If you’ve ever worked around a bunch of cattle, you’ll usually hear phrases from farmers or cowboys similar to, “Watch that red one; she’s mean,” or “That white one has a crazy streak.” For us, colors are often the best way to quickly describe a cow and to warn others of safety concerns.
Sometimes, we pick up on trends in the cattle. Animals of a certain pattern or color may be quick, crazy, slow . . . well, you get the picture. On my farm, the whiter ones are sassy. This lovely story will explain exactly what I mean when you meet one of the whitest heifers I’ve ever owned: Meet Delilah.
Now, to start this story correctly, I must explain that Delilah is the daughter of one of our more intelligent, annoying, “pet-like” cows, Buddy. She also has a twin sister named Darla and was named by the local FFA kids. Delilah and Darla were inseparable up until they were breeding aged heifers. That’s when Delilah decided that fences were merely inconveniences and would actively go through them. Delilah was then moved away from her sister into a more secure pen with the milk cows up until, well, yesterday, when she was moved to the maternity pasture.
This story doesn’t begin in the maternity pasture but rather the milk cow pasture. To better understand the situation, our milk cow pasture is more of a loafing lot. It’s essentially a square lot that the cows can loaf in. It’s only a couple of acres with water and grass readily available at all times. From December to March, the lot is closed off and the cows use the barn.
I went to get Delilah from the lot yesterday on foot on my own. She was one of the last heifers to move to the maternity pasture. I didn’t want to disturb the milk cows, so I walked to the pasture and started to separate her from the others. All was going fine until she gave me a look I’ve seen her mother give a million times and flipped her tail. Then it was like a gun went off and she was running full speed across the pasture.
I stayed within a foot or two from her on foot — I was proud of that because I am not at all in shape. We went back and forth, and she knew she was winning because she would start playing. She’d run literal circles around me, get up close and lick me, then run through the swamp where I couldn’t go and so on and so forth for about 20 to 30 minutes. Eventually, I stopped and called for a four-wheeler to get her in, but she definitely was full of it. She would shoot me looks up until she got on the cattle trailer. The sassiness that one heifer possessed yesterday is one I hadn’t seen in quite some time.
Sometimes, we forget that animals have personalities just like us. They like to play, shoot looks and give us a good chase every so often. I was victorious against this sassy white heifer, but the event was one I’ll remember for quite some time. Stay safe, folks.
The author is a sixth-generation farmer and fifth-generation dairy producer in southwest Virginia, where she and her family own and operate a 145-head Holstein dairy. Courtney is involved in agriculture organizations throughout her community and is a graduate of Virginia Tech.
