About this time of year a cow’s winter coat starts to lift and itch. So while my back was turned Daisy has been rubbing her neck on the big tree in her yard and if you look carefully you will see that in some instances she has rubbed the coat right off and little bare patches are appearing.
So she is getting extra flax seed oil in her feed (along with the unpasteurised real apple cider vinegar, garlic, molasses and eggs that they get every day anyway). And I will make up a mix of lanolin and tea tree oil to rub into the areas that have become dry and might break out if we are not careful. Plus she will get a daily brush until her spring coat is through.
The itchiness is making her bad tempered. This time of year it is hard on both animals and humans. Here, I shall show you our view. TonTon needed a good walk after yesterday’s star appearance so on the way, we went right out into the middle of the field, stood in one spot and took shots to the South, West, North and East.
South
West
North
East
The big open prairies. Stripped to sepia by industrial farming. The saddest sight. What is the opposite of cabin fever? Well, a bit of that is creeping in too. So I took Daisy into the center of the barn and let her play with the others for a wee bit. Until she started smacking heads together, then I divided everyone back up again.
I mucked the pens out and swapped everyone around. Now Daisy is in the new central pen with The Baby Bobby (he is a steer and all steers are called The Bobby), with a door open to Pat’s Paddock out to the North. HairyMacLairy the Ram and Queenie the Hereford calf have gone into Daisy’s pen with access to the yards. Mama and Moaning Mia are still in the home paddock so now Hairy can chat to them through the yard fence.
The new Central pen is also where I work from, most of the day, so Daisy is more under my eye! I believe that to farm organically the farmer needs to be ahead of things and watch and listen and smell for changes. If Daisy’s skin did start to break out we would be in big trouble from flies and infection. So I need to get ahead of it. Hopefully the brushing and a change of environment will get us through to her spring coat.
We are having the most gorgeous sunrise. Red in the morning, shepherds warning! And yes there is snow forecast for this afternoon. But it will be a wee bit warmer which will be nice.
Good morning!
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
84 responses to “Daisy’s coat needs attention”
Daisy is one spoiled mama! lucky girl! our three bulls are in the pasture right behind our house, and they must be itchy too, as they are rubbing their heads on whatever they can find. the one I call Ferdinand has been complaining mightily 🙂 but there will be no brushing any of those boys– you’d be trampled for sure!
Daisy is a milk cow so if I cannot get close to her i am doomed. We had a bull once who was meant to be a steer but one of his testicles did not drop so he really was a bull. I could not go in his paddock at all. He took out more fences and gates than John could fix, attacked every feed bucket, smashed everything, chased dogs and left the farm a bit earlier than we had anticipated. He was just plain mean! Daisy is spoilt though. But we are such a small farmy that I can indulge myself!
I envy you that smallness! and of course, yes, Daisy needs to be handled, and often, I’m sure that greatly enhances the milking relationship! it’s so sweet that you’re able to be so close with all your critters. our beef cattle will always be not-so-available, but I do hope to expand what we do into other areas and keep those projects small and more hands-on. we’ll see… cash flow and infrastructure first…
yes, i like to be tiny, for the fences and the barn we use all found posts and recycled wood so it is a slow process.
Your landscape shocked me in its uniformness. Here the land is broken up into “pièces” sometimes far too small, due to the inheritance laws here where individual fields have been divided up so that each of the children inherit equally, and of course they all want a share of the best bit.
There has been a change of direction in the last twenty years or so, called “remembrement” where small plots are amalgamated. Sadly, the familiar, wildlife-friendly bocage (hedgerows on banks) is being grubbed up to make large areas for maize and its necessary huge machines. We still have a fair bit of variety though, so I feel very lucky to live here.
It is the maize (field corn) and beans that have impacted both on the land and on the farm families here. The trees were just chopped down and burnt to combine fields! ah well.. we are a little oasis in the madness! c
That’s some wide open spaces you live in there lady!
YUP! So what is cooking at your house today, i think i will pop over and see! c
That sounds like a great meal for Daisy. Hope she gets through the winter without damaging her coat too much!
I have so many eggs that if i did not feed them to the cows they would go to waste.. but they are such good protein! c
Excellent protein! Your animals all eat very well 🙂
Do hope Daisy enjoys her brush – it sounds like she does, like a little massage. And as for those wide open prairies…amazing!
Firts i have to get her harness on her so i can keep her still, and she has not had it on since summer! there will be some wriggling.. c
Poor Daisy – hopefully her spring coat will be through soon, altho I suspect she is secretly enjoying all the spoiling. Gosh it sad to see the view of what industrial farming does to the landscape.
It is a miserable time of year, all this amazing old earth just blowing away for want of cover.. c
Love John’s idea of a spa date for Daisy! And after some of your days on the “farmy”, I’d vote that Celi get one too!
And on another subject, I know the land seems to run on forever where you are, but does the sky seem big too? We’re surrounded by such green here, tall firs and other trees, and then the mountains and hills, that the sky seems miniaturized sometimes. Have a wonderful day, C!
The sky is HUGE, spree, I love it! c
So you are now a hairdresser to the stars, well Daisy is a star?!
and your view, I find it hypnotic that you can see pretty much nothing for miles, so there is a beauty to it. But what I was wondering was that befor ethese big open fields what was there before? Claire
before the pioneers came this was the summer hunting grounds for the American Indian, it was all grass, prairie grass, there are some pretty big rivers close by too so i am sure it was stunning.. Some of the prairie grasses grow shoulder high.. you can imagine.. where we live was a boggy area, swampy, with those tall swamp reeds and grasses c
Thanks C, that would be stunning!
Poor Daisy! But I know you’ll take very good care of her 😉
morning Giovanna, soon her summer coat will take over.. c
They are well looked after animals your lot :0)
They are, but it is fun to do.. I like hanging out with them! c
I’ll bet that like us, as a coastal kid you originally learned it ‘red sky at morning, sailors take warning’, but I’ve no doubt it’s equally meaningful for shepherds! I think I must be shedding my winter coat a little too, because my skin has gotten unusually dry. Won’t Richard be amazed when my russet and white spotted fur finally sprouts! 🙂
Make sure it is not on a full moon.. he may get the wrong idea!! c
I really do look forward to hearing about your trials and triumphs on the farm. It really inspires me to start planting one day like you and my grandmother. And I hope Daisy will feel better. It most certainly is rough around winter time for everyone.
morning kay. Do you have a tiny corner to plant a tomato or a zuchinni? or maybe a deck for a basil plant, it is wonderful to watch things grow.. c
You know.. I do have a tiny corner in my kitchen.. and I thought about growing strawberries just to get my feet wet. I have to figure out what i want to grow first 🙂
Grow what you like to eat with your fingers! Strawberries need lots of sun but they do grow in pots! c
Wow, all that space and sky, amazing! With all that attention daisy must stop feeling cranky soon!
I find it quite a musing that the solution to the itch for a cow is the wool fat of sheep!
(Lanolin is a substance produced by sheep to protect the fleece from the effects of weathering) – quite a number of humans are allergic to lanolin, but if not it is a great ointment.
That’s one lucky cow to have such a dedicated person attending to her ‘itchy’ patches. I’m impressed that you knew what to do for her in a way that is organic. I bet she loves you for it.