We were in Rhode Island for the weekend, doing family stuff. The island my in-laws live on has a very active Open Spaces Commission that purchases “vacant” land to fight sprawl and maintain traditional aesthetics, pastures and historic precedents. One of these pieces of land is directly next to my in-laws. Often times, the Commission lets gentleman farmers till the land, but this year they have decided to let a someone graze his Hereford and Angus cows. Being a city slicker, I think this is exciting news…..
I ran over Saturday evening before the sun set and snapped a few photos of the cows (and bulls). While there, I spotted a very teeny, tiny black dot in the pasture. Through my camera lens I was able to see it was a baby. I didn’t approach the pasture too closely (yes, because of fear) as the “fence” was a piece of string. But I stood there for 20 minutes waiting for the little black speck to move (I thought this type of animal stood right away?). It didn’t. My MIL finally pushed me along to “let nature take its course”.
Suffice to say I had nightmares all night about the calf and I felt horrible for the mother cow. I did a head count before I left and knew that if there were 3 tiny calves in the morning, that the newborn had not fared well through the night. But, if there’s 4, maybe we had stumbled onto a brand new baby that just wasn’t standing yet? At 6:30 the next morning I couldn’t take it. MP and Lottie and I got up and went to check on the cows and babies. And what do you know? 4 calves- 1 of which was TINY.
Check out that Mama cow. Happy Mother’s Day cow! (Look at that expression, she was NOT into me being there at all). MP and I got much closer to the string fence this time, and while I was taking pictures, I hear MP say “hey, look at all those cows coming over from the other pasture”……next thing I know, STAMPEDE. Poop flying, pee, moo-ing, pounding of hooves on the ground, all barreling at me. And the only thing to save me is a piece of string.
No joke. I just got the heck out of there. I look up and I see MP & Lottie halfway back to the road. He left me there to stare down the beasts! My hero.
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May 12, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Carson
They were protecting the babies no doubt
What a great story
I’m so glad the little one was still there in the morning
May 12, 2008 at 7:33 pm
habitual
You and me both…..I was doing that little kid “fast walk” all the way there, MP was making fun of me! Lol…..and when they started moooooooooing at us (loudly!), Lottie freaked out. I thought she was going to scratch his eyes out.
Good times.
May 12, 2008 at 9:26 pm
kirsten
classic story.
and you bring memories of my childhood back – i grew up on a beef farm. incredibly curious animals at heart and they do all gallump along together to look at something of interest. strength in numbers, i think.
May 12, 2008 at 9:28 pm
habitual
Would they have charged that string fence? I mean, it was literally a STRING. Like, a kite-flying string.
I’m one of those people who romanticizes farm life as “dream life”, but in reality I eat doritos for lunch and yell at the other drivers on the road. *sigh*
May 13, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Hyena In Petticoats
I grew up on a farm too, and I can confidently say that if you stand your ground, the cows will NOT stampede you.
They all rush up to see what’s going on, but are too shy to actually get close.
I used to laugh my head off at my city friends in moments of panic before such a spectacle…… heh heh heh!
Actual, proper bulls though? Get out of the way. They have no fear.
xxx
May 13, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Lindy
Aaaw, great story. I don’t know nuthin’ about birthing no cows, so I’m glad the little one finally got up.
May 13, 2008 at 4:48 pm
habitual
Why is their fence a STRING? I mean, I just can believe that is effective.
I don’t know if they were proper bulls or not, but they did not have horns (I Googled this and found out that Angus cattle naturally don’t have horns and the Herefords can also come that way) so that threw me for a loop. I real feisty ones were a couple of the lady cows. They were very vocal and bossy, I guess they were the ring leaders out there.
You can me both Lindy. I went from freaking out about the baby being dead to wishing I had been their 15 minutes sooner. Although, it is possible that if I’d seen the baby cow being born, I would’ve fainted (as that seems to be my plan of action with human births. 4 for 4).