Village Squire, 1977-07, Page 18A Cow for fun and profit
BY ADRIAN VOS
One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of
warning. --James Russel Lowell.
The seeds to become a hobby farmer were planted in 1956.
I grew up in a small town in Holland and I never became
quite accustomed to living in a city. So, while working in Galt,
which is now Cambridge, my wife and I decided to try and
rent a house in the country. We were fortunate to find a stone
farm house within ten miles of my place of work.
The new Highway 401 had taken away so much from the
original farm that, as a working farm it had become
uneconomical. The new owner planned to make it into a
country estate in the future. Until that time came, we could
rent it from him.
PG. 16. VILLAGE SQUIRE/JULY 1977.
Behind thehousewas, in our inexperienced eyes, a Targe
dairy barn, vid behind that barn was 35 acres of pasture land.
My wife, Toni, and 1, being thrifty people, couldn't abide
the waste of empty barn and land, so we asked our land -lord if
we could use if for a cow or a pig. He readily agreed, and so
the seeds mentioned above were planted.(
Since, at that time, we didn't know how or where to buy a
cow, we looked, naturally, in the classified columns of the
"Galt Reporter." Within a few days of our decision to go
ahead, we found an advertisement, offering a cow with a calf
at her side. The very next day I went out to look at her and
promptly fell in love with her. Since I didn't know what to look
for in a dairy cow, I tried to look knowledgeable anyway. 1 felt
her udder and looked into her eyes and bought her on the
spot.
When I got home, my wife showed that she knew as much
about cows as I did. She didn't ask how much milk she gave,
but what her name was. Her name was Daisy.
After this we decided to become more practical, so we
asked one another more technical questions, such as: "How "411011
do you get the milk out of the cow?" and "What does a cow
eat."
I had seen cows eating grass and knew they were fed hay
and turnips, so immediately I went to my farmer neighbours,
to buy hay and turnips. It is a good way to learn to know your
neighbours. That is the time when you find out who your
potential friends are. Anyway, I learned that 1 would need
straw and dairy ration too. By Saturday of that week I had
feed and bedding all ready. Daisy was to be delivered the next
Monday. All we had to learn was how to milk her.
We had several farmer friends and we paid as many as
possible a visit, with the intention of learning to milk during
that Saturday and Sunday. They were greatly amused by our
adventure and clearly figured that by the next weekend,
'Ow op