It was a beautiful sunny day as the four of us headed to the Ozark Mountains of Missouri to pick out our future milk cows. And not just any heifers would do for this practical and optomistic soon-to-be hand milking farmgirl. They would be golden Gurnseys just like my favorite cows growing up that produced the most delicious milk and creamy golden butter. They say that dairy goats are the poor man’s cow. I know this to be true because I have raised many of them, milked them, hugged them and fell in love with each of them, just as anyone would their typical family milk cow – for those who could afford to purchase a whole cow.
But, now here I was finally on my way to do just that, with ten brand new $100 bills in my back pocket (fresh from the bank and NOT homemade) and there was no stopping me now. I brought along the Husband and our oldest daughter and her husband just to make sure I had back-up, and well, to make sure I did not return home with a whole herd. Oh, and for their company, of course!
I was going after two little full blood Guernsey heifers from a registered dairy herd and I could not wait. I was beyond excited with a dream about to come true for a little girl growing up on her father’s dairy farm to the now 50-something year old wife, mother and farmgirl with still the same dream. It was about to happen and I was ready!
And then, finally we were there and driving up a very bumpy narrow driveway. I spotted a tiny calf walking all alone in the ditch heading in our direction. Rather odd I thought and just a short distance ahead, there was a corral with one lone cow looking a little perplexed, but a beautiful cow for sure. My heart skipped a beat or two. Suddenly breathing became faster as my head was swimming at the sight of many more yearling and young Gurneseys lying in the sun in the pasture to the left. Oh, my. Finally Son-in-Law stopped the truck and parked under some hugh shade trees at the end of the driveway, somewhere between the farm house and the dairy barn and corral. Just ahead of us I could see many white calf hutches and baby calves and I couldn’t wait, so I stumbled out of the truck trying to act my age and sensibility, as I got closer and closer to the pens. The owner came out of the farm house to greet us and I tried to act as cordial as I could to him while my mind was only on his livestock and hugging a calf that day. He must have read my mind because he immediately informed us that we could not touch any of the animals because of BioSecurity reasons. Did I actually hear this right? I tried to be understanding of it since this was after all a commercial dairy, but I was not handling this very well inside. I wanted to touch one so very badly. Their little heads and noses were calling me.
From several feet away and distancing myself safely from the pens, I tried to pick out a couple of nice heifers. Many I found out were not for sale – certainly the very pretty and well balanced ones he was keeping for his own herd. I felt a little dejected, but I did pick out a little beauty that he finally said he guessed he could let go. I tried to pick another. It just wasn’t working without the hands on “who loves ya, baby?” kind of connection I’m used to having with a farm animal. I’m definatly not a cowman.
Suddenly I remembered the little lost calf walking down the driveway and probably half way to our own farm in Arkansas by now. She was, yes, for sale and born very early that same morning. I knew I wanted her and had to go find her. And there she was still in the ditch along the road and lying down at this point. I picked her up in my arms and knew she was mine. Son-in-Law came to my rescue and carried her back for me where we finally commmenced our business deal. She was given more colostrum in order to make the four hour trip home and then we loaded up our two new baby heifers and headed that way, all full of happy.
Laura Rose just celebrated her 10th birthday this past week and she is not only a member of our family but continues to be a major Icon on this family farm. Blog posts and pictures of her abound on this Website. In the meantime, she was given a nice helping of grain, a good brushing and extra hugs on her birthday.
So “Happy Birthday, Laura, we all love you!”
POST SCRIPT:
Laura Rose and Bella were purchased in Ava, Missouri on May 18, 2010
from Riley Stewart’s dairy farm, two miles down the road from where Laura (Ingalls) and Almonzo Wilder lived for 50 years in their farmhouse on the hill in Mansfield, Missouri. Their only daughter was named Rose. Thus, Laura Rose (the heifer) was easy to name.
And if all that wasn’t enough to make this a most memorable day, Mr. Riley related a couple of stories about how when he was a child, his mother used to take him with her on several ocassions when she went to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder. He remembered having to sit still on the front porch while they were visiting and playing in their yard. He wasn’t exactly impressed at the time, with no other children to play with (Laura was much older than his mother) but he was happy years later to having known and met a very famous person and Icon of their own right there in Mansfield, Missouri!
Added post script:
Biosecurity means doing everything you can to reduce the chances of an infectious disease being carried onto your farm by people, animals, equipment, or vehicles.
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