Do you like cows?
When I was a kid I was around (dairy) cows a lot, pretty much all in small family farms having two to maybe ten cows. As I remember, all the kids liked cows, and the cows pretty much all returned the feeling. They were treated like family pets. Come to think of it, So did the “grownups”.
They would usually come over if anyone went out to their pasture, sometimes at a trot. With their titties swaying. 
I suspect it may have to do with a frustrated mother instinct, but maybe not. I know they liked being milked. By hand. None of these folks owned milking machines.
I know nothing of factory dairy farms, with cows in their hundreds. Some professional milk person is likely to come in here and tell me I’m nuts. That’s okay, I’d probably like your cows too.
What brought all this on are those funny Dairy Association commercials. They make me miss those cows of my childhood.
An ybody else like cows?
Peace,
mangeorge
I like cows, too. I feel bad about eating them. But I still eat them.
You know how they have that little tuft of hair on top of their heads? Well, I determined early on in my life that I should make it my mission to shampoo it. Unfortunately, I could never get one close enough to experiment. But I’m thinkin’ that I could’ve made them silky, glossy picturesque. Where’s my Prell?
And they are still my favorite animal of all time. So serene.
I don’t eat cows. But I don’t know any either, so I don’t know if I’d like one.
Moo!
Yay, I get to share my Crazy Childhood Story!
I grew up in the country, and we let our neighbours pasture their cows in our back field. There were three of them. I used to LOVE to go out to their fence, and start singing…usually some crappy pop songs or something, and the cows loved it. They would wander over from whatever corner of the field they were grazing in, and just stand and stare at me while I sang. If I stopped, they’d lose interest and wander off.
People always goggle at me oddly when I tell them how I grew up singing to cows.
For one brief, shining moment, I thought that mangeorge was about to have something special in common with Hal Briston.
And then I read the OP.
Disappointed!
For what it’s worth, I like cows. They fill buns nicely, keep my money and cards organized, and look good on me when I go out, to say nothing of the benefits of milk and cheese.
I can’t say I’ve ever truly gotten to know one, though.
I like cows too. They’re way more interesting than horses. Mysterious and curious with so much personality. On a drive I often take by a dairy farm there is a huge pile of dirt probably two stories high. There is always one cow way at the top, alone, with all the other cows looking up at her. I think they’re playing King of the Hill. I haven’t figured out yet if it’s the same one always.
It’s probably the spot where they’ve been dehorned as calves. Not a soft tuft of hair at all, but a bony ridge covered with short fur.
Mangeorge where/when was your childhood? Milking cows by hand, even as few as ten cows, is incredibly time consuming and tedious. I can’t imagine even the smallest operation not owning a milking machine.
Cows are cool, even when they’re on big production farms. The more exposure to people they have, the funner they get.
I’ve been working at the state fair the last few years where they keep a bunch of pregnant farm animals so the public can watch them deliver. I was filling up one cow’s water bucket, when she got curious about my exposed arm. Maybe the sweat made me salty. She decides to take a taste, and proceeds to wrap her foot long, very strong, and rough like a cat’s, tongue completely around my forearm, slowly ripping it free as she savors the flavor. Polkadot bastard.
Another time at the fair, I was chilling with our Jersey cows (who are brown instead of spotted), when a 3 or 4 year old little girl comes up with her dad. With a little encouragement from pop, she quietly asked me “are those chocolate milk cows?” Cute meter explosion.
Another cow lover here!
While I don’t have any real cows, I have my own herd of figurines, stuffed animals, cow-shaped and cow-printed items. My favorite is a figurine of 2 cows making out.
My user name is a shortened “holy cow”.
Moo.
Sure it is…
Moo yourself.
Do I have to include a smiley?
I love cows, too. I collect cow items.
They’re a dual happiness for me.
They are cute AND tasty!
I like cows. I was not raised around them though but my second husband was. He worked on a dairy farm as a young kid and told me many cow stories. There are two that stand out the most though.
The first being the act of shit skiing. This is the act of grabbing the cows tail after milking and sliding down the length of the barn on cow shit. He made it a point to tell me that you should avoid any dry spots.
The other was when he was at the doctors once. He complained of not growing a beard yet. The doctor asked him if he was still working at the dairy farm which he stated he was. The doctor told him the cure was to smear cow crap on his face and a beard would grow.
He could grow a Grizzly Adams beard in a matter of days :eek:
I used to be pretty ambivalent about cows, growing up in the Midwest you saw them pretty often while driving around and I didn’t used to really pay them any mind. When I moved out west however I started resenting cows pretty quickly. I know it wasn’t the cows fault that they’re allowed to graze in national forests or that they seem to be giant pooping machines that can make hiking pretty difficult in any area that they’ve frequented lately, it’s just weird when you step in cow shit on a mountain top. Cows don’t really seem to be mountain style creatures, but they were everywhere out there. Ruining delicate riparian zones along waterways and stripping out forage that game animals needed too seemed to me a good enough reason to eat more venison and elk.
Here I am, 44 years old, and still when I’m driving down the highway and go past a dairy farm with cows in the pasture, I must inexplicably moo out loud.
I like them too, especially those pretty little fawn-colored cows. Jerseys, aren’t they? The only time I ever get really close to them is at county fairs. I like how they smell sweet, like the alfalfa that they eat.
They’re cute, but they’re too big, fly-attracting, and effluvia-exuding to make good pets. And they’re tasty. MMMMMM so very very tasty. And much easier and tidier to keep in butchered form.
So on balance, I say eat 'em.
I hate cows.
I once thought they were nice animals. Sure, you get milk from them, they look nice on a teakettle or a poster, and they provide us beef. But on a business trip to New Mexico, I realized just how annoying these things really are–they smell to high heavens, are dumber than a bag full ‘o’ hammers, and will wander up to something to observe it and just . . . stand there! :mad:
I hate cows. They’re dumb and smelly. I intend to eradicate the entire bovine race one steak at a time. :mad: :mad:
Tripler
Medium rare, please.
Those sheep lovers don’t know what they are missing.
I grew up mostly in rural Bakersfield, CA, in the '50s (b 1945). Back then even city folk weren’t far from the farms. Anyway, ten cows was just a maximum I could think of, which is why I said “maybe”. Most families had two or three, although I do remember others having many more with several family members doing the milking. As with anything, you develop a skill for the job. I’ve done it a couple times, but I was much slower than those who did the job routinely.
I’m curious, have you ever milked a cow completely, from beginning to end, by hand?
I’d guess that now days very few have, even on the remaining tiny farms.
I just looked at wiki, and they state that a herd of four or more is likely to have a machine. Sounds right to me.
Chocolate milk cows, eh? Cute.