As my husband and I drove home it felt like a rite of passage. Not only is Charlotte my first cow, she’s the first farm animal purchased for the homestead! She is an adorable brown 3-year-old Jersey. When we went to pick her up, she had a sweet and curious temperament. She hopped right into the trailer following a bucket of grain, and away we went. I didn’t have a worry in the world and couldn’t have been more excited to start drinking my own fresh raw milk, make butter and cheese, and have a companion for my horse. I figured a cow and a horse must be similar to handle…
The plan was to simply put her in the pasture and allow her and my horse, Kenobi, to adjust to each other while we watched. We agreed we would intervene if necessary but otherwise let them figure it out. Well, as soon as she unloaded from the trailer the chaos began. Her owners had given us a rope to control her by the neck, which was really ineffective. I struggled against her as she plunged around the property, pulling me along through puddles and ice. She went to see Kenobi at the fence, graze, and generally check things out. With my four-month-old, Bruce, strapped to my chest in his baby carrier this didn’t seem ideal, so Brandon came and took over leading her to the pasture. I went to grab a jacket and had to push past our desperately barking dogs. They were freaking out to see the cow and jumping all over the furniture in a frenzy of joyous excitement. When I got back outside, I was informed that Charlotte had run right under the fence when released into the pasture! We were going to need to modify it fast.
The fence is a cool bit of bush crafting my husband designed and built. He used trees as the fence posts and tied logs between them for the rails. So, what happened was that he built the pasture with my 16-hand thoroughbred in mind. We were in a huge hurry to get Kenobi home so he stopped after one rail in several places. Although it had been working great for the horse, we definitely needed lower logs to keep in this cow. He handed me Charlotte’s lead rope and jumped in the car to enlist the help of our other neighbor and friend. Once again, I was being pulled all around the property as I strained against her and tried to convince her to just chill out. Bruce started crying so I decided to let her free feed at the haybale and hope she would stay there while I went inside the camper with him. And she did! It honestly seemed like Charlotte wanted to stick around. Watching through the window as I nursed Bruce, I saw that she wandered a bit, sometimes tasting plants, sometimes kicking up her heels and playing around, and sometimes watching the men as they returned and got to work as fast as possible to secure the fence. Luckily, logs are abundant here so there is plenty of material to work with! At one point I went back outside and kind of loitered around a while, but ultimately decided to get Charlotte a tub of grain to keep her occupied and then work on getting my baby down for a nap. Surely, it’d be fine…
All of a sudden, I realized it had been several minutes since I had heard the chainsaw, voices, or Charlotte’s moo. With Bruce once again in the carrier I went out into the ominous quiet. Nobody was around. Not Brandon, not our neighbor, and not Charlotte. I listened hard and heard them calling her name from within the nearby state park. She had apparently disappeared into the woods. As soon as I realized this, the weight of my stupidity sank in. Of course she wasn’t going to just stay put by herself! What was I thinking?! Obviously, she doesn’t know this property or us well enough to free range. Now I had lost my cow on the same day as purchasing her. As I joined the search I was almost panicking. My mind created countless scenarios of tragic and humiliating outcomes. There were some cow tracks, but nothing we were able to follow for long. And walking farther into the surrounding forest was made cumbersome by sinking in the snow. She could have been anywhere. When we returned, the two guys got in the truck and drove down to the main road. I stayed behind, noisily shaking a bucket of grain and continuing to call for her. They came back empty handed and I, too, was unsuccessful.
Just as we were running out of daylight, Brandon was able to find her! He was on the ATV following intuition on acres of public land, and there she was. As relief washed over me, I saw the humor in my mistakes. And after all the animals were fed and taken care of, we spent the evening having a good laugh at our own expense.
So anyway, when we got Charlotte back, I did make a point to hang on to her rope until she was secured. There was no way to finish the fence that night so we improvised a stall for her outside the pasture. Why we didn’t think of doing this from the beginning is beyond me! It was fast and easy compared to rebuilding a whole fence. There she stayed for two nights while the fence was under construction. And that’s the (mis)adventure of my first few hours owning a cow! I’m happy to say I can now lead her around well with a standard nylon horse halter, and that I’m enjoying her vibe. She’s affectionate, has been willing to bond with everyone, and seems to really like the baby! We purchased her knowing that she was drying up and I would need to work on her milk production. It’s been a challenge navigating that process and learning to hand-milk. But overall, cow ownership has been a rewarding experience! I’m looking forward to sharing more about it as I continue!
