True Cow Tales: Sweet Sundae

Sundae and Molasses

Storms, storms, and more storms!  The second of three terrible storms that hit last week left me with downed fencing, a calf pen in tangles, a large tree branch in the field, and one cow, Molasses, with a very bad, mysterious lameness.  

The rotation grazing I was doing had the cows at the far end of the pasture when the storms came.  I decided to move them up closer to the barn because of Molasses.  I knew this would be difficult for her since she could barely walk, but the cows needed new grass anyway and this would save Molasses from having to make multiple long trips each day for water and milking.

Sundae, Chocolate’s calf, is a herd leader in training, thanks to her mom.  She is the first to moo when some cow is not where she should be, and she generally leads the way when it’s time to get water or move to new pasture.  

When I started moving the cows to their new area, they took off running for the fresh grass as soon as they realized what was up.  All except for Molasses, that is.  She walked for a little ways, then stopped and just stared across the field looking like she would not be able to make it.  

About a quarter of the way to the new pasture, Sundae realized that Molasses was not with them.  She stopped to moo for her, but Molasses still was not coming.  The other cows kept on running for the new grass.  But Sundae, at a mere 3½ months of age, went back to Molasses and proceeded to walk, slowly and carefully, side by side with her all the way to the new field.  It was so touching, it brought tears to my eyes.