Cow College

My daughter-in-law was visiting last weekend and was fascinated by our black angus cows. She asked if they had their own personalities and I said "Yes, absolutely!" I have studied them, in fact, and have found that they are most interesting creatures and that some traits are quite human.

I recall several years ago when our first calf was born. I named her April because that was when she was born: in April. I discovered the second year that naming the cows was probably not a good idea. They come and go.... I was hoping they would COME and not go. That wasn't very realistic. Anyway, April was only a month old and Andy and I were sort of sitting in the middle of the herd, watching them when suddenly, they all started running. Something spooked them, we didn't see or hear anything, but they panicked and took off with tiny April in tow. I was sure the cows and huge bull would trample her, but when the dust cleared and we moved closer to them we saw an amazing sight. They adult cows had circled April like a wagon train would have before battle. They were going to protect their newest member of the family. I thought that was just wonderful.

We had a female who couldn't get pregnant. We kept her for over a year, hoping she and the bull (his name is Bucky) would fall in love and produce a little one. They didn't and she began to be aggressive with us. We would call them to follow us when we moved them from one pasture to another and we always gave them sweet feed at the end of this adventure. This female started to run next to us and kick up her back legs trying to kick the golf cart or us. She did this repeatedly until Andy punched her in the nose and she would calm down a bit. After several punched noses, she was broken of her habit, but she had to go to market eventually due to indifference to our rather studly bull.

"Grandma" is an older cow. She has produced several nice calves for us and we are not sure how old she was when we bought her. We think that several years were shaved off of her papers. But, she is a good old girl and a wonderful babysitter for the babies. Grandma will stay with all the little ones, like a nanny while the mamas and daddy graze and wander around. She is starting to limp a little and walk slower than the rest, but for the time being, we will keep her because she has such a big heart.

The babies, I call them, or calves are so much fun to watch. They actually "frolic" during the first few months. They "hang" together and even get in trouble together. Two of them used to wriggle under one area of fence and go roam around on someone Else's property. Then when their mama yelled at them, they would try to crawl back, but couldn't figure out the way to do it. They would cry, I would cry and Andy would have to run them back through a gate.

Bucky Bull is a gentle giant. He is a little bit skittish when we are around, but has never, ever tried to charge or well, BULLY us. He is a good looking guy too, worthy of any ladies' admiration. I have a healthy respect for Bucky Bull and never turn my back on him. Just saying!

Andy and I went to Cow College for a day a couple of years ago. It was a class toward certification in quality assurance. There were tests and demos, hands on work and at the end of the day, Andy had graduated but I had not. We had to give immunization injections, which he had done a million times. I hate needles and so I failed at shot-giving. Andy graduated from Cow College. I am happy with being the assistant to the professor.

Andy had a pacemaker installed a couple of weeks ago and cannot lift more than the weight of a gallon of milk for 6 more weeks. Now that it is getting winter, the grass is not growing- obviously. So, we must put out huge hay bails for the cows. We also give the calves small square bales of good hay that we cut ourselves. It is still green and they love it. Those bales are 40 - 50 pounds but are tied with twine and I can handle them very easily. The grain that we give them everyday comes in 50 pound bags. The bags are slippery and I have a hard time just gathering it up to put in the trough. I have been struggling with these bags ever since Andy's surgery. My son helped one day while here over Thanksgiving and got a little taste of farm life. Other than the cow pies in the field he did very well. They cow pies are everywhere and I told him that one time I went to help Andy with the cows but forgot to change my shoes. My motto quickly became: NEVER GO TO THE COW PASTURE IN SANDALS! New sandals at that.

So that is a little look into the personalities of our cows. We give them a very good home while they are with us and try not to think about their future too much. They have a good home, food, clean water and a very amorous and charming bull to keep them company. We think they are a happy bunch.