Feeding the Baby Cows

Onto the cows! A local creamery offers a really fun activity...everyday at 4:00 anyone can go and feed the calves their bottles. Now we have done this activity before and I must admit that when the girls wanted to add this to the list I paused before writing it down. Why the pause, you ask. Well, because I was having flashbacks of baby cow slobber flinging everywhere, flies, goats climbing on my back trying to get the milk, flies, mud, flies, the lovely smell of cow manure, flies, and oh yeah, did I mention the flies? But, the girls wished and I granted so off we went dragging Nanny behind us. Now, my mom is not the animal lover, but she never misses a photo opportunity so she went without complaint. This time I was smart and did not choose one of the hottest days of the summer to visit the creamery. We waited for a nice, cloudy day when it was raining on and off, a perfect choice because I think the flies were reduced to only about a million to every square foot. The first sight we were greeted with was a group of baby ducks running through the calf barn, their little feet flapping in the mud. At the sight of these little ducks I was reminded that feeding the cows is not just about the flies, there are all these sweet and adorable animals to interact with and watching my girls do so is just so much fun. Upon arriving, we soon learned that three cows had been born that very day and in the barn were two of them. One lying down adjusting to life and the second was still covered in blood doing his very best to learn to stand up for the first time. My girls, and I, watched in amazement as this little guy worked so hard to get to his feet. Then out in the field we see another baby lying next to his mama. A buzz started among the workers and all of a sudden they were moving fast because they wanted to get the baby out of the field before he and mama got too bonded with each other. My brain realized why this was an important thing to do at a creamery where their livelihood relies on these cows producing milk, but my mama bear heart cried out at the cruelty of this! I watched in horror as a man in a van drove over and whisked the little baby out of the field. Visions of my own little babies being stolen out from under my nose while I lay in my hospital bed danced in my head and I had to control myself not too tell the man to get that little baby back to his mama. Just think about it, your baby taken from you before you even get a chance to love on it and then you find yourself strapped to a machine so they can take your milk!! Even worse, what to do we people do with that milk? Slap pictures of our own stolen babies right on the container!! Oh, it is just horrible when I think about it.

Luckily, before I could start making signs and protesting at the creamery we were distracted by the bottles arriving. The way it works is someone comes and places a half gallon jug with a nipple on top in front of each calf to be fed. Anyone who is there can just grab a bottle and have at it. Boy, do those little guys learn fast what those bottles are! They start sucking on anything and everything they can get their little mouths on at the sight of those bottles...people, strollers, my own nursing cover up, their neighbors face! It sure is a funny sight. The girls got right to work grabbing the bottles and holding on tight because those babies sure can suck! Girly's cow sucked so hard it collapsed the whole container and nipple (actually thinking back to my own early days of trying to nurse a baby hoover, maybe those mama cows have it good after all)! Peanut was a little timid to hold the bottle once she saw that you almost get pulled into the pen with the cow, but she watched as I held the bottle and she loved to scratch the cows behind the ears. Bug just giggled the whole time she held onto the bottle and the teeny one didn't know what to think of those cows, but her big eyes did not miss one thing that happened in the barn.

Another fun adventure completed on the list. I would say it was quite a wonderful experience and the girls had a great time. Although, I must admit I held onto my OWN baby very tightly on the way out in case those people got any ideas about MY milk, but thankfully we all made it back to the car. In fact, we even brought home a few extras with us that day. Just about twenty flies are now living happily ever after in my car feasting on all the crumbs the girls have dropped on the floor!