the cows..

Until now I have had no previous experience with cows.  Besides at some local fair I never really even touched a cow.  Once or twice as a kid I remember visiting a dairy farm owned by some friends of my mothers.  Those cows spent most of their lives in stalls standing in their own feces. Of course I have seen many cows driving around the back roads of this state, after all, I do live in MAINE.

I showed up at the farm one morning recently and Joel was waiting for me.  It isn't unusual for him to meet me down front, but lately I don't usually see him till my chores are done; it to me said something was up.  So I got out of the car and he tells me we need to get the cows some water.  I was excited!  I had not yet seen the cows but had heard all about them.  The weather this summer has been pretty dry and all of the resources that Joel usually takes from which consist of about 3 farm ponds have all but dried up.  Normally the cows have pasture pumps, but since the ponds are pretty much dry we are reduced to manually trucking up water to them by means of portable water storage tanks.  We fill the tanks and truck them out into the pasture then fill up portable water bins from which they drink.

From what Joel tells me his cows are some of the best examples of grass fed animals around.  I can't argue since I know jack squat about cows and what healthy indicators to look for.  I can tell you this.  I have seen cows, mostly dairy cows and to me they always seem to either be in stalls or walking around slowly in some pasture.  I can't tell if they are happy or not.

When we got to the pasture I was immediately stunned into silence (unusual for me).  Before me stood a heard of beautiful Devon cows standing in at least 100 acres of wide open pasture..unbelievable..it was one of those reaffirmation moments when I knew farming was what I wanted to do.