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'Well it seemed like a good idea at the time.' Is the forgiving way of saying - we blew it!
The nose rings did seem like a good idea- an excellent idea. In the past we'd tried the more conventional methods of weaning our cattle with a mediocre success rate.
On a small farm, a fretting cow's bellow can be heard echoing across the valleys and hills for a kilometer or so. No matter how we separate mothers from calves, they know where the missing family members are and fences are no obstacle.
Our small acreage led to the nose ring solution, no need for separation and anxiety, the spikes on the calves nose ring just make life too uncomfortable for the cow and she does the weaning by herself. A win-win situation.
In any form of mass organisation, it only takes one to break ranks for the system to falter. Most of our cows baulked at the calf trying to suckle with a great yellow medieval torture device stuck on the end of their noses so the weaning was looking good. Except for one hyper maternal mother, who gritted her teeth, spread her legs and put up with her udder being pricked and poked and butted by some instrument left over from the Spanish inquisition. Yes, a total mummy's boy who would not go out with the others and play in the paddock.
Kids being kids, it didn't take long for a game of copycat to develop. The other calves knew well enough to leave their own mothers alone, but that didn't stop them from harassing hyper maternal mother by ducking in between her back legs for a quick slurp or performing pincer movements to out wit her. Either hyper mother had to harden up or the humans had to step in.
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| hyper mother |
With a bit of lateral thinking we thought of making a spiked bra to fit over the cows udder, something like a size 600 EEE, with a bit of research and development it might just work in the future. I'll have to consider adjustable shoulder - make that hip straps, but it should be possible. I'm thinking black rubber and large chrome spikes.
Meanwhile we tightened up the nose rings till the calves eyes watered and sent them out to eat grass.
