Honey
She was so pretty, honey cream colour, pretty dished face, big black eyes, huge ears, dainty legs and only about waist high. That day we bought two heifers- Honey and Xena, who was a Jersey x Friesian, mainly black and much bigger, - and definitely the dominant one. When we got them home they were upset and nervous, as we expected but after a few days they seemed to begin to settle down. Xena knew about the bucket and food, Honey held back and always seemed to miss out, and if we took Xena away she fretted and wouldn’t eat anyway. But we were getting closer and she seemed to be less frightened every day.
Then one day a large horse float pitched up and offloaded some beef cows and bulls into the gum plantation next door. Now they were pretty upset and they roared along the fence line bellowing, with a cowboy Geoff, his sons, (all in big white hats) and their dogs in pursuit until they got them into the back plantation to join the rest of their herd. Honey and Xena were in the paddock along side and they raced along with them until they got to the corner gate – a good 4 foot high and on top of a slope. How Honey managed to clear it I have no idea but she did and off she went with the beef herd into the 1000 acre plantation.
At that stage we had no bike, horse, dog, or any idea as to how to get her back. She was starting to develop and udder but we didn’t know when she was due to calve, and I was pretty annoyed by the unnecessary drama. If they had only told us they were coming we’d have put the heifers somewhere else. I moved Xena into another paddock and then left the gate open hoping she would come back. Next morning no Honey but we did have three large, black Angus bulls in our paddock. I quietly closed the gate and waited. Very soon Geoff spotted them from the road and hurriedly apologised for them getting ‘in’. Back came the horse float, horses, cowboys, white hats and dogs ….. away went the bulls.…. and back came Honey.
She never really settled after that, and remained nervous and highly strung. She would accept a bit of grain but never finish it, and given half a chance she would have taken off into the forest. Geoff got Reg and Len to help us put in a new fence to keep her away from the gate she jumped. (Len muttering that a show jumper couldn’t have cleared that gate).
About a month later she aborted her calf next to that new fence. It was only the size of a cat and hairless, probably only 4 months gone. But her udder had sprung up and she was in milk. We put her in the race to milk her. Well first she tried to bite me! I have never known a cow bite before, - kick, shit, gore you with horns, charge, head butt & swat you with her tail yes, but bite – never. (Len said he knew a bull once….) Then she tried jumping over the pole holding her in and got painfully trapped. Eventually we got her out but I hadn’t got anywhere near that udder yet.
Len then made a halter for her and we put her into the race and tried to get it on. She literally tried climbing over the top of the 8 foot bail at the end when Len and Reg came towards her. They had a nasty nose twitch, which they eventually subdued her with and got finally got the halter on, and tied her head to the side of the race so I could milk her. That was pretty scary but she never moved – I guess relieving the pressure on the udder was the only good thing that had happened all day for her. Len and Reg decided they would hang onto the long chain attached to her halter to ‘train her to lead’. As I let her out of the race she took off with the two of them ploughing the yard with their heels like water-skiers in her wake. “I’d have held her on my own when I was younger” said Len.
For several months I milked her twice a day – always in the race with her halter tied to the upright. She only kicked once but it was vicious and I was glad that I was on the other side of the rails. I made a lot of cheese, yoghurt, butter & quark. We got a Murray Grey calf named Bozo for the excess milk and he ran with the cows and all was well, then one day I noticed her feeding him in the paddock – she had simply accepted him. Since then she has raised another 4 calves this year, she is one of those rare gems that will just mother any new calf- after the appropriate bonding routine each time of course. She comes in readily twice a day- pushes past me to get to her calf and then when she’s finished and we open the gate she twirls round the calf until it gets giddy and gives up and then she calmly walks through the gate and leaves the calf behind with us in day-care.
We got a bull to run with the cows for a few months to get them in calf, Honey appeared to have stopped cycling 6 weeks ago until today, she has held her milk and bellowed all day. That was pretty sad after all the years drama but its now a week later as I write and all is well – she has held, and so has Xena so we look forward to calves in the spring. Poor Goolies however is due to jump into the deep freeze next week- his job is done, and as a very tame hand raised pet with horns he has the potential to become very dangerous shortly. Lets hope he is still young enough to be tender other wise we will have a lot of chewing to get through a tough bull between just the two of us.
Honey calved in early summer but developed black mastitis within days and we ended up having to put her down. Really sad as she was a real character and a very useful cow. We still have Xena who has never kicked or bitten but will not accept any other calf. We milk her once a day – 10+ litres, half for the 2nd unfosterable calf, the chooks and the dog and half for us- cheese, butter, yoghurt.
We really need a pig.
