Where Cows Are Happy

SOLD to a California Collector
8 X 10 Oil on gessoed masonite $125
Includes shipping and insurance in U.S.

I was searching for a barn to use in a background horse painting and came across the photos I took 2 1/2 years ago in upstate New York. This farm was right out of a movie set, somewhere in the Finger Lakes region. Grass so green my eyes hurt. Clear blue skies with just a hint of clouds. Cows so perfect, it looked they they had just been washed for show. Up there, the dairy herds are still small and managed by families - not like the 1,000+ cow herds in Texas and California. THESE cows are individually known and cared for. Some dairy farmers in Texas are still like that, but so many have turned to the mechanized processes and use a hundred hired hands, rather than family members to work the farms. They HAVE to when the milking is done practically around the clock.
We had a milk cow back in the early 80's when my kids were babies and I was still a hippy. They were started on raw milk and butter and never suffered from it. Knowing how to milk a cow came in handy later when we were raising the Simmentals. Occasionally a momma cow would reject a baby, and in the interest of getting colostrum into a calf quickly, we would catch the cow and I would milk her (unwillingly) and get it into the calf. Often that was all the incentive the cow and calf would need to bond. Momma cows were sometimes like people - they just needed a little instruction on how to care for their babies. Usually after a little help and a push in the right direction, they'd be just fine.
Proverbs 30:33
For as churning the milk produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.