At the weekend, the Builder and his Brother were talking about the cows we're hoping to get this year.
"Oh," I piped up, "you mean Daisy and Daffodil?"
Silence.
"Daisy and Daffodil? You know, our lovely, brown-eyed, sweet, friendly cows that will one day have to go and will not return until they're in the oven, on the frying pan or in my wok. Isn't that what you were talking about?"
The inevitable look passes between them. And then....
"Give me strength, woman. They will not be pets. They will not have names. But even more importantly: they'll be bullocks. They will not be called Daisy and Daffodil."
I don't believe after all I'm supposed to have learned over the past year or two that I'm still getting this wrong.
Crash course in croftification necessary.
Remember Daisy....eating the Daffodils?
Female.
See? Earrings. Laurie pointed that out to me.
The earrings are a dead giveaway. Plainly female. No mistaking.
Whereas this guy. Oh boy, there aint no mistaking this fellow.
I bet none of you would dare get it wrong and then face him. Huh?
lol This is much like my first attempt with cows. We usually dont' "winter" them. Meaning for us they go to market in the very late fall. We will be getting a new group of calves very soon.
ReplyDeleteI can see the last picture being captioned "Who called me Daffodil?I ain't no Daffodil! I think the cows had lovely earrings. The girls and I name everything here. Farmer guy is outnumbered 5 to 1. We have a male cat, but he doesn't know he's a guy. Some of the horses are male. Maybe that's why the farmer spends so much time away from "estrogen house."
ReplyDeleteIf I just wrote a duplicate comment, please delete. The other one dissappeared before I hit "post comment." I think!????Duh!
I totally understand.....
ReplyDeleteI am still corrected by my loving husband who grew up on a dairy farm. To me, they are still "male cows" and "female cows".......I will look for the earrings to help me look more astute next time. :-)
Sigh....I keep trying after 25 years.
~Leslie
As three girls growing up on a dairy farm, we named and turned every animal into a pet. Our Dad cured that by insisting that the calf he chose to put in the freezer come fall, was named Beef at birth. Thus, we were constantly reminded of his ultimate destination.
ReplyDeleteThis cracks me up! I tend to be a bit anal about what cattle are called. I would tell my students when drawing a (very crude) diagram of beef cuts that most of their beef comes from STEERS (your bullocks), not cows. Cows are milk producing, calf producing machines. Steers are, well, made to be eaten!
ReplyDeleteHmmm I can see why naming could be a problem. We would like to eventually try out a few animals for meat. We have enough land. But we are not nearly savy or brave enough yet to try. But I will keep that in mind lol!! That would be just the sort of thing I would do. A first name possible a middle name I might even sew them a collar or something maybe fix their earings put some jewels on them lol!! hehehe ~ Love Heather
ReplyDelete