Good Fences and Photo-Heart Connection - 6/26/14 "Follow the Leader"

Good Fences Thursday


Below is a photo of a farm I pass quite often. It's on a well-used road with no place to pull over and take photos. But early one Sunday morning, I was driving past the farm with no cars behind me, so I stopped to snap these Holsteins heading toward a pasture at the top of the hill (to the right and out of view). If you've ever observed grazing cattle, most of them face the same direction. That is because they follow the lead cow. Here they are "following the leader" to their grazing area.

How does a city girl know this?  For ten years I was the editor of "the MOOsletter" the cow lovers' quarterly, featuring "all the MOOs that's fit to print."

Addendum ADDED ON 7/2/14: 
I am linking this Photo to Photo-Heart Connection which asks us to choose a photo that we either took or worked on during the previous month (June) that has some emotional connection for us.

I'm a bovimaniac. 

I love cows because they aren't aggressive animals.  They stand around, eat grass, chew their cud, have calves and give milk ---and probably aren't too smart.

If well-kept, cows can be beautiful with their huge brown eyes. On a farm tour, a farmer I knew told me everyone knew instantly that I was a rookie. It was because I was taking photos of their faces while the real farmers were looking at "the business end" of the cows. 

I once attended a Holstein auction held in the ballroom of a hotel. The cows in their formal black and white colors, were cleaned and brushed and even had sparkly stuff on their coats.  They looked more at home in the ballroom than did the bidders ---farmers in worn jeans, plaid shirts, feed caps and filthy work boots.

Holsteins like these are the most common cows in PA and the U.S. ---and I think even the world ---because they are great milk producers.  I love Jerseys with their doe-like coloring. They're not as popular as they once were because their milk has a high fat content.

I was on a flight in Brazil and the man beside me was a cattle rancher. He asked me what kind of cattle were in my region. I told him if he asked 100 Americans I would guess 99 wouldn't know the answer, but he was sitting next to the right woman.  I didn't know the Portuguese words for some of the breeds, but when I described each common breed in my less-than -perfect Portuguese, he knew what I was talking about. I mentioned Holsteins, Ayrshires, Jerseys, Guernseys, Milking Shorthorns for dairy products and Herefords and Angus for beef.  I even knew about breeds he didn't know the names for, such as Belted Galloways --sometimes referred to as Oreo Cows because they are black at the front and back with a wide white band around their middles.

So, although this is not the best photo I produced or worked on in June, it is the one which has that special connection that makes me smile every time I see it.

If you click on the link above to "the MOOsletter" you will learn more about my cow obsession.

"FOLLOW THE LEADER"
(click on photo for a larger view)