Monday, February 13, 2012

The difference between a dairy cow and a beef cow

Saturday we took Bonnie to Cliff's brother's bull.  Phil is on vacation, but two of his sons live on the property and are watching over things.  
Phil's herd consists almost entirely of Herefords, like our Babe (on the right).   
You can see here the contrast between dairy and beef.  Dairy cows put all their energy into making milk, not meat.  In fact, if you see a fat dairy cow, she's probably not a good producer.  You are supposed to see a dairy cow's bones.  A beef cow is insulated with lots of muscle and fat; she is a meat-maker.  
So, Phil called Cliff yesterday from Florida, laughing.  Seems his son, Jeremy, had called him to say there was a cow with the herd that looked like she was starved to death, a brown cow with a black face.  There was, he thought, something terribly wrong with the cow.  
We all got a good chuckle out of it, and I posted the above picture on Jeremy's Facebook wall telling him "study it well, Grasshopper", and explaining that dairy cows are supposed to be skinny.    

5 comments:

  1. I never knew that either. LOL

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  2. Yeah and they all have long tails to swat you in the right side of the face when they whip that tail while you're milking them.

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  3. I wouldn't have had a clue, either. I would have tried to sound all cow-wise and said "Yup. There's something wrong with that 'un!"

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  4. I wouldn't have known this tidbit of information either. I am the reporter that once upon a time, did a piece about a local 16 year old boy raising cows on his own. I was standing knee deep in you know what, surrounded by cows and he was explaining the do's and don't's of it all. Towards the end of the interview he asked me if I had any more questions. I said, "What are their names?" He smiled and said, "Lady they are just NUMBERS to me."

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  5. I've been trying to catch up...did your sitemeter tell you?? :^)

    Decided to comment on this milk/meat post because even though I am stuck in the city, I DID know the difference!

    Thanks for all of your posting, you always make me smile!

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