David Shriver

Back in 1998 -2004 My wife and I owned a Dairy farm in Missouri

Our milk house was a three on a side /side open gate type parlor, and I milked the cows on one side and my wife the other , That is when she wasn't line dancing to the country music we always had playing on the radio. We had developed quite a system to save energy, electrical and our own, as any fresh cows (that is a cow who had as recently as the last three days had given birth to a baby calf)that still had colostrium(milk that contains natural antibodys,for the baby calf) would be milked last after all the others. In doing it this way we could just pull the pipe that the milk ran through in to the milk tank from the milkers, out of the tank and into a bucket that we would use then as calves milk. Then when finished we would flush the lines, and wash them as usual at the end of milking.

I always kept the new mommas in a corner stall of the big barn which was about fifteen yards from the milkhouse,but on the opposite end from the holding area.

Dairy cows like to be milked. For one it takes the pressure away from a swollen udder and makes them feel good, and as an added bonus we would give them grain in the milk house as they were being milked so that always insured they would be lined up at the door ready and anxious to come in.

This particular night we had finished milking and all that was left was Katie. She was a cow that had just given birth to a beautiful registered Jersey heifer calf two days ago. The rule is you keep the new milk separate from your regular milk for the first three days so we had Katie and her calf in the main barn and I went out to bring her around and down the fenced alley into the holding pen and then into the milk house.

This particular night It was pitch black out side, and as I opened the gate Katie instead of going straight and down the alley like she had the last five milkings ,turned left, through an opening between the gate and the alleyway and headed out into an open field.

Keeping in mind the fact that I played college football, and also the fact that I was in excellent shape from carrying buckets of grain into the milk house every morning and night for the last couple years. I took off after Katie to head her off and had two steps at a full sprint when I ran flat out into a 20"around Peach tree. On that pitch black night I saw stars. Well Katie after seeing she had gone the wrong way just turned around by herself and headed down the alley into the holding pen, and through the back door into a stall and when I stumbled into the milk house she was munching ground corn and my wife was milking her and looked at me standing there with blood running down my face, and said "What in the world happened to you?"

With this bailout I'm wondering if maybe running out into the darkness, might not be the prudent thing to do, that it could be the market will see it's going the wrong way and turn around by itself. Even though it seems like the thing that needs to be done at the moment, I certainly wouldn't advise running without knowing for sure what's in front of you. It could be a Peach tree.

This morning an individual in our office received a phone call from a debt recovery company, in reference to an unpaid credit card debt. The person on the other end of the phone I know was just doing their job, but after tying up the phone for approximately ten minutes they informed my colleague that If the debt was not paid they would file a judgment against them and they would lose their Real Estate license.Hmmmmm Cowboy Real estate

Mr. Douglas was A past president of the Pasco county Cattleman's assoc, and a member of the American Herford Assoc. He and his family owned the K_Bar ranch just south of Zephyrhills in Pasco county. I was out riding around with Mr. Douglas one day in his pickup truck, filling mineral feeders scattered throughout the ranch, and checking on the cows. As we came around a Cyprus head we saw a sight most people never see. A cow was in the middle of having a calf, and buzzards were trying to get the calf, as it was hanging out of the back of the cow apparently she was having trouble . She was spinning around trying to hook those buzzards trying to protect her calf. We blew the horn and roared up chasing the buzzards away for the time being. I grabbed a lasso out of the back of the truck as the exhausted cow lay down with her half born calf still hanging out the back. I got the rope around the calf's front feet and using the ball on the trailer hitch of the truck as a block and tackle ,we both pulled and delivered the calf .What should have been a happy ending ended up not to be as we discovered the buzzards had pecked the baby calf's tongue till it was gone and it would never be able to nurse.

Kind of reminded me of those bill collector tactics.