Saturday 12 May 2007

Time to get a cow?

We really should get a cow. It's time we got a cow. I'd really like a cow. If we had a cow we could feed the surplus milk to the pigs. Aren't cows great? We could have a cow in calf and rear the calf for beef. The farm is more complete when there are cows here. Cows are big animals. We could get a Dexter - they aren't too big. Perhaps we should get goats instead? But I really like cows.... And so on and so on.
Not unsympathetic to these views you understand, but also cautious as I have very little cow experience. And a cow produces an awful lot of milk. And I don't like milk, although cheese, butter and cream are good things in my book. And it needs milking twice a day. And I have a pretty full life already. Just outside Chagford in Dartmoor we stop the car to watch the calves with their mothers - lovely to see a suckler herd out in the lush rain-soaked pasture. It would be very difficult to take one calf to slaughter I say. Not like taking a trailer of lambs or a load of baconers. There's silence for a few thoughtful moments. Then: "perhaps we're not ready for a cow yet".

3 comments:

Mutterings and Meanderings said...

There are Dexters up the road from us. Compact little cows!

mountainear said...

How about goats for meat - little stocky fellas called Boers. Apparently they're bred especially for their meat and are not a by-product of the goat wool 'industry'. They tick all the boxes in the muscle to fat ratio - good tasty lean meat which would appeal to a larger part of the population at present. I'm told that goat meat is the most widely eaten meat on the planet. We're trying to persuade our neighbouring farmer but he just thinks we're batty.

Otherwise Dexters are lovely or how about a Devon Red?

Anonymous said...

You have to go for a Jersey, surely? Then you could keep it for milk and not send it for slaughter.