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| Want chaos on a peaceful farm? Just add color |
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Buying a couple of Jerseys simply to thicken the butterfat and protein test, ultimately raising the pay price for milk, seemed like a good, economically sound idea. Little was known about the family chaos it would create here on the Knolltop.
It was the sale of a lifetime: A nationally renowned herd was dispersing after some 40 years in the business. Every animal in the sale carried the Hapalson prefix, indicative of breeders who knew what they wanted and developed their own superior genetics.
No matter what breed you owned, this Jersey herd was respected for its type and production, something few breeders are able to accomplish.
Preparing the Knolltop family for the acclamation of color in a purely black-and-white world was no easy task. Breakfast and dinner conversations revolved around the possibility of becoming Jersey breeders. Each time the subject was broached, there was an onslaught of: “No Jerseys! Never!”
As sale day approached, silence of the impending purchase of the little brown cows was deafening. Sale morning held perfect circumstances – two of the Jersey haters would be gone for the day, the child riding the fence had to work and with only one objectionable kid in tow, we headed north with the possibility of a Jersey purchase looming in our future.
It was standing room only as the auction began. The owners, normally happy and jovial, were apprehensive at first but soon settled into knowing their 40-year habit of getting up before dawn to milk 200 cows would be coming to an end, with a motor home waiting in the shed to take them on a much deserved vacation.
Although the cows were selling like hotcakes, we were able to pick out a couple of affordable fresh heifers and before we knew it, we were the new owners of two little brown cows now known as Fran and Pat.
When they arrived at the Knolltop later that evening, they came bounding off the truck and I thought we were in the middle of a rodeo. I soon discovered Jerseys can skinny through places that Holsteins can’t and they can do it as quick as a flash.
The next few days were “therapeutic” for our family. We discovered the love of black-and-white cows runs deep and there are some family members who needed therapy to help adjust to the new color.
Looking in the Yellow Pages for a “cow color therapist” proved fruitless, so we turned to the next best man for the job: The one and only Rustico of Canada.
Fully entrenched in the problems of mixed breeds on the traditional dairy farm, Rustico was able to offer the following advice to help those not too happy over two Jerseys on the black-and-white Knolltop:
Suck it up!
GET OVER IT!
Let it go!
Let go and let God!
If you can’t beat them thar pesky l’il brown cows, join ‘em!
Just be thankful you got a pair before demand is so extreme there are none left available!
Y’all have done arrived!
Now, your joy is complete!
The cheering for y’all is deafening!
It would warm the heart of an elderly man to have a picture of the Jersey protesters planting great big kisses on the snouts of the new brown ladies!
Although we’ve been using this advice to smooth over the conflict in the family, it’s not been really effective. The Jersey protesters are gaining in strength and numbers and now have the neighbor boy in their anti-Jersey militia.
Their new recruit walked in the barn during milking one evening and said, “How are ‘Goat One’ and ‘Goat Two’ doing?”
What now, O Great Rustico?
Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication. |
| 9/24/2008 |
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