The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
6-15-2023 Column
If you were to look through your photo album of your children growing up, what would see? Triumphant first steps, toothless grins, pride of pulling in a “big” one as the crappy wiggles on the hook, and countless pictures of Dairy Day shows and county fair participation.
Photo album pictures of shows focus on the backside of the animal so you can see which kid is at the halter since everyone is dressed in white.. It seems we focus on butts first.
What is happening when three people are standing around the business end of a cow? One is holding a pail lined with straw ready to make the catch with no splatters. One holds the tail out of the way and watches. One is ready with a handful of paper towels to wipe off the bottom. All three watch intensely, offering words of encouragement to the cow to finish her business.
Only in a dairy show barn can a mother brush straw off another child’s backside without anyone else thinking twice about it. Do it in K-Mart and the flashing blue lights won’t be for an instore special!
What do you see when you look at pictures in our photo album? It depends who you are. It is kind of like the black and white picture they flash at you in psychology classes. Some people see the beautiful lady in Victorian clothing while others will see an ugly old witch. When people look at our show pictures, they either focus on the rear udder height, attachments, quality and width or they just see a cow’s butt.
Halterless Showmanship. When the Senior Showmanship class takes the ring, little kids perch around the rails watching to learn how it is done. Parents watch for the slightest miscue that will through their child out of the running. At this stage there is very little difference between the kids. They are all experienced, calm, confident and know the coveted prize could be theirs if everything goes their way and they stay in control. They try to give off an air of relaxed ease while still being in absolute control of their animal. They are aware of the judge’s position in the ring and ready to shift their animals feet at a moment notice. I feel for the judge at this stage as they put the exhibitors through their paces trying to catch someone who slipped up.
What about a different kind of showmanship class? Sitting around the show ring during the showamanship class as it dragged on we came up with a different kind of class. Shake it up a bit. A halterless showmanship classs. The first image is cattle running all over the fairgrounds because they “got away”. But the more you think about it, the more this just might work.
We all have a cow in the barn who has a certain routine or peculiar habit. Linda was telling me about a cow who loved to pull paper towels out of the dispenser. With her back to ..As she focused on prepping the opposite side of the parlor for the next group, she would start to hear the slurp sound of towels being pulled from the dispenser..then another and then another. This cow would stretch her tongue out to grab a dangling towel. As she “grabbed it” with her tongue she would pull it out of the dispenser and then spit it out and go back for another one. She just loved this new game in the parlor.
Another cow on their farm loves gum. When she hears you unwrap the foil off of a piece of gum, she comes running regardless of where she is on the farm. She wants a piece too! A couple of other cows will rummage through the boys’ sweatshirt pockets in search of salty treats like crackers and pretzels.
Katie hadn’t been in the barn much this spring, but that didn’t stop her milking 2 year old “Sugar Pie” to come running up to her as we tried to walk her across the yard as a switch cow. Once she saw Katie she made a bee-line right for her and followed her into the barn for milking.
If they can train pigs to run around a track for a treat, we should be able to train a cow to follow us around a show ring for a treat.
As their 4 children pursue dairy careers off the farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their Minnesota farm. (Natalie grew up in Stronghurst, the daughter of Becky and the late Larry Dowell.)