Pavlov's...cows?

 So we have had our beautiful girls for almost two and a half months now and are still just as happy as that first day that we brought them home. Their registration paperwork in Aeryn's name should be coming in our mailbox some time this week and they have already had their first visit from the vet. Big shout out to Claremont Veterinary Hospital. I called and they were able to find an address that was really "a field at the end of so and so's driveway". They were also very patient with our girls who were a bit naughty when it came time to give them their shots. 

 I LOVE taking the camera out into the field with them. The twins who Aeryn have dubbed "The Tweedles" when we are talking about them collectively are two of the funniest animals I have ever encountered. We had a huge scare when we went to feed them last night. Aeryn went out in her usual manner, bucket of grain in hand, and only came back with Roseanna and Lola. The Tweedles were missing! Poor Aeryn immediately looked as if she were going to cry. And all I could think to myself was that it was a bad day to bring Alex to feed cows and to not have another adult handy. But the welfare of the animals is one of our topmost concerns and while Aeryn got the bigger cows settled with their buckets of grain Alex and I set out in the field to find the missing babies. After about fifteen minutes of frantically tramping through the over grown milk weeds we found them. They had found themselves a nice place to settle down for a nap. We quickly herded them over to their mamma so that they could have their dinner.

So I mentioned Aeryn's routine of going out into the field with a bucket of grain to round up the cows. This is really the inspiration for my post tonight. We discovered early on that we did not want to be trucking buckets of grain all over the field to bring dinner to the girls. As they grow, and they get more food, this would have been more and more cumbersome. So we knew that we wanted them to get used to eating in one location.

To start with we would go out into the field and sit kind of close to them with the buckets of grain. Letting them come to us to see what we had. This worked amazingly well. It is how we have managed to gain their trust and bond with them well enough to train them safely and efficiently. Eventually we started having the cows follow us a little way before we would give them the buckets. This worked out just as well. As long as they were getting grain at the end of the process things were golden!

Now to understand the rest you kind of have to understand the construction of the pasture. It makes kind of a U shape. Near the gate there is a smaller area that leads to a larger area that leads back up into another smaller area. (On the other side of the fence between these three "sections" is a house. Poor guy didn't know what to expect when we started fencing around his house.) We wanted them to get used to eating in the first smaller area closest to the gate. This is beneficial for a number of reasons. The first of which is not having to lug buckets all around the field. There is also the fact that we usually bring my mom, who sits with Alex so that he is out of the way of pounding feet. (Toddlers and cows are not always a good combination) We are able to park the car near the gate and then mom and Alex can see the cows and watch Aeryn work with them. So this extra effort to get them to eat over there is completely worth it.

Eventually I had Aeryn start to walk the cows from where ever they happened to be in the field over to where I would be standing at the gate. The result was this adorable little parade that I get to watch every day. Usually Roseanna is as close to Aeryn as she can get without running her over. Lola follows closely behind with The Tweedles bringing up the rear. It is truly a sight to behold. So it has been about a month now that we have been doing it this way. And one day last week we happened to be in a hurry. We were not going to stay and work with the cows we just wanted to feed them. I can not remember now where we had to be by a certain time but it was pretty important.

Usually we drive to the house, fill the four buckets, and then go back to the field where Aeryn starts her little parade. This evening we had a small bucket in the car. It was not even a grain bucket. I think it was one of those plastic buckets that you can buy ice cream in. Aeryn and my mom got this brilliant idea for Aeryn to take that little bucket out into the field to see if the cows would follow her to their "eating spot". So Aeryn happily jumps out of the car with her little bucket, throws some pebbles in the bottom of the bucket to shake around, and heads out into the field. When I returned with the grain buckets, sure enough, Aeryn was just getting to the "eating spot" with the four girls. They had followed a bucket of rocks!

I seriously could not believe it. And now thinking about it, it is all about conditioning. These cows have learned to associate Aeryn, and a bucket, with getting something to eat. So they trusted, even though the bucket looked different, that Aeryn would be giving them something yummy if they followed her. I have warned her that we do not want to do things like that too often. I do not want them to stop coming to the bucket any time soon.

So I end tonight on a peaceful note with the smiles of my little girl. (Who does not like being called little) She is happier now with these animals that I have ever seen her. Though I do have to say that you do not often see girls in a cow pasture wearing outfits like hers! I look forward to many years of raising animals with her and her brother by my side. Assuring that we have healthy, nourishing food on our table. Food that was raised with kindness and love before it served its life's purpose. Our little farm will grow. And our lives will be much better for it.