Holy Cow

Sorry I'm late, My net was down.

From the outside one might think that cows are all alike. I’ve heard people call bulls cows before and it was obvious they were bulls, even to the untrained eye. “Cow” denotes the sex of the bovine. Calling all bovines cows is like going to a kennel and saying, “Look at all these bitches!” Not all dogs are bitches, only female dogs are, which brings to mind, what is the term for male dogs? If there isn’t one I vote for calling them “Bastards.”

OK, I got off track here. What I was getting at is that there is a difference between dairy bovines and meat bovines, but more importantly there is a big difference between dairy men and cattle men. Having met both it seems that it is like the difference is so vast, you would think there were working with two totally different creatures.

Cattle men are often tall, thin guys with weather aged leather skin. They will often look at you skeptically and quickly look away to the sky or to the soil as though they are checking for conditions that are about to change. Cattle men are loners in vast spaces. They need no company or comradery. Their vision is hawk-like. You don’t ever want to get in a fight with a cattleman. Though they may seem too thin to defend themselves, they have resolve and a resourcefulness that will over power any opponent.

On the other hand, the dairyman most often will appear to be well fed and friendly. They love company and they love talking. They will share opinions with you and look you in the eye when they talk to you. In fact they look you in the eye to the point where it may become uncomfortable. To get them to look away all you have to do is ask about their herd, and they will look away to see if there is a cow in sight that they can make an example of.

I may be wrong but it seems that the cattlemen think of their bovines as a commodity, but the dairymen think of their bovines as family. My hat is off to both of you.