Post by simplynaturalfarm on Jun 15, 2010 12:45:06 GMT -5
After owning a lot of cows, you would think I would have done every foolish thing in the book and never have to repeat one of them. NOT
Yesterday I moved my milking heifer to a new pasture thinking
#1 cows you can catch in pens can be caught in fields
#2, cows that are stanchion broke should be somewhat tame to touch outside of stanchion
#3 cows that let you touch one side will let you work on the other side
#4 cows that come to grain in a pen will come to grain in a field
#5 cows that you can walk up to a clip a lead on in a pen will let you do that in a field (or be roped - NOT!)
#6 cows that let you lead them in a pen will lead anywhere outside of a pen
#7 cows that have never kicked in a stanchion will also stand still to be milked when tied to a post . . . .
some of the stupidest and most naive things - I can't believe I did one of those let alone all of them.
For 45 minutes she ran me up and down the field, head up, as though she had never seen a human, came within a couple of feet for the grain and when I went to put a rope on her, she jerked and skinned my thumb (I already had a bad cut on - ouch ouch ouch ouch), went through three fences to get away from me (because I'm such a wonderful person LOL), and when I finally got a rope around her neck she freaked out, down on the ground, ran in between hay bales, flipped upside down in anger, and finally I got a grip on the rope to pull it around a bale. Then I went to adjust her halter that was slipping off, she lost it again and off she went around bales with a rope tied around her neck (not a workable situation I'll tell you!) so I hung on as tight as I could and ran the other way around another bale. Then she freaked out when tied (you know . . . I don't think I have ever tied her before. . . ), and pulled, jerked, went down on her knees and heaven forbid I touch her to put fly spray on (which I do every day in the stanchion). And this heifer who has never kicked at me, was kicking with a vengeance, stomping, jerking forward,backwards, sideways. . .
I thought I would just sit down and milk her - she probably would have run sideways over me and then stomped on me as I went down! So I spent forever rubbing her with my fly rag on both sides (phew I forgot like with a horse you have to work with both sides because nothing is transferrable), and took a break (I didn't once lose it *G*), then sat down and milked her. She held up (DUH!), and jerked forward and backwards a few times, swiped at some flies, and was not especially happy, so I left a short lead on her halter this time and let her go. Stupid girl then decided to be her normal happy self and followed me around everywhere, standing quietly beside me.
This morning I went out and called her, she came over, I put a lead on, tied her to the post, gave her some pellets and rubbed fly spray on her again. No freaking out today (except towards the world's worst flies! And just a few jerking movements when I went to the side she is not used to me being on.
Why in the world do I think I would want to do this over and over with new heifers instead of having 2 quiet, nice older cows?? It is like choosing to have little children for the rest of your life so you can have the fun of training them instead of the rewards of seeing them grow up.
Heather
Yesterday I moved my milking heifer to a new pasture thinking
#1 cows you can catch in pens can be caught in fields
#2, cows that are stanchion broke should be somewhat tame to touch outside of stanchion
#3 cows that let you touch one side will let you work on the other side
#4 cows that come to grain in a pen will come to grain in a field
#5 cows that you can walk up to a clip a lead on in a pen will let you do that in a field (or be roped - NOT!)
#6 cows that let you lead them in a pen will lead anywhere outside of a pen
#7 cows that have never kicked in a stanchion will also stand still to be milked when tied to a post . . . .
some of the stupidest and most naive things - I can't believe I did one of those let alone all of them.
For 45 minutes she ran me up and down the field, head up, as though she had never seen a human, came within a couple of feet for the grain and when I went to put a rope on her, she jerked and skinned my thumb (I already had a bad cut on - ouch ouch ouch ouch), went through three fences to get away from me (because I'm such a wonderful person LOL), and when I finally got a rope around her neck she freaked out, down on the ground, ran in between hay bales, flipped upside down in anger, and finally I got a grip on the rope to pull it around a bale. Then I went to adjust her halter that was slipping off, she lost it again and off she went around bales with a rope tied around her neck (not a workable situation I'll tell you!) so I hung on as tight as I could and ran the other way around another bale. Then she freaked out when tied (you know . . . I don't think I have ever tied her before. . . ), and pulled, jerked, went down on her knees and heaven forbid I touch her to put fly spray on (which I do every day in the stanchion). And this heifer who has never kicked at me, was kicking with a vengeance, stomping, jerking forward,backwards, sideways. . .
I thought I would just sit down and milk her - she probably would have run sideways over me and then stomped on me as I went down! So I spent forever rubbing her with my fly rag on both sides (phew I forgot like with a horse you have to work with both sides because nothing is transferrable), and took a break (I didn't once lose it *G*), then sat down and milked her. She held up (DUH!), and jerked forward and backwards a few times, swiped at some flies, and was not especially happy, so I left a short lead on her halter this time and let her go. Stupid girl then decided to be her normal happy self and followed me around everywhere, standing quietly beside me.
This morning I went out and called her, she came over, I put a lead on, tied her to the post, gave her some pellets and rubbed fly spray on her again. No freaking out today (except towards the world's worst flies! And just a few jerking movements when I went to the side she is not used to me being on.
Why in the world do I think I would want to do this over and over with new heifers instead of having 2 quiet, nice older cows?? It is like choosing to have little children for the rest of your life so you can have the fun of training them instead of the rewards of seeing them grow up.
Heather