Saga of the wild cow (part 2)

Part 1


This winter was very, very dry, meaning very little snow cover and when spring arrived there wasn't the usual rain to come with it.  (feels funny saying that now when it's raining cats and dogs and turtles out there!) The lack of moisture didn't help the grass get it's usual start and our herd had grown to 19!  The conditions were ripe for a breach of containment since the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  (and breach they did almost daily!)  The usual culprits are the 3 yearling heifers and sometimes the new 2010 calves. It doesn't make for good neighbour relations when your cattle are wondering around in someones corn/soy fields.  So the girls got themselves quarantined in the barn.  They will be off to be bred by another bull this week and hopefully once pregnant they will not wander so much.

The constant breech of containment was taking a toll on us and we sold 5 cattle to lessen the pressure on the pastures. That was hard, making the choice of who had to go but you can't just collect cattle and they multiply!  Now we had things under control!  For a whole week, nothing strayed.

On Monday Gerard started back to work and I let little Shaylee out in the small paddock with Roxy the milker and Ruben the little steer.  She was out there all day so I wasn't worried that she would try the fence.  When Gerard came home though......he was mad as heck because he saw a black dot in the neighbour's soy field.  Off we went through the fields to capture the rascal.  When we got close enough I saw it was a little heifer.  Damn!  How could Shaylee get this far away since last I checked on her.  We chased her through the fence and the cows and horse chased her back through.  I ran for grain but the cattle didn't want it they wanted to check out Shaylee....sheesh she had only been in the barn a few days, why were they so fussy over her.  I was able to sneak up and grab her back leg and Gerard got a rope on her.  Mind you, he is MAAAADDDDD!!  And yelling at me-and we are dragging this heifer up the hill towards the barn.  As we push and drag her, I notice her neck and shoulders are mangy and her ear is ripped up somewhat....and she is thin!!  How could that have happened in an hour???  We physically drag her into the barn and she is with the other calves now.  Looking outside I see another black calf on the lawn.  "O! NO!"  "Sambo must have somehow jumped through the barn window!" I cry in despair, running to chase him in.  But-but-he is smaller than he was this morning....My mind is getting confused....I've just entered 'The Twilite Zone'  It's not Sambo-it's Shaylee!  WHAT? NO!  "GERARD"  I scream...."That's not our calf!!"  He comes running out of the barn......'What?"  "it's not our calf..." I repeat.  The heifer we dragged up the hill is a dead ringer for Shaylee but it wasn't Shaylee.

Just the weekend before our neighbour came over to inform us that our heifers had been spotted in that field.  During the course of the conversation he let it be known that they had shot the 'wild' cow from a distance.  He said she had a calf at her side.  This is the calf.  A little Angus/Dexter cross.  How long it took for the mother to die, I have no idea.  How long before this little heifer left her dead mother?  How did she escape the coyotes?  She is weak, thin and covered in 'rain rot' but once she learned what was in that calf bottle she gulped it all down.  I have been nursing her wounds and feeding her 3 times a day.  Today is day 3 and her eyes are bright and she is bouncing and playing.  What a miracle!!  What a miracle for Lucy! (Loosy)

The saga of the wild cow. (part 1)

This story goes back a few years before we moved here.  According to lore our neighbour, when loading cattle to ship to market, had 6 of them break loose.  They were able to corral 4 of them but a bull and cow headed for the swamp and out of site.  This swamp is extremely thick and encompasses a very large expanse of land.  A year later they (the farmers in the area) shot the bull after he broke into a dairy farm and bred a couple of those cows.

We came here 3 yrs ago and that winter I found rather large bovine tracks outside the barn where we kept our 2 cows.  I inquired of the neighbour whether he had been missing a cow and that's when I learned the story of the wild cow.  Farmers had hunted her since her escape to no avail.

That first summer, we fenced off 15 acres and our herd grew.  We never saw the wild one that summer or winter even though we already had a bull. That next spring saw Charlotte's web farm with 3 yearling bulls and our herd bull Dreamland Samson.

One morning Gerard woke me just before dawn because he was sure he saw some cattle in the yard.  I quickly dressed and ran out to the barn yard where I found all my cows but NONE of the bulls!  Finding tracks that led from our house yard to a side pasture the horses used, It was foggy and dawn was just breaking when I spotted them in a huddle in the middle of the pasture.  I had fetched a bucket of grain and shook it and called them.  Something huge was in the middle and she lifted her head and bolted-4 bulls in tow-3 yearling's of which had already been sold but not yet delivered.  Since I was too injured at the time to give chase, Gerard lit after them through the fence, into a corn field and up the hill towards the ridge and yup, into her lair-that big mennacing swamp.

Arriving back at the house we both lamented about the money we had just lost and the futility of pursuit.  Gerard had to go to work so I got in the truck to see if the owner of the wild cow could help do something.  His son shrugged and said; "O-she's back is she?"  No help there.  Not knowing what else to do but sit and wait, I made the cows stay yarded up.  They seemed a bit perturbed about the loss of their bulls and bawled most of the morning.  Around 10 am I could hear one of the yearling's bawling in our house yard and ran out to get him in.  He seemed tired of his ordeal and I was quickly able to get him stalled up.  Scanning the horizon though yielded not a trace of the others.

My sister decided to come out at this point to see if we could get up to the ridge and spot them.  When she arrived just after noon, lo and behold there were the other 3 walking the fence on the North side of the property.  We quickly walked down and lifted the fence to let them back in.  Our herd bull bellowed a lot but ran promptly back to where his own cows were yarded.  Nobody was any worse for wear and that cow never showed up at our property again to my knowledge.

Last fall we walked over the ridge and into the swamp to see if she was still around.  She certainly was with tracks and fresh manure everywhere under cover of those cedars.  We even saw her running deep into the swamp, always keeping swamp-side to us.

Gerard tried to hunt her all fall, salivating at the thought of all that corn/grass fed Angus beef.  Alas, I don't think he would like me blogging at his being out-smarted by a cow!

Wow!  It has been a while since I last blogged but I always say I'm a 'lazy' blogger!  It has been a very busy February and March! First off Curly Horns had a beautiful bull calf whom I named 'Lil black Sambo' on the 17 Feb. so I started to hand milk (which I truly suck at) then on the Feb. 27 Petula the witch birthed a tiny little heifer who we called Shaylee which means 'Fairy princess of the fields'.  So now I had to milk in earnest!  I was able to get old CH to 'adolpt' Shaylee which was a great help but the witch Petula having never been milked became somewhat of a trial.  I have to put a flank rope on her at every milking and I even milked 3X daily until this week when I went to the regular 2X so I could have a life. Of course Roxy couldn't let those two show her up so she birthed a 'surprise' dun calf on March 7.  I say 'surprise' because I suspect Roxy may have been bred by her yearling bull calf the previous year.  This isn't certain because our black bull could carry that colour but it means I need to test for parentage! UGG-bad Roxy! We decided to call him Ruben and have been bottle feeding him.  He lives in the garage and most times has Shyla-our Bernese mountain dog for company.  Since he is a few weeks old now I put him out with the herd the other day and left him.  A couple hours later when I went to check he had gone under the electric fence and was sleeping in the sun with his best friend (besides me) Shyla!

So now I have 2 cows milking and I am swamped in delectable sweet Dexter milk!  Making cheese and butter almost daily! Of course it's a lot of work but the rewards are astounding.  Petula is STILL a witch, and requires the flank rope and tied tail at every milking but Roxy has become the most docile and cooperative milk cow anyone would ever want to own,

Flossy is next to calve and then closer to the end of summer 'Typhoid Mary' is due.  Why do we call her Typhoid Mary?  I will save that for another post!

A day from 'hell'

Wow! Yesterday felt like one of the worst days of my life! (I thought the new decade was going to be the best!) First, I found out Shyla, the Bernese pup who at 9 months weighs close to 100lbs ate 3/4 of a roast chicken my hubby left on the kitchen counter, then after she was out in the wet barn she came running through the whole house tracking mud and cow chit throughout. She has decided that since her ears are droopy she doesn't hear you screaming or anything unless you have MORE food! I got her finally and dragged her into the bathroom for a bath which all of a sudden she didn't want to have any part of! (people with children might know what That's like) So I try to lift her and she drops all her weight into her lower half, kinda like hanging onto a greased pig! I grab her front and lift it in and then while she is trying to turn around and get back out over my shoulder I heft her big but in. Now remember she has decided that she likes her filthy habits and keeps trying to get out over me as I'm trying to turn on the shower head. Needless to say I am getting soaked and covered in her 'Bernese-ness'- a few of Deni's french words popped out as well as my father's Flemish (heck a few popular Canadian words too)! I have walls and tile to clean and cupboards and bathtub and a whole lot of stuff I hate doing after that....then the vacuum wont work!!! Broken belt, cant be fixed right now. OK well soon I will get to milk my sweet Curly Horns. I separated CH from her calf that morning @ 9 and figure @ 2 I will go and share with the calf. HAH NOT in CH's mind, I get 1 cup full then drag the calf to her. It decides not to suck at this time preferring to sniff at the ground. She gives me another cup full. hmmmmmmmm maybe I haven't separated them long enough. Since she is getting difficult to catch, I decide to put a lead for her to drag around (she is already wearing a halter). CH decides this is mostly not a good idea and every time I reach to snap it on her halter she whacks her 100lb horned and stanchioned head at me. Not nicely but violently, so I grab a wrench and whack her on the horn. Wow! That really works! She stopped swinging her head and I snap on the lead. NICE! Thats when she started to do that bleeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhh behhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh roar!!!! Now, CH is 13 and just calved and I am starting to think maybe I AM KILLING HER! Well she had me almost convinced. I decide to leave her there in the stanchion and go to the house with my 2 cups of milk and chill. What did Shyla do while I was gone? She went through the kitchen garbage to make sure we did our proper recycling. 'Course she had it all over the kitchen because everything needed to be checked carefully. (More bad dog no biscuits!) Now, I have sweat beading up on my brow. I still have to try to convince CH to 'share' some milk with me and I have the other imminently pregnant Petula to get into the barn, past the heifers and without letting the rest of the mutants in. I went out and leaving CH in the stanchion, put the heifers in the maternity pen and without incident show Petula some grain and she follows me right in. Shut the door and lead her to the other empty pen. Wow that grain is like crack cocaine to a pregnant cow! Open the gate, let the heifers out and even CH lets me have a L of milk now! Hehehe, was almost heaven on earth!

A vote for choice! The Micheal Schmidt verdict.

A friend of mine who sharemilks with an affiliate of Micheal Schmidts and I, attended the verdict.  The courtroom was filled to capacity with standing room only and another 200 people outside waiting.  The people in attendance were of all ages and walks of life.  They were not there just for the cause of milk but for the right to choose.  The right for small farmers to attempt to make a living and to show support for a farmer who has been wrongfully hounded by our government since 1994 for his attempts to support his family and keep his farm.  Throughout the almost 3 hour verdict of His Worship P. Kowarsky my emotions ran the gauntlet.  From despair to happiness to fear and of course after he was acquitted of all charges elation!  People stood clapping and cheering.  Someone opened the door and let the verdict be known to the spectators outside the courtroom and a deafening roar was heard out there.

In the end, the judge determined that cow shares are outside regulatory oversight based on the following:

• That legislation is subject to a "dynamic" based on cultural, social, and historical factors. In other words, raw milk doesn't pose the same dangers it might have been seen to pose in the 1930s, when much of Ontario's dairy legislation was passed.
• That Michael Schmidt wasn't "marketing" the cow shares. "There was no advertising and sale (of raw milk) to the general public...Cow shares are a legitimate private enterprise that does not constitute marketing in Ontario."
• Perhaps most intriguing, that "the people who are permitted to buy the milk are fully informed" via a special booklet, identification cards, regular newsletters, and other steps Michael Schmidt took on behalf of his members.  "There is no evidence of any illness" in all the years Michael Schmidt has been distributing raw milk, he observed, and tests by the regulatory authorities never found any evidence of pathogens.

A great day for Canada!

People had kept their children out of school to attend this monumental day.  They held placards attesting to the deliciousness of raw milk.  I overheard an older couple telling a reporter "I am not a milk sharer, I am a farmer.  This is about farmers and thats what we came to support."  There was a lot of support from the landowners association too showing that there was more to the case than having the right to herd share.

People drank raw milk outside the courtroom as press interviewed people from all walks of life.

The rally afterwards was charged with excitement and many American crusaders took the podium. David Gumpert author of The Raw Milk Revolution spoke as well as another notable American raw milk "celebrity"  Tim Wightman of the Farm-to-Consumer Foundation.

It was an exciting day for farmers all over Canada and the USA. 

This is me with Micheal after the verdict.  Thanks Micheal for what you have done for us. (Small farmers)

For those interested in reading the verdict exactly as presented click this link:  http://www.foodrightsalliance.ca/regina_v_schmidt.pdf

The 'Real' Food revolution.

If you believe in something, you should be willing to make sacrifices to support it, even if it's expensive or inconvenient. Wailing about farmers who use pesticides and then balking at paying extra for organic produce is hypocritical because the yields in organic farming are almost always lower.

Ten years ago I felt the same way.  I wanted 'real' food but felt the prices at the farmer's markets were ridiculously inflated.  I didn't know any better.  Even though I had been raised on a farm, I thought the farmers selling at the markets were trying to take advantage of people through inflated pricing.  Sure the veggies looked nicer than most supermarket fare but that didn't justify my spending the extra couple dollars for a few organic tomatoes.  At that time I was living in town and started to plant my own vegetable garden.  The taste of a tomato that we raised was so spectacularly good compared to the grocers that I couldn't ever buy another 'store' tomato again.  Everyone thinks that if you grow your own food then you are getting it free.  Well, this is far from true.  I started to realize the time and effort it takes to produce such delectable edibles.  Weeding, feeding, picking off bugs, everything is a cost-in time and of course quantity.

Quality is more expensive than quantity. Farming fruits and vegetables that are not just healthful but also have great flavor takes a lot of time and work and usually means not growing as much.

How could I begrudge a farmer for trying to produce quality produce and make a small living?
Ten years later and I am bombarded by people congratulating me on having all our meat free (we raise it) and milk and cheese and most of our veggies.  Free???  It costs me much more to raise a pound of beef in the freezer than it would if I ran down to the store and bought a pound of feedlot beef.  I call that crap 'bubble-gum' beef.  A study in the USA fed gum and candy (wrappers and all) to beef cattle to determine it's feasibility as a food substitute and/or garbage disposal program:

1A 1996 study explored the desirability of feeding stale chewing gum to cattle.(1) Amazingly, the gum was still in its aluminum foil wrappers. Wonder of wonders, the experts concluded that bubblegum diet was a net benefit---at least for the producers. I quote: "Results of both experiments suggest that [gum and packaging material] may be fed to safely replace up to 30% of corn-alfalfa hay diets for growing steers with advantages in improving dry matter intake and digestibility." In other words, feed a steer a diet that is 30 percent bubblegum and aluminum foil wrappers, and it will be a more efficient eater. With a nod to public safety, the researchers did check to see how much aluminum was deposited in the various organs of the cattle. Not to worry. The aluminum content was "within normal expected ranges." As always, there was no mention of the nutritional content of the resulting meat.

Gross eh?   The day I read that study was the last time I ever willingly ate a piece of 'bubble-gum' beef.  But, we still believed farmers who told us that cattle had to be finished on grain, otherwise the beef would be tough and gamy.  That year we bought 2  Dexter steers and spent a small fortune trying to fatten them up to look like those big feedlot steers.  I was also learning a lot about the benefits of grass fed.  Still, there was a stigma attached to the idea of grass fed being an inferior tasting product.  The only thing better (than feed lot beef) about those first 2 steers was the knowledge that they were humanely raised and slaughtered and didn't contain antibiotics and hormones.  At this time we had another couple younger steers who were out grazing with the cows. We were afraid to butcher them after only being on grass but also afraid of the cost of finishing them without cheap corn. In July I was invited to my friends Liz and Denis of Eliden Farm for a family barbecue.  The main course was barbecued 26 month old grass fed and finished Dexter beef.

The taste was phenominal.  The flavor and tenderness an almost forgotten part of my youth.  No, It was better than anything I had ever tasted before.  When we got home, I called our butcher and scheduled one of our own grass fed steers to meet his destiny.
 

Now we were on to something.  We were raising our own meat (beef, pork and poultry) and vegetables but still buying milk and cheese.  Were these cows not supposed to be duo purpose? (providing both meat and milk in ample quantities)  Since my hands are somewhat arthritic and a bit large for the teats on my Dexter cows, we bought a small portable milker last Christmas. Bingo!  We were in business.  Well it wasn't that easy at first but after a wonderful season of drinking fresh raw milk, learning to make cheese and savoring that creamy white butter I feel like somewhat of an expert.  (Touch wood now because I am sure the next milking season will start out slightly skewed!-If the cows have their say!)

To Be Continued................................................................................................................................................................................................

A 'Natural born' country girl!-Happy Birthday Shayna!

In August 2009 we had a visit from some 'city' folk for the weekend. Jeny, whom I met online and have preached the benefits of 'real food' brought her brood and husband down for a visit. Her only daughter; Shayna who is 8 yrs old this Wednesday, January 6, 2010 (Happy Birthday Shayna!!) is a born natural when it comes to farming. My cows of course were nervous because they are not used to strangers handling them so of course held up but the kids were still able to learn to hand milk. Shayna took over the turkey feeding duties that weekend and scrounged all sorts of goodies for them. I even found her in their cage!! All the children got to try the hand milking, horseback riding and of course the mozzarella cheese stretching. A great time was had by all and we look forward to their return visit!

Shayna wrote this essay about her farm experience and I thought I would share it with you.

When I went to my mom's friend Charlotte's house, first I got to milk cows and they didn't like me really. Then we went to feed the turkeys and that was my favorite part because they were playing with me. They liked to peck the eggs on top of the fence when I rolled it to them. They are so cute and so nice to me. Finally we went to go for a horse ride, and that was so fun riding Cappy. He is so nice and so big! I love him and I miss him alot now.



We made some good food too. Charlotte showed us how to make cheese, and butter. It was so yummy, but it was hard work and it took a long time to make the cheese. You had to squeeze it and it made my hands tired. But it was really good. I brought some home for my family to taste. They liked it too.
I hope we can go see Charlotte again sometime. Gerard was nice to me too. And he let me and Tanner help him get the cows in the barn. We had to hold sticks to keep them in the fence.
It's hard work living on a farm. But I can't wait to go back and see all the animals and Charlotte. I love her.
The end.

By Shayna Eileen Jodon