The Red Poll Girls In Autumn

This picture was taken early one morning when I called the cattle in for grain. They moved across the dewy grass to the barn, happy for a bit of sweet feed:

And they've had plenty of green grass to eat, though its growth is surely slowing down now. They'll be disappointed when they have to return to eating hay for the winter:

The girls spent a few weeks in the north field, which had a month to recover after haying. The grass was long and lush by then:

I continued to give them daily grain while they were in the north field - not much, just enough to make sure they were happy to see me and came when called:

Looking at these beautiful cows now, it's hard to remember how thin they looked when they arrived. But they're looking good now:

Little Rosella is a regular part of the herd now, traveling with the big girls, wherever they go:

Are you talking about me?:

I love to see the Red Polls at dawn or dusk, when their already red coats take on a rosy glow:

Yes, little Rosella is getting braver and comes very close to me now. But if I reach out for her, she dances away. The time is coming very soon when I'll need to trap her in the barn and put an ear tag in her ear. She won't like me any more after that, at least for a little while:

We didn't have many apples this year, but there were still more than I could use. The neighbors took some and I occasionally fed them to the cows. I began cutting the apples up so there would be no chance they'd choke on them:

And Rosella has become a devotee of sweet grain. Her mother's milk is still her favorite, but grass and grain are pretty popular with her also:

Her opinion of the chickens is more complicated. Sometimes she likes them, considering them playmates. More and more, though, she considers them grain thieves and chases them away: