After the storm moves through and the rain stops, the cows and calves leave the shelter of the barn and resume grazing and playing in the pasture.
After the Storm
Picture of the Day for May 19, 2013
Watching a pasture of frolicking calves is a perfect way to spend a warm Sunday afternoon, especially when they race around the pasture and butt heads with each other.
Frolicking Calves
Picture of the Day for February 24, 2013
I bet these Red and Black Angus cattle are happier in the summer than winter, at least I would prefer looking at green grass again.
The naturally polled Angus were developed from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeenshire and Angus in Scotland. Hugh Watson can be considered the founder of the breed as he was instrumental in selecting the best black, polled animals for his herd. His favorite bull was Old Jock, who was born in 1842. Another of Watson’s notable animals was a cow, Old Granny, which was born in 1824 and said to have lived to 35 years of age and to have produced 29 calves.
The pedigrees of the vast majority of Angus cattle alive today can be traced back to these two animals so I wonder how many of these Angus are from Old Jock and Old Granny. I can’t say that having Old Granny on a pedigree makes an exceptional sounding pedigree!
Old Granny’s Kids?
Picture of the Day for February 22, 2013
Scientists in Scotland announced the July 1996 birth of the world’s first successfully cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, on February 22, 1997. Even though Dolly was not the first animal to be cloned, she gained attention in the media because she was the first to be cloned from an adult cell.
I always figured if they were going to clone a sheep, they could have picked a nicer looking breed of sheep than a Finn Dorset or one of the rare Scottish breeds, like the Boreray as it is the most endangered breed of sheep in the United Kingdom.
Cloning is even less profitable than normal ranching since it took 277 attempts to get Dolly but researchers have tried cloning extinct animals and may open doors for saving endangered and newly extinct species by resurrecting them from frozen tissue.
I just hope that doesn’t mean any Tyrannosaurus rex will show up in my backyard since I have enough trouble with the bears destroying my bird feeders!
Grazing Sheep
Picture of the Day for February 18, 2013
Many people have the day off for Presidents’ Day but I’m celebrating a different event. February 18 is also the Elm Farm Ollie Day which the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin celebrates every year. They even have a three mustard set as tribute to the three most famous cows in history — Elm Farm Ollie, Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow, and the Cow That Jumped Over the Moon. The mustard connection? According to their web site, “Here in Wisconsin, we have a saying: ‘A cow who cuts the mustard is a cow who can be trusted.'”
Who is Elm Farm Ollie? Elm Farm Ollie (known as “Nellie Jay” and post-flight as “Sky Queen”) was the first cow to fly in an airplane, doing so on February 18, 1930, as part of the International Air Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The two year old Guernsey cow was also the first cow to be milked in flight in the Ford Tri-Motor airplane. Wisconsin native Elsworth W. Bunce milked her, becoming the first man to milk a cow mid-flight.
Elm Farm Ollie’s milk was sealed into paper cartons which were parachuted to spectators below. Charles Lindbergh reportedly received a glass of the milk. Ollie’s stunt proved so popular that a large crowd, apparently thirsty for milk, gathered on the field where her plane was to land, forcing it to be diverted to another site.
In addition to having her praises sung in such works as “The Bovine Cantata in B-Flat Major” (from Madame Butterfat) and the stirring “Owed to Ollie,” she has been the subject of stories, cartoons and poems. E. D. Thalinger even painted her portrait for posterity.
So grab your glass of milk (or the jar of mustard) and raise a toast to Ollie.
Celebrating Elm Farm Ollie Day
Picture of the Day for December 18, 2012
It appears that one deer appreciated the gate being open to the field so it didn’t have to hop the fence but I have more deer tracks in my yard than this field and with the recent snows, I have noticed three times the deer has peeked into my bedroom window. I don’t know if he wants an apple or why he likes looking in. Course now I really wonder how often I had a ‘peeking buck’ all summer. It is bad enough having a ‘peeking tom’ in the shower as my cat comes into the shower with me and of course leaves wet tracks on the floor when he gets out. I guess my place is overrun by the critters!
Open Gate
