Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Grazing snow

Oops, I accidentally made the video at the bottom private; I've fixed that now.
The cows are allowed in an area where the horses can't go, a newly seeded grass field.  Horses nip grass off so close to the ground, they'd soon kill off all the vegetation; that's just how they are.
Cows can't graze so close because they have no front teeth on top.  They also don't chew their food:  they graze, swallow the grass whole, and go somewhere later to relax and regurgitate their food and chew at their leisure.  Of course, this is what we call "chewing cud".
Lately I've noticed that Bonnie and Sir Loin have been spending more time in that little field than they do at the hay-ring.  There's no nutrition in snow, but they had their heads down grazing all the time.  So I approached them to find out what was going on.
Closer investigation showed me that where they've walked, the snow has melted to the point where they can eat grass.  Here's a fifteen-second video of Bonnie eating grass; you'll have to agree she makes it look and sound quite yummy.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:32 PM

    THANKS DONNA, WE ALWAYS LEARN FROM YOUR ENTRIES. sam

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  2. Bonnie is so cute! She makes that grass look so good! My boys are ignoring their hay and eating old brown grass that is showing now that we don't have much snow. No green shoots yet. Makes me wonder why that old grass tastes so good to them.

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  3. And so today, I got to watch and even better, HEAR a cow eating grass. I didn't know horses did that much damage; I thought that was a sheep problem.

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  4. Loved that video, especially where she turned to the camera!

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  5. Hello there Miss Bonnie. You sure make me think that grass is pretty good!

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  6. I used to shovel south-facing patches of the field closest to the house for the springing heifers. I don't miss the work, but I have a soft spot for those heifers.

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