cute picture

[Jack]

This might be a little bit off topic, but that's ok since it's my post--

Isn't there a herd of wild cows roaming England somewhere? When I was a kid I remember reading about them but I can't remember much...

[Jack]

I found the answer. They're called the Chillingham Cattle.

The Chillingham herd is considered to have been in this same site for at least the prior seven centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillingham_Cattle

[cowtime]

Intresting stuff Cran.

Its incredible how often dogs and foxes get rabies from cow bites.

(although a cow bite conjures up horrible thoughts, rabies or not- ewwwwww)

[Flyingcursor]

It make me wonder about cows in general. How long have they existed? Who were their ancestors? How did they ever survive nature to become domesticated? Or did domestication cause their pea brains?

Ahhhh, as an official Keeper of Useless Knowledge (just ask my hubby and kids )-- I have answers for you.

Wow. that's a lot of information. I nominate you as official keeper of useless information.

I didn't know a cow could move at 30 MPH. I don't believe that would be a deterrent to a large cat or a pack of canines. They must have used a herding instinct to survive as a species prior to humankind. Similar to sheep.

[dubhlinn]

I am soooo glad I work in a warewhouse..not a Cow in sight.

Slan,
D.

[emmline]

During a portion of my undergraduate career I was an Animal Science major. Among the many curious tasks I had to undertake (sticking my entire arm inside a fistulated cow's belly being right up there,) I had to groom and prepare a dairy cow for the annual Ag student show. We drew cows by number. I got cow #11, a Holstein named E.T. This was a year before anyone had heard of E.T. Phone Home. It stood for Embryo Transfer, because that was the story of her birth. She possessed, most unfortunately, the following two characteristics:
1. An extremely stubborn and disagreeable nature, which made her exceptionally difficult to bathe and clip.
(The cow in the next stall liked me, however, and gave me a cow tongue bath the entire time I attempted to wrestle with E.T.)
2. Almost no black spots. Almost all white. Which meant, when combined with fact #1, that I used a lot of baby powder to try to disguise the residual dirtiness after our most uncooperative bathing experience.

E.T. and I came in 6th out of 6 in our group. This ranking reflected the cloud of baby powder raised when the judge patted her, and the several attempts she made to bolt the ring, stopped only by my determined 120 pounds standing directly in front of her 500 pounds.

The next semester I knew the girl who drew #11. On my advice she traded in her number for another one.

[cowtime]

Great em. I don't envy you bathing a cow.I use to work with a fellow vet tech who showed them a lot and it did not look like fun to me. And that grooming you got from a cow tounge- that had to be a bit painful- as rough as their tongues are.

Flyguy- If you ever get between a cow and her new calf you'd be really impressed at just how fast they can move. And, the're pretty deadly in a situation like that, believe me. Or,if you happen to irritate the bull- I once had to jump in my car to escape a bull that was mad because we were "working" his cows. I knew I couldn't beat him to the barn and the car was closer. He picked up the front of the car with little effort just to let me know what he would have done to me had he been able.

Our cows use to use the circling manouver as a defense if they felt really threatened. We once had a pack of semi-wild dogs on the rampage and I saw them more than once, circled up, heads to the outside of the circle, calves in the center, the bull on patrol. Pretty neat actually.

And Dubs, ya'll need a cow in that place to liven it up. They're brilliant conversationalists you know.

[Jerry Freeman]

Elvis and Jon

The World's Smartest Cow
What my steer, Elvis, has taught me.
By Jon Katz

"We've never seen such a friendly cow," farmer friends kept telling me. True enough. When people enter the pasture, Elvis comes running up to greet them. The effect is rather like a building lifting off its foundations and charging down a hill: You just pray he can stop if he wants to. He sticks out his big tongue and slurps. He grabs at shirts and hats. If you sit down, he'll happily put his head in your lap. But since his landings are neither graceful nor accurate, it's not an entirely welcome gesture.

Jon Katz, author of The Dogs of Bedlam Farm, etc. is a wonderful writer.

Best wishes,
Jerry

[cowtime]

Jerry, that reminds me of a cow I named "Eunice" (after the Carol Burnett character-they both had the same hair). She would come when you called her name, which was handy since that would lead most of the others in her field too.
I also named one "Stella" just so I could go out and squall "S-t-e-l-l-a....".

[djm]

I don't know if bulls can actually be gay, but it seems there are some that cannot be made to get interested in cows, which is a bit of a disappointment to the farmer who has rented or purchased the bull for breeding purposes. I knew one fellow who went through a string of three different bulls that were all gay. Naturally, we all assured him that they were not, in fact, gay, but that the bulls were being put off by him being there first.

djm

[emmline]

I don't know if bulls can actually be gay, but it seems there are some that cannot be made to get interested in cows, which is a bit of a disappointment to the farmer who has rented or purchased the bull for breeding purposes. I knew one fellow who went through a string of three different bulls that were all gay. Naturally, we all assured him that they were not, in fact, gay, but that the bulls were being put off by him being there first.

djm

I thought that the sexual orientation of most bulls was not relevant since the necessary ingredient is often collected by large men with special ingredient-catching devices, and no cows need be involved.

[djm]

Emm, this was thirty-odd years ago. I'm sure the modern ways are much appreciated by the farmers, though not much fun for the cows.

I thought cows were pretty rough when they tried to mount each other, but then I observed a herd of buffalo for a while. Man, those things are truly wild, even when in captivity.

djm

[Martin Milner]

Did you know that...

Cats should not be given cow's milk because they can be intolerant of lactose, a sugar found in milk. Giving a cat cow's milk, especially in larger quantities, may cause diarrhoea.





We get special milk formulated for cats when we want to give our cat Charlie a treat.

[Jerry Freeman]

Cats should not be given cow's milk ... .

That's interesting. Is it permissible to give a cow cat's milk?

Best wishes,
Jerry

[gonzo914]

That's interesting. Is it permissible to give a cow cat's milk?

Brings to mind this dialogue from Meet the Parents --

Jack: You must've had vegetables fresher than that, growing up on a farm, Greg.
Pam: Dad, uh, Greg grew up in Detroit.
Jack: He told me he grew up on a farm.
Dina: Do they have many farms in Detroit?
Greg: No, Dina, no, not a lot. In fact, Jack, I should clarify this. I didn't actually grow up... on a farm per se. The house we grew up in was originally erected...in the early Dutch farm, colonial style. So that, plus we had a lot of pets--
Jack: Which one did you milk then?
Pam: Dad!
Jack: Honey, he said he pumped milk. What have you ever milked?
Greg: A cat.
Pam: A cat?
Greg: I milked a cat once. You wanna hear a story?
Jack: Sure.
Greg: My sister had a cat, and the cat birthed a litter of kittens. Must've been 8 of them, and there was this one little runt... this little sweet little... little-engine-that-could runt... who wanted to get up there and couldn't really get access to the-- to the-- to the-- to the-- to the teat.
Jack: Teat?
Pam: Dad.
Greg: What have you. I went in and just simply, you know, just-- into a little saucer, then took the saucer and fed it to Geppetto-- that's what I named him.
Dina: I had-- I had no idea you could milk a cat.
Greg: Oh, yeah, you can milk anything with nipples.
Jack: I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?