Meet The Bovine Ladies.

I was doing the chores one evening and all was peaceful except that Violet kept a watchful eye on me. That's her head, lifted above the other cows with an alert and curious look on her face. Well, she had to keep tabs on me. A cow just never knows what I might do next:

And that's when I decided to introduce you to my five bovine girls. This is Violet. She's bigger than the others and a deep red color. She's one of the most skittish of the cows, though she's made a lot of progress, getting used to being petted while she eats grain. When I approach her out in the field, she shies away, but then kicks up her heels playfully, bouncing around the hay bale feeder. Violet looks like she is pregnant and I've never noticed her in heat, so I'm hoping for a calf this spring:

Jasmine is a lighter red color than any of the others and her fur seems softer. Her personality seems softer as well. She's second only to Violet in size but quite wide in the belly. I believe she will be the first to calve this spring. Violet is the calmest cow and is actually affectionate. When I walk up to her in the field, she holds still and allows me to stroke her side or take her by the collar. She's also playful and mischievous, though, and loves to watch me open the gate to drive the tractor through. She pretends she isn't watching, but the first chance she gets, she bolts through the gate and bounces around the yard. I've learned to push her away from the gate and make sure she's eating hay before I open it:

This is Gracie. She's the oldest but smallest of the cows. She's also the big boss and will butt any other cow that gets in her way. When her food bowl is empty, she just takes someone else's bowl. She has a strange tail which tilts to one side and a different shaped head than the others. Gracie is not all bad, though, and is rather calm and docile with me. I don't believe that Gracie is pregnant and I am working toward using artificial insemination to change that:

This is Scarlett. She is perhaps the prettiest red and the has nicest conformation of any of the cows. But Scarlett is easily frightened, both by me and by the tractor. Like her stall-mate Violet, however, Scarlett has come a very long way towards becoming tame and allows me to rub her neck, head, ears and belly as she eats. If however, I approach her in the field, she moves away. I've never noticed Scarlett come in heat but if she is pregnant, it doesn't show much:


 And lastly, meet Amy. She was downright petite when she arrived, so much so that I believed she'd been bred too early and that had stunted her growth. But her legs have grown since she's been with me. Her back is arched, her head looks kind of small for her body and she is the at the bottom of the pecking order. I also believe that Amy is the least intelligent of the cows. But don't think that I don't value her. She is still a nice cow with a docile disposition and from excellent lines. Amy is definitely not pregnant and throws the herd into a tizzy at precisely 20 day intervals when she comes into heat. I am planning to use artificial insemination to breed her to one of the finest bulls in the country:


 Here's another shot of Jasmine, my big teddy bear in which her lighter color shows. But I have learned that this breed's coloration looks different, depending on how the light hits it. Sometimes Jasmine looks dark red. Sometimes they all look a sort of mud brown, even though the red usually shows up in a photo taken while they looked brown. I used to wonder why some Red Polls on the internet looked an ugly brown, while others were a pretty red. Now I know it all depends on the lighting:

I put down bedding hay for the cows every morning and then lock them outdoors during the day. But as soon as they come back in for the night and finish their evening grain, they begin eating their bedding hay. I try to explain to them that they'd have more bedding if they'd not eat it, but will they listen? No, they will not:

I've also learned that their back-lines are highly flexible and variable. Sometimes a cow's spine looks perfectly straight as it should. Sometimes she'll let it sag and sometimes she'll arch her back. Only Amy's back is permanently arched, but even that is variable and improving:

I'd just fed them their grain and all five were eating their bedding when I took this photo. Amy and Jasmine were the closest to the door and, being the two tamest, perfectly content to have me standing in front of them with the camera:

But then I walked down to the other end of the barn where Scarlett and Gracie were scarfing down their bedding. I took the picture and then shooed them all outside, where they had a 1000 pound bale of hay to much on:

I've learned a lot about my five girl's personalities and a lot about cattle in general since they arrived in November. Of course I still have a lot more to learn, but I'm enjoying the process and looking forward to a few calves this year: