obama with his funny hayhat!
part 3-safety on the farm
cows in general , friends or wild animals? is there a symbiotic relationship between you and your animal that you think exists, or is it this is just a wild animal and must always be treated as such. this is just another aspect of farming one really does not here a lot about in terms of how deadly it is and why it makes farming especially livestock production potentially dangerous. being in proximity to large animals up to 2000 pounds or more, along with nervous cattle in over crowding conditions with nervous cattle thrashing here and there to avoid you can suddenly turn bad , with you as the aggressor being run over by one or all animals in their efforts to avoid you.i really feel no cow has complete sense of loyalty to you when t is in fight or flight mode , the same as humans in that respect. this is the same way nature reacts across all species.
any animal will first seek to save itself from general harm , then second the maternal instinct of species is to save those closest to them as in a cow calf relationship. a mother cow will easily stand up to predators when it comes to protecting her own. also a bull will stand up for that cow and all cows as he protects his herd. it seems as if humans are the only ones who actually go out of our way to not only protect our own but somewhere along the way started protecting other animals in an effort to make available milk and meat to sustain ourselves during times of need. we have forced this free roaming animals into fences and then pens and now into feedlots.
i was brought up with cattle all my life. one of my earliest recollections was when i was about 4 years old and following mom to the barn and sitting and watching her milk. i had done the same with grandpa as he owned 6 cows they would hand milk into buckets and then separate the cream cool the milk . then they place the milk by the road where upon a milk truck driver would stop and drop off cans and pickup the milk that day to be taken to the malvern dairy for processing into ice cream. all i knew or much cared about was the nestles quik we had stored on the windowsill. and that if i took my mirrored painted aluminum glass with me to the barn i could have mom dump a couple of teaspoons of quick into the glass and fill with the warm milk straight out of a cows teat as mom would stream the milk from the cows bag and it would whip up into a frothy head as it filled the glass. it was warm through the sides of the glass , and this would feel good on your hands as you were holding it and stirring and mixing the quik into the fresh milk. what a treat for young boy and i learned that cows could be our friends . and then at 5, i sat down and milked my first cow grasping and squeezing my own frothy steaming glasses of milk as mom soon tired of me interrupting her milking to fill my tin glass.
so me and sally a Guernsey cow who had teats like handle grips on a harley would repeatedly fill up warm glasses of milk for me to drink. this happened til i went to school and found that cartons of chocolate milk to be just as flavorful . now drinking unpasteurized cow"s milk is now making a comeback with some back to nature groups.
safety and cattle should hardly be used when talking about my experience of milking cows. i have also been kicked, swatted, stomped on , bashed, bruised, and downright wore out, or made sick by cattle over the years. once my dad , my brother and i were walking across a pasture field when a large bull we had, jumped into the air and planted his feet and gave the characteristic, i am going to kick all your asses head flop , and snorted to seal the deal . at this point he started to pawl the dirt throwing it high over his back. dad looked at us boys and calmly said , we will charge him on 3 and as dad counted down we all lunged and yelled at the bull who was so scared he turned and ran like we were crazy, and we were . we had no choice but to be crazy and call his bluff. we couldn't all out run him and we were in the middle of the pasture with a long way to run to get to safety and what if one was left behind. we only had one choice to surprise him. not nearly as surprised as he was the next day when he went to the sale barn. we have never kept a bull who has gone mean. a mean bull can easily kill .
once when working on a 250 cow calf farm i was entrusted with the feeding of the bull. he was a pure bred simental bull from the simen valley in switzerland. they are a gentile milking and beef breed , who has cows that easily go over ton a piece. producing large calves of over 110 lbs at birth. this bull was recently weighed at that time and was 2409 pounds. his head was massive. at times he would rip his feed pails away from the sides of the bull pen he was kept in. the bull pen was an outside and inside pipe fence which was over 8 foot tall and had bars spaced at 2 foot intervals on each wall. it was tough to fit between them , but sometimes you could squeeze through to retrieve the bull's feed pans as we were never allowed inside by ourselves. but he needed fed and so i took a chance and opened door to retrieve his feed pails and . i closed the door behind me and now i was inside the pen and i tried to keep my eyes on him. but in a second , i must have glanced elsewhere. the next thing i know , something hit my legs and started lifting me up as if was on an elevator of sorts. i was climbing the side of the bull pen as i went higher. i continued when the pressure left my rear and then i turned around at the top of pipe fence as i was now crouching at the ceiling, to see what i already knew. that huge ass bull head had just threw me to the top of the pen. common sense should have taken over now, but it sadly didn't as i looked at that bull and decided that just escaping was not going to be enough for me or him . and that indeed he needed rewarded for scaring the shit out of me. so i decided to let loose with a size 13 shoe between his eyes as hard as i could. he shook his head and snorted and ran to the outside edge of the pen as far away from me as he could and sulked like a little baby as if i hurt him.
and maybe i had , but he hurt me also. my unwavering acceptance of cattle and thinking i knew everything , did not help me a bit when , nature reared its ugly head as it does when you least expect it. i had allowed my guard to be down and in an instant i could have easily been killed. unfortunately brushes with death seem to accompany me at times of my life and yet i am still here. still have all my appendages and have only a sore back and some distant memories to show for my years. farming does put you in more of a position to be hurt but then that is the nature of the beast we call farming. you work alone for hours on end with heavy equipment and in remote locations and until the recent cell phone explosion , we were generally with out any communication. the cell phone has been a blessing and will continue to be in the future as farmers become more dependant and consistent in carrying them on their bodies everywhere. you never know where a heart attack may happen or for whatever reason you may need help , to know it is only a phone call away is a real blessing for all farmers and farm labor. let alone the ability to communicate with your workers to direct them on work to do. farming has changed
safety and cattle should hardly be used when talking about my experience of milking cows. i have also been kicked, swatted, stomped on , bashed, bruised, and downright wore out, or made sick by cattle over the years. once my dad , my brother and i were walking across a pasture field when a large bull we had, jumped into the air and planted his feet and gave the characteristic, i am going to kick all your asses head flop , and snorted to seal the deal . at this point he started to pawl the dirt throwing it high over his back. dad looked at us boys and calmly said , we will charge him on 3 and as dad counted down we all lunged and yelled at the bull who was so scared he turned and ran like we were crazy, and we were . we had no choice but to be crazy and call his bluff. we couldn't all out run him and we were in the middle of the pasture with a long way to run to get to safety and what if one was left behind. we only had one choice to surprise him. not nearly as surprised as he was the next day when he went to the sale barn. we have never kept a bull who has gone mean. a mean bull can easily kill .
once when working on a 250 cow calf farm i was entrusted with the feeding of the bull. he was a pure bred simental bull from the simen valley in switzerland. they are a gentile milking and beef breed , who has cows that easily go over ton a piece. producing large calves of over 110 lbs at birth. this bull was recently weighed at that time and was 2409 pounds. his head was massive. at times he would rip his feed pails away from the sides of the bull pen he was kept in. the bull pen was an outside and inside pipe fence which was over 8 foot tall and had bars spaced at 2 foot intervals on each wall. it was tough to fit between them , but sometimes you could squeeze through to retrieve the bull's feed pans as we were never allowed inside by ourselves. but he needed fed and so i took a chance and opened door to retrieve his feed pails and . i closed the door behind me and now i was inside the pen and i tried to keep my eyes on him. but in a second , i must have glanced elsewhere. the next thing i know , something hit my legs and started lifting me up as if was on an elevator of sorts. i was climbing the side of the bull pen as i went higher. i continued when the pressure left my rear and then i turned around at the top of pipe fence as i was now crouching at the ceiling, to see what i already knew. that huge ass bull head had just threw me to the top of the pen. common sense should have taken over now, but it sadly didn't as i looked at that bull and decided that just escaping was not going to be enough for me or him . and that indeed he needed rewarded for scaring the shit out of me. so i decided to let loose with a size 13 shoe between his eyes as hard as i could. he shook his head and snorted and ran to the outside edge of the pen as far away from me as he could and sulked like a little baby as if i hurt him.
and maybe i had , but he hurt me also. my unwavering acceptance of cattle and thinking i knew everything , did not help me a bit when , nature reared its ugly head as it does when you least expect it. i had allowed my guard to be down and in an instant i could have easily been killed. unfortunately brushes with death seem to accompany me at times of my life and yet i am still here. still have all my appendages and have only a sore back and some distant memories to show for my years. farming does put you in more of a position to be hurt but then that is the nature of the beast we call farming. you work alone for hours on end with heavy equipment and in remote locations and until the recent cell phone explosion , we were generally with out any communication. the cell phone has been a blessing and will continue to be in the future as farmers become more dependant and consistent in carrying them on their bodies everywhere. you never know where a heart attack may happen or for whatever reason you may need help , to know it is only a phone call away is a real blessing for all farmers and farm labor. let alone the ability to communicate with your workers to direct them on work to do. farming has changed
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Love your art work !
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