Post by honbug on Jul 19, 2007 1:22:55 GMT -5
Hello there!
I've gleened much information from this board...though I have just had to re-register as it's been so long since I posted that I could not remember my user name...
Nearly two weeks ago, on July 7th, I had a run in with Gentle our Jersey.
We bought Gentle 1-1/2 years ago from an Amish family. Her name suited her perfectly. She was an easy cow to get used to hand milking. I was raised on a dairy farm, but we used milkers so hand milking was new to me.
My two oldest children had taken over the milking tasks for the last 9 months or so. I have developed some sort of allergies that caused me to break out into a rash from milking (or holding cats...could be a grass allergy...)
Anyhow...back to the incident...
My son went out for his nightly milking and could not get Gentle to leave the pasture and head into the barn. He enlisted the aid of my daughter...and the two of them could not get her to head in. I went out to assist them. The pasture Gentle was in has a 20 foot section next to our creek...it is seperated from the rest of the pasture by high tensile electric fence. Gentle was on this side, our beef cows were on the other. She's always been alone...never run with the beef cows.
I went up to her to move her along. I patted her back side and she moved some. We did this twice. Then, she turned to face me and put her head down low. I recognized this as a warning sign and started to back away from her. I didn't move quick enough...she pushed me down....and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground, looking up at her reared up on her hind legs and about to come crashing down on top of me.
She did land on me...her hoof landed squarely on my cheek. I rolled over and stood up...to such intense pain. I moved my head and had blood coming from somewhere...
It was awful! Turns out, she hit my cheek and cause instant huge swelling. I ended up going to the ER and then spending the night in the ICU. I had/have 2 small fractures, one above and one below my eye. The swelling is going away..it's nowhere near as large as it was. I now have a hard swollen knot next to my cheek. It still causes me to have tingly sensations on that side of my face. I have not driven yet...my peripheral vision is still not quite right...and seeing things moving too fast makes my head swimmy.
I have never been afraid of a cow...but I am now. Gentle has not been milked since that morning. She's going on two weeks now. She broke through a section of the temporary fence that evening to be in with the beef cows. She stayed with them for about a week. They wanted nothing to do with her. She is not in heat..she was AI'ed Feb 15th and should be half way through her pregnancy now. Our beef bull is quite good at his "job" and has sniffed away..but made no attempts to mount her.
I have no idea what caused her to turn on me like that. We are not sure what we are going to do with Gentle. She is bred to a world class champion bulll...we purchased semen from Gearld Fry to breed her. Her calf should be a wonderful one. We are not sure that we will ever be comfortable enough to milk her again.
But, we are now out of milk and sure do miss it! I made butter, cheese and soap from her milk and now cannot. The thought of going back to store bought "milk" just turns my stomach. But, the thought of milking her also turns my stomach.
I say all of this to remind you to be ever so careful of your milk cows. Ours was seemingly the perfect cow...but has hurt me badly. It could have been oh so much worse, and I am most thankful to be spared anything worse. But, the pain she did inflict is still quite raw to me...
Be careful and always be aware of that cow....
Blessings,
Laurie
I've gleened much information from this board...though I have just had to re-register as it's been so long since I posted that I could not remember my user name...
Nearly two weeks ago, on July 7th, I had a run in with Gentle our Jersey.
We bought Gentle 1-1/2 years ago from an Amish family. Her name suited her perfectly. She was an easy cow to get used to hand milking. I was raised on a dairy farm, but we used milkers so hand milking was new to me.
My two oldest children had taken over the milking tasks for the last 9 months or so. I have developed some sort of allergies that caused me to break out into a rash from milking (or holding cats...could be a grass allergy...)
Anyhow...back to the incident...
My son went out for his nightly milking and could not get Gentle to leave the pasture and head into the barn. He enlisted the aid of my daughter...and the two of them could not get her to head in. I went out to assist them. The pasture Gentle was in has a 20 foot section next to our creek...it is seperated from the rest of the pasture by high tensile electric fence. Gentle was on this side, our beef cows were on the other. She's always been alone...never run with the beef cows.
I went up to her to move her along. I patted her back side and she moved some. We did this twice. Then, she turned to face me and put her head down low. I recognized this as a warning sign and started to back away from her. I didn't move quick enough...she pushed me down....and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground, looking up at her reared up on her hind legs and about to come crashing down on top of me.
She did land on me...her hoof landed squarely on my cheek. I rolled over and stood up...to such intense pain. I moved my head and had blood coming from somewhere...
It was awful! Turns out, she hit my cheek and cause instant huge swelling. I ended up going to the ER and then spending the night in the ICU. I had/have 2 small fractures, one above and one below my eye. The swelling is going away..it's nowhere near as large as it was. I now have a hard swollen knot next to my cheek. It still causes me to have tingly sensations on that side of my face. I have not driven yet...my peripheral vision is still not quite right...and seeing things moving too fast makes my head swimmy.
I have never been afraid of a cow...but I am now. Gentle has not been milked since that morning. She's going on two weeks now. She broke through a section of the temporary fence that evening to be in with the beef cows. She stayed with them for about a week. They wanted nothing to do with her. She is not in heat..she was AI'ed Feb 15th and should be half way through her pregnancy now. Our beef bull is quite good at his "job" and has sniffed away..but made no attempts to mount her.
I have no idea what caused her to turn on me like that. We are not sure what we are going to do with Gentle. She is bred to a world class champion bulll...we purchased semen from Gearld Fry to breed her. Her calf should be a wonderful one. We are not sure that we will ever be comfortable enough to milk her again.
But, we are now out of milk and sure do miss it! I made butter, cheese and soap from her milk and now cannot. The thought of going back to store bought "milk" just turns my stomach. But, the thought of milking her also turns my stomach.
I say all of this to remind you to be ever so careful of your milk cows. Ours was seemingly the perfect cow...but has hurt me badly. It could have been oh so much worse, and I am most thankful to be spared anything worse. But, the pain she did inflict is still quite raw to me...
Be careful and always be aware of that cow....
Blessings,
Laurie