I'm sure you've heard that phrase before. Well. I got to experience it.
Near the organic farm where we do a gig here and there is an organic cow set-up. Being a little sad about the fact that these "little" guys are raised for meat, I hesitated when I was invited to go on a walk through the cow pasture.
I've seen some horrible scenes of cows up to their knees in mud in Texas feedlots, but this in not the case here. They have acres and acres of green grass, alfalfa and tasty weeds. There were about a dozen nursing babies hanging with moms scattered throughout.
Our walk was a long one and the cows gave us lots of room. But then came a desire for change from Pasture A to Pasture B, or coming home time. We had the opportunity to wait and watch until they all made the transition. We chose to, anyway. Had we kept to our agenda they would've scattered and gotten stressed. No one wants to see a stressed cow, right? So we just watched the very organized move.
There are guard cows. Seriously. Four mature females stood watch while we entered the pasture. And when it was time to move from one large section to another they started the process, guided the others and waited until the last cow was where it was supposed to be. Then and only then did we get the green light to pass. Another interesting fact: cows have nurseries. We didn't see one, but an adult or two watches several calves while the other mothers get breaks.
A pretty cool experience that makes me glad I don't eat em, that's for sure. And glad that there are places that treat their animals with kindness during their lives.
