A Neighbors' Dairy Barn - Part 1

The two brothers who cut and baled my hay last summer have become friends and I sometimes stop by their dairy barn to say hello and shoot the breeze. One day I took note of all the cute calves in the barn and asked if they'd let me come take photos of the whole operation for this blog. They said OK, so one day I drove up to their barn, parked my car and asked, "How about today?:

Several colorful cows were lounging about outside the barn and I guessed that these were currently not being milked, probably soon to calve:

I walked into the milk room just as a bit of milk was poured for these two barn cats:

I walked out into the main barn to see the brothers and their cows, but my first "Hello" was to this calico barn cat:

I jumped to the side to avoid this forceful stream of urine and snapped a photo with which to make the point that this many giant animals in a barn is not always picturesque and pleasant. There's an awful lot of urine and manure being produced and deposited at all times. The brothers spend much of their day dealing with the accumulation of it all:

I chatted with the brothers for a bit and then began walking around the barn. Both the cows and the cats were friendly and seemed quite OK with me being there:

These cows spend most of their lives in the barn. Most of them are housed in double stalls, but this cow had a single stall all to herself. She seemed quite content with it:

It was almost milking time and all these bovine ladies were standing in line, waiting to be milked:

The very small calves were allowed to roam freely and would walk over to their mom every so often to say hello and drink a bit of milk:

This little fellow was just about to poop, but it was the best photo I got of him:

There was a variety of breeds, but mostly Holsteins and Jerseys. This little golden Jersey with soft eyes was as tame as a puppy dog:

The brothers are kind to their animals and, as a result, they are friendly cows. Many of them greeted me as I walked by. But there was more to see, so I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: