It was a normal Thursday night for this farmin' family. The Dairy Farmer in his kerchief and I in my cap, had just settled in for a long winter's nap....or, something along those lines. More like we were just settling in to watch American Idol.
I heard The DF open the front door and someone say "you have cows out." Nothing...and I repeat nothing, can get that man moving faster than a speeding bullet like those three little words.....cows are out. In farm terms, that is a code red, high level, emergency of the first degree. You never know how many, which ones or where they are heading.
Normally- if one or two get out, they tend to hang tight to the others still inside. If big mommas get out, they tend to wander around aimlessly....looking for some good eats and every now and again, they may kick up their heals, but they don't really go too far. It's hard to run when you have a ginormous udder swinging between your legs.
If the heifers get out....well, look out. It's like girls gone wild. They are tricky, they are fast and they enjoy the wide open spaces.
When the call is sounded-----years of experience have taught me to stay put until I am called into action. I knew it wasn't good this time, because it was 7:30 at night, already dark and they are black and white...not the easiest to see in the dark, and they were already on the road. We live on a fairly busy road here in the Ville. The speed limit has been lowered to 45mph.....but darn near everyone still flies by at 55-60mph. We also live on a straight stretch with a passing zone....so you can image that The DF's heart was racing a bit trying to get these cows back in. We certainly pray that no one hits a cow at 55mph! That is not good on all accounts.
As I was waiting to hear what was going on.....Farm Boy Jr. Edition came in and said "suit up, woman! Get off your lazy beehind! Your husband needs you! We can't continue on without you and your cow expertise!" Not really, he just said "c'mon mom." Which in my head....I knew was not good. That probably meant we had heifers out....and lots of em.
I tore open the shutters and threw up the sash and what to my wondering eyes should appear.......but this.......standing in my front yard:
Ok.....a couple things here. I knew in this time of crisis, that grabbing my camera was not going to make The Dairy Farmer happy, so you are seeing pics "post emergency."
And, I have been on this farm long enough to know.....these ain't our cows. We have Holstein dairy cattle.....and this motley crue of fat, furry suckers are most certainly not dairy. This here....is a couple thousand dollars worth of beef.
Regardless of who they are.....they needed to be off the road and in a safe place until someone can claim them. (I'm not gonna lie.....we did have thoughts of New York strip, fillet mignon and prime rib floating around in our heads.) Some of us may have been drooling.
Together with my father in law, his wife, our employee from across the street, my 2 punks, The Dairy Farmer, myself and 2 dogs barking frantically out the window....we corralled these super slow, fairly friendly cows into our barn. It was not an easy task.
Our girls are not super friendly....while they are cool with being handled, they have a little skittish streak...so when you try to heard them somewhere- a wave of the hand and a "c'mon girls" gets them moving in the right direction. These things...well they didn't move fast- they wanted petted and scratched and I am pretty sure that The DF pushed them by hand down our driveway. He was a bit sweaty and out of breath when I arrived on the scene.
Because we don't know them. We can't have them co-mingling with our ladies. We don't want to spread any disease and it's a huge disruption to the girls who love law and order (mostly criminal intent...not SVU....I don't let them watch it, it makes them have bad dreams). Plus, we could see as we were pushing them into the barn, these guys weren't fixed. So, we sure don't want them to have a sleepover with our lovely holsteins!
After they were in the barn, we then loaded them on our stock trailer to spend the night until we could find their owner. We gave them some food and water and tucked them in tight. See you in the morning, travelers, we'll find your daddy soon.
And then, we stood around in our driveway with my in laws- visiting.....and reliving our super exciting Thursday night. Then we all dispersed and went in the house to finish watching American Idol.....speaking of which....how good is that Jessica Sanchez? She did Whitney proud.
I wondered how on earth we were going to find the owner. I suggested contacting the radio station, but The Dairy Farmer always knows best. He made one phone call, which lasted about 2 seconds....dairy farmers always keep it short and sweet. About 15 minutes later, the phone rang, the owner was located and within 10 minutes, The DF returned the cows.....shattering our hopes and dreams of having a big neighborhood Bar B Que.
So, that....my farm following friends....is what happened on Thursday night. It's always nice to shake things up a bit.
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I heard The DF open the front door and someone say "you have cows out." Nothing...and I repeat nothing, can get that man moving faster than a speeding bullet like those three little words.....cows are out. In farm terms, that is a code red, high level, emergency of the first degree. You never know how many, which ones or where they are heading.
Normally- if one or two get out, they tend to hang tight to the others still inside. If big mommas get out, they tend to wander around aimlessly....looking for some good eats and every now and again, they may kick up their heals, but they don't really go too far. It's hard to run when you have a ginormous udder swinging between your legs.
If the heifers get out....well, look out. It's like girls gone wild. They are tricky, they are fast and they enjoy the wide open spaces.
When the call is sounded-----years of experience have taught me to stay put until I am called into action. I knew it wasn't good this time, because it was 7:30 at night, already dark and they are black and white...not the easiest to see in the dark, and they were already on the road. We live on a fairly busy road here in the Ville. The speed limit has been lowered to 45mph.....but darn near everyone still flies by at 55-60mph. We also live on a straight stretch with a passing zone....so you can image that The DF's heart was racing a bit trying to get these cows back in. We certainly pray that no one hits a cow at 55mph! That is not good on all accounts.
As I was waiting to hear what was going on.....Farm Boy Jr. Edition came in and said "suit up, woman! Get off your lazy beehind! Your husband needs you! We can't continue on without you and your cow expertise!" Not really, he just said "c'mon mom." Which in my head....I knew was not good. That probably meant we had heifers out....and lots of em.
I tore open the shutters and threw up the sash and what to my wondering eyes should appear.......but this.......standing in my front yard:
And, I have been on this farm long enough to know.....these ain't our cows. We have Holstein dairy cattle.....and this motley crue of fat, furry suckers are most certainly not dairy. This here....is a couple thousand dollars worth of beef.
Regardless of who they are.....they needed to be off the road and in a safe place until someone can claim them. (I'm not gonna lie.....we did have thoughts of New York strip, fillet mignon and prime rib floating around in our heads.) Some of us may have been drooling.
Together with my father in law, his wife, our employee from across the street, my 2 punks, The Dairy Farmer, myself and 2 dogs barking frantically out the window....we corralled these super slow, fairly friendly cows into our barn. It was not an easy task.
Our girls are not super friendly....while they are cool with being handled, they have a little skittish streak...so when you try to heard them somewhere- a wave of the hand and a "c'mon girls" gets them moving in the right direction. These things...well they didn't move fast- they wanted petted and scratched and I am pretty sure that The DF pushed them by hand down our driveway. He was a bit sweaty and out of breath when I arrived on the scene.
After they were in the barn, we then loaded them on our stock trailer to spend the night until we could find their owner. We gave them some food and water and tucked them in tight. See you in the morning, travelers, we'll find your daddy soon.
And then, we stood around in our driveway with my in laws- visiting.....and reliving our super exciting Thursday night. Then we all dispersed and went in the house to finish watching American Idol.....speaking of which....how good is that Jessica Sanchez? She did Whitney proud.
I wondered how on earth we were going to find the owner. I suggested contacting the radio station, but The Dairy Farmer always knows best. He made one phone call, which lasted about 2 seconds....dairy farmers always keep it short and sweet. About 15 minutes later, the phone rang, the owner was located and within 10 minutes, The DF returned the cows.....shattering our hopes and dreams of having a big neighborhood Bar B Que.
So, that....my farm following friends....is what happened on Thursday night. It's always nice to shake things up a bit.
