We rescued another cow this week!

[willow_girl]

Meet Marianne, who has taken up residence at Dysfunction Junction after narrowly escaping a date with the meat packers this week.

Isn't she purdy?

She is making 60 lbs. of milk a day (and I'm hand milking ... oy) and in May she tested positive for an A.I.-sired (by me) calf due Dec. 9.

This was not really planned ... had you told me Monday morning I'd be the proud owner of a lactating cow before the day was out, I'd have said you were on drugs.

But, well, sometimes you just gotta go where life takes you!

Incidentally, I named my late great cow Twister after the tornado-shaped white mark on her forehead. If I'd done the same with this one, her name surely would be "Apostrophe," or maybe, "Cartoon Thought Bubble."

[G. Seddon]

What very good news for Marianne! So glad that you saved her, and I bet she pays you back big time! Congratulations, willow_girl.

[tab]

Hah, the only animals I get to rescue are cats, up to 18 and there seems to be another drop off!!! I threatened to start eating them {No, not really!!}

She is purdy! Tell us the rescue story, it sounds like a good pay back already.
My hats off to you for hand milking.

[topside1]

Dysfunction Junction is the place to be, farm living is the life for me....Topside

[gone-a-milkin]

Oh goodness, she sure IS pretty.
And you will be calving her out in December.

Congratulations and happy drowning in milk for all at the Junction!

[G. Seddon]

Originally Posted by tab

Hah, the only animals I get to rescue are cats, up to 18 and there seems to be another drop off!!! I threatened to start eating them {No, not really!!}

Hope you have a spay/neuter program available!

[tab]

Originally Posted by G. Seddon

Hope you have a spay/neuter program available!

Nope, out of pocket. Thankfully horse vet does the boys cheap right here. Girls go to a different vet, who is pretty reasonable. It adds to why I hate people who abuse animals, cows, horses, cats dogs, any of them.

[tab]

Willow, what are you doing with gallons and gallons of milk!?

[willow_girl]

I think I'm going to save it up and take a bath in it!

I'm hoping her milk will fall off a bit on a dry-cow diet of hay, but the paddock she's in is full of lush green grass. Oy ...

I need to make friends with a family with a lot of kids!

OK, by popular demand, here's the story of her rescue, which I penned for our forum last night:

Imagine my shock and horror when I got to work Monday and discovered my boss had put one of my favorite cows on the truck!

Well, she'd been a very bad girl, which was not so unusual for Marianne, who has, shall we say, a bit more personality than your average cow. In a boisterous moment, she knocked down my bosses' 85-year-old father, bruising his leg badly. She had gotten into the (bad) habit of rushing up behind us, having discovered that it startles humans and makes them shriek. (I swear this cow has a sense of humor. ) But she tried that with the wrong person, and my boss didn't want a repeat of the incident, so he culled her.



In a state of panic, I rang up Numb, and asked him if he knew where the stockyards in Eighty-Four were. (He didn't.) I said, "Well, you need to find out, and go down there and save my cow!" (I couldn't leave work -- there was no one else to milk.)

So off he went, being the sweetheart he is. He found her in the throng of down-and-out cows, and, upon checking with the sale barn office, learned she'd already been sold, to a buyer for the Cargill slaughterhouse on the other side of the state, and was due to be shipped Tuesday night. Numb tried to talk the clerks into putting him in touch with the buyer, in hopes he might sell her to me, but they wouldn't cooperate. But Numb, being Numb, was persistent (it's one of his fine qualities), until finally an old man sitting off to the side started cackling and said, "Come back and see me tonight, after 9 when everyone's gone. I'll be here all night loading cattle."

So as soon as I got home from work, off we went, having no idea what was going to happen, or if the old dude was going to be able to do anything more than let me say goodbye to my pet cow. We had scraped together every dollar in cash that we'd had in the house; I was driving like a bat outta hell; and Numb was terrified that we'd get pulled over and the police would mistake it for drug money. (I was, like, "What? You don't think they'd believe we were just trying to buy a cow?")

When we arrived at the stockyards, we found the old dude, George, who was holding down the fort by himself on a hot summer night. After some small talk and sizing us up a bit, he made two phone calls, and arranged for Marianne's buyer to sell her to me for $50 more than he'd paid for her. (The buyer obviously had no idea just how much he could have gotten away with charging me.) Then he found a nearby dairy farmer just in from milking who was willing to drop everything and haul a cow for us in the middle of the night.

There are angels among us, and George is surely one of them.

So, Monday around midnight, Marianne officially took up residence here at Dysfunction Junction. She's making 60 lbs. of milk a day (and I'm hand-milking ... oy) and is due with an A.I.-sired (by me!) calf in early December. I'm not sure whether we'll keep her here or possibly send her off to live with the Krishnas ... right now, because this is all so new, we're just taking things one day at a time. We haven't even started using her milk yet, although the dogs and cats are getting fatter with each milking.

Breaking out my old 1950s-era Monkey Wards pasteurizer and cutting muslin into squares for filters today, I felt like a woman who has an unexpected pregnancy in middle age. I certainly didn't expect to be doing this again. But, well, here we are.

Incidentally, Marianne has been exceedingly well-behaved since she's been here. (I think having a more mentally-stimulating environment might tone down her boisterousness a bit.) Numb's taught her to walk on a lead rope like a horse already. (Or it could be that she just adores him and would follow him even without the rope ... that's also possible.) He took out her yellow ear tag and (this is too kewl, seriously) made her a prosthetic tail out of vetwrap and baler twine so she can flick the flies off her back like a proper cow. (The farmer I work for docks the cows' tails to keep them clean but uses fly spray in the barn, which we didn't have on hand this morning until we were able to get to Tractor Supply.)

When I went in to work tonight, I figured I'd better 'fess up to my boss as to what I'd done, as he'd surely find out through the "farmer's network" eventually. I started by saying I'd noticed he'd shipped another cow, #904, whom I'd called The Gimp because she was chronically lame. We'd tried everything and she simply didn't respond, and it was better for her not to suffer. He agreed. Then I said, "And I'm sure 1011 [Marianne] went to a better place," and he said, "Yeah, uh-huh," and I said, "I know, because right now she's living in Numb's backyard!"

He was surprised as heck, but you know, I think he was kinda glad, too. I know I am.

[tab]

Cool story. Funny thing, sometimes the crusty old birds still have soft spots.

Wonder is she'd foster babies.....with almost 8 gallons a day you could raise pigs, calves and make lots of cheese! Plus take a bath in it! I think most cows do wonderfully in small groups.

[willow_girl]

Nooo, no more babies! When I bought Christine, my first Holstein, I bought a sale barn bull calf and grafted him onto her, sold him when he was about 6 months old.

Nowadays I couldn't bear to part with the babies, especially knowing they'd eventually be going to slaughter.

I've become a softie in my old age, too.

My farm boss says if her calf turns out to be a heifer, he'll buy her from me. LOL

[myheaven]

See she needs to come up to my house and join my clan. With 9 kids I go threw lots of dairy products. My first girl is due feb 14.

[willow_girl]

Her milk is delicious!

[Chief Cook]

I swear, Willow Girl, you just impress the stuffins out of me! Is there anything that you cannot do? I love the fact that you saved a wonderful cow. I am always amazed with people that can milk a cow by hand, it is something that I just cannot get the hang of. I tried to milk a cow one evening for a couple that I was staying with, they had gone to town and were late getting home. I let that little calf eat all he wanted and then tried to finish off the cow. It is a wonder the calf didn't get sick, he looked like he might explode! I got four squirts! Luckily I did not let the cows out to their pasture and when the owner got home he got a gallon from that cow! He laughed and teased me about that until I grew up and moved away. Reading about your adventures really got me remembering those good times. Thanks!

[MDKatie]

I LOVE the tail!!!

[MO_cows]

What a tale. And, especially, what a tail!!

All that milk by hand, you must have "hands and forearms of steel". (If not already, you will soon!) And you still have to go thru one more lactation with her. Oy! is an understatement.

Glad for Miss Marianne that you were able to pull it off. Hope she stays on good behavior and you all live happily everafter!

[WildRoots]

You should raise a pig!


Wild Roots Farms Pompey, NY.

[Jersey/guernsey]

Lucky cow. Why'd a nice looking (Very pretty) cow like that sell to the packers? Would have thought someone would want her But I'm glad she got to go home with you

[DianeWV]

I love it! What a great story. Take care Willowgirl!

[willow_girl]

Why'd a nice looking (Very pretty) cow like that sell to the packers? Would have thought someone would want her

Probably most people would assume that because a cow has been culled, she has chronic mastitis or won't breed back.

The packer didn't get her cheap, though -- he paid $1,520 for her.

Yeah, she's a beauty queen alright!

Numb took a nicer picture of her today!