It means walking your show animals around your yard as often as humanly possible so they will (hopefully!) be completely docile and well behaved on their halters. Even in the face of running, screaming children; golf carts; balloons and the unfamiliar sounds of the midway, your animal (hopefully!) will walk calmly beside you and be indifferent to this foreign environment. Hopefully! Because if you have ever tried to stop a scared cow or even yearling calf from running full tilt down the midway... you know that one hundred plus pounds is no match for five hundred pounds plus of flying fear!
Luckily, it is a wonderful week for people who commute across their driveways to work 52 weeks of the year. (Yeah, you don't get fair week off from farming! There are no vacations in this occupation) You get to commune with other dairymen and women, check out the finest in their herd and take pride in the fact that yours is not the only farm where people love what they do and do it well! You can relate to the struggles they've had in the past year and celebrate their successes. You can also hope your animal wins the blue ribbon over their animal... but in the event that doesn't happen, sportsmanship kicks in and you happily watch as those blues are hung over the backs of the other cow.
It's a chance for people who visit the fair to get a taste of farm life. To see cows at their finest, see one milked in the parlor, talk to a dairyman about a day in their life. And hopefully those conversations build trust between producer and consumer. That we love our animals and take pride in them and the milk they produce for our dairy consumers. We would never knowingly ship a poor quality product!
We would also never harm these animals to get more milk from them. Mistreating them in any way actually will produce an opposite effect. You get less milk of lesser quality! The California Cow commercials sum it up perfectly - Happy Cows make happy milk! That is why when you go to the fair, you'll see barn fans running non-stop and often at a speed greater than what is comfortable for a person. They aren't for the people, they are for the cows. You will also see cows and calves getting washed, constantly! It's not just about appearance, but keeping them cool and comfortable is really important.
The fair animals often come home a bit spoiled. We trucked out three divas to the fairgrounds this week and when they return to the usual routine at the end of the week, one in particular will be standing in her end stall wondering who will be coming to fluff her tail and trim her ear hair! My first fair animal, Michelle, developed a fondness for cotton candy during her fair days and I could see when she got home, she was looking for her sweet treats for weeks after.
You can't spoil them all every day of every year. But we do try to keep them as comfortable as possible! New gadgets to help with that are always of interest. Which is why I am fascinated with this new cow wash device a friend made me aware of.
How cool it would be for our cows to be able to clean up whenever they feel the need! We have a tie stall facility. That means each cow has her own stall that she lives in. She is let out for exercise every morning while barn is cleaned. I can imagine this cow wash installed in a breezeway between the pasture and the barn. Each cow could clean up after "playtime" and return to her clean stall all refreshed... how cool is that? They would love that big brush, I'm betting we'd have about 64 shower hogs and it would take a REALLY long time to get them back in the barn!
The expense of installing such a device makes it quite impractical at the moment; but it is food for thought. For the time being, our girls will have to savor the summer rains and the diva cows and their caretakers will enjoy their week of at the fair!
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