These new shingles are guaranteed not to streak for 10 years.  By 2023 I'll probably be too blind to notice the streaks, anyway!  I'm not too blind to see that the house badly needs pressure washing--and tucking the siding back where it belongs over the garage door.  Both of those are on the list, but we're waiting for some of the rain to let up and the weather to cool off; there's no point in pressure washing just to let the algae grow back!

Meanwhile over at the hay barn (what we call our quonset hut, for obvious reasons) some much-needed repairs are being done by Doug and Jeremy.  The old lap siding has been progressively sliding off . . .

... not to mention that the wood framing around the doors and windows has almost completely rotted away.

Here Jeremy is ripping the siding off the back after removing what was left of the translucent panels up top.  We really like having them there because they let light into the barn.

The brown part is pegboard that makes a handy tool storage area inside the back part of the barn.

When we moved in, that translucent stuff was still yellow, but it's darkened and dry-rotted and blown off in bits, letting the rain in onto our precious hay.  While we might have put up with a less than beautiful-looking barn, we can't tolerate our hay getting wet!  And that's why the barn is getting a makeover with new translucent panels and Hardiepanel, that wonderful paint-only-once-every-seven-years cement fiber siding.  It costs a bit more going up, but it saves in maintenance and painting in the long run.

As long as we've got these two handy guys around, I'm going to take a good look and see what else needs doing!