BYC Café

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

sourland! and lularat! I have seen you two on other threads. WB KingfofFools! And hello to the others I might have missed..... ( coffee wore off already darnnit )

 

[lularat]

Hi and welcome. I've just joined this thread and it's a good one.

 

[sourland]

Oh, and I always thought this emoticon

was me drinking my coffee in front of the computer.

Well it is - of course it is, but then again it's me too.

 

[krista74]

A female is a cow. A male is a bull. plural is cattle. However, what if there is one bovine way out in the field and you can not tell if it is male or female. What do you call it? Is it still a cattle? like sheep and fish are singular and plural?

Well, out here we have heifers ( a 'cow' that has only had one calf), cows (who have had two or more calves), bulls (intact) and steers (erm... not intact). So it could be any one of those, lol.

But I asked hubby, the dairy farmer, about it and he said the species is just as you have stated: Bovine. Bovine is the 'cow version' of human. So you would say something like "Look at that bovine over there - is it a cow or a bull?"

There you can go - now you can sleep at night!

Re: The vegemite, I find it hilarious that everyone stateside seems to think it tastes terrible! You know over here, once you are old enough to chew, one of the first foods you get is a piece of vegemite toast! I would estimate that probably 98% of the population has a jar of vegemite in their cupboard! Most of us will have that for breakfast a few times a week. Yep, we are all happy little vegemiters here.

The only thing better than vegemite on toast (well, not better - but maybe equally as good) are a couple of fried eggs on toast from my girls. Just lovely. Or some fried up home-grown tomatoes on toast. Now we're talking!

As you may have noticed, I am a foodie for sure!

- Krista

 

[krista74]

I bet. I would pass the party-goers coming home on my way out to work. We would give each other the hairy-eyeball in an alien freak show!

 

[3goodeggs]

Well then, one less thing to think about at night!

I just kind of surprised me that of all of the animal science teachers that I asked, no one had a solid answer for me.

There was one professor who would take away points if you called a herd of cattle 'cows'.
And the dairy science people knew they only had cows because as one guy told me 'dairy bulls are crazy dangerous'. They only did artificial insemination so they did not have the liability of a student getting pasted by a crazy dairy bull.

 

[krista74]

Yes, it's that way at our farm. We have no bulls, and we use A.I. to inseminate all of our cows and heifers.

Bulls are dangerous, and they also require very secure holding yards. Most of our fences out here are simple barbed wire, so if a hormonal bull was to see the dairy herd walk by he'd bust through that in no time!

The beauty of A.I. - aside from the infrastructure issue - is that (a) We are safer and (b) We are able to predict accurate due dates for our cows and heifers. With a bull you don't really know. You just drop him in the paddock with the girls for a month, let him do his thing, and then you expect a calf anywhere between 9 and 10 1/2 months later!

- Krista

 

[Mtn Margie]

I was actually "treed", well "pick-uped", by a hormonal Holstein that jumped out of his pen. We were all running for our lives! I was on the roof of the pick-up, not in the bed. He was ramming and jumping and blasting here and there. He finally bolted back on down towards the bull pens and I bolted to the barn and shut the door until they got him back to where he was supposed to be.
Good times!
Now I just have elk stew on the stove and fresh bread in the oven.....

 

[sourland]

And the dairy science people knew they only had cows because as one guy told me 'dairy bulls are crazy dangerous'. They only did artificial insemination so they did not have the liability of a student getting pasted by a crazy dairy bull.

My father was pinned against a barn wall by an Ayreshire bull whose horns were so big that he couldn't 'get at' Dad. My mother said she heard, "Dorothy bring the hayfork." Apparently the bull was very respectful of the hay fork.

Neighbor used to run a Holstein bull with his cows. One day while he was getting a newborn calf the bull got between him and the tractor/wagon. Worked him over pretty good until the old farm dog intervened. In a heartbeat, outside dog became inside dog.

Way back when, Rutgers U had a herd of Jersey cattle. Those bulls were as nasty as Mexican fighting bulls.

Yeah, I respect bulls.

 

[krista74]

I was actually "treed", well "pick-uped", by a hormonal Holstein that jumped out of his pen. We were all running for our lives! I was on the roof of the pick-up, not in the bed. He was ramming and jumping and blasting here and there. He finally bolted back on down towards the bull pens and I bolted to the barn and shut the door until they got him back to where he was supposed to be.
Good times!
Now I just have elk stew on the stove and fresh bread in the oven.....

HOLY MOLY! That would have scared the heck out of me! You did well to make the great escape that you did. I never understood those folks who deliberately go running with the bulls, when out here we do everything we can to avoid it!

ELK stew? Is that sort of like a moose or a big deer? I must admit my stews and casseroles are usually beef or lamb or chicken or pork. Is elk a common meat to eat over there? Some people here go hunting and they would eat their kills - wild pig and that sort of thing. I must admit I've never eaten elk before though. Does it taste beef-y? I'd give it a go though - I'll try just about anything!

The fresh bread though - yes, I can definitely get on board with that - YUM!

My father was pinned against a barn wall by an Ayreshire bull whose horns were so big that he couldn't 'get at' Dad. My mother said she heard, "Dorothy bring the hayfork." Apparently the bull was very respectful of the hay fork.

Neighbor used to run a Holstein bull with his cows. One day while he was getting a newborn calf the bull got between him and the tractor/wagon. Worked him over pretty good until the old farm dog intervened. In a heartbeat, outside dog became inside dog.

I'm so glad you joined us here @sourland. I've read many of your posts and you have such an engaging style of writing. If our little group of café lovers ever goes out "virtual camping", I nominate you to tell the stories by the fire at night. Delighted to have you on board.

The story about your neighbour reminds me of when we collect up calves on our farm. We collect the calves up from their mothers within 24 hours of being born, and they get taken to a calf shed where they are hand reared whilst Momma goes back to the dairy.

Anyway, some of the cows can be pretty maternal when you come after their babies, and will often drop their heads and run for us. There is quite a fine art to picking up a 40kg calf, throwing it in the trailer, jumping on the motor bike and hauling yourself across a paddock whilst the Momma chases after you!

Krista