This is a picture of a cow that is close to 'freshening'. Her 'bag' (udder if your not up on your farm slang) is engourged with colostrum.... I used this picture for 2 reasons. First to show you that there is NO hair on a cow's tittie and that the skin is very tender and soft. Dairy cows are the Diva Princess's of the bovine world... in other words - they are a bunch of pansies...
They need constant care if you are going to maintain a good, healthy, productive herd - you MUST take care of your cattle.
This next cow is a half breed. She is part Angus and part Holstien... personaly, these are my favorite cows. They are hardy because of the beef blood, yet produce a bit more milk than a beef does because of the holstien blood. This cow is is named.... Mamma Jugs. You can see by her back end and 'bag' that she is a half breed.
These are Mamma Jugs - jugs.. If you look really close, you can see that she has more hair on her 'bag' AND her titties are not as tender skinned as a holstien. The hair on her bag lays against it and really keeps it warm. Tomorow I will do a post on a beef cows udder so that you can all know your stuff when it comes to cow teaters. I know you all want to pass the quiz on Monday.... **snort**
To prevent frost bitten teaters we do 2 things. At times when it is bitterly cold, like today - the cows are left in the barn. This is harder on us because it requires more cleaning and feeding, but it way better for them, at least for a couple of days. We dont leave them in more than 1 full day before we have to let them out for some exercise. Can you imagine being tied for 24 hours only being able to stand or lay.....There are times when its is cold for a week with below freezing temps. Those days we have to let them out for 15 min - just to move around and they go right back in the barn. Cold weather on a dairy/beef operation requires lots of animal manegment. We are fortunate to have RARE occurances of frost bitten teaters... These next pictures are from the web, not our farm.
Nasty huh... there is more wrong with this cows bag and teats than frost bite though...she looks like she is on a 'big operation'.... Her teats are in more trouble than just being frozen, but I dont want to go into all of that now. Just know that large farms - with lots of hired help, dont do well with cattle care.
SO - I have to get going and get to work. Thanks you guys for sticking with me - smoochs to you all and eskimo kiss's!!!
Dude-- frozen boobs!! I need more coffee for this ;)
ReplyDeleteHey Heidi- I got a deal for ya-- you love babies so much, I'll box mine up and UPS them to you for a couple days, so they can see what snow is like...hehehe In return, you can box YOUR guys up and send them HERE, and we'll show them the South! Sound good? ;)
Yeah man- that poor girl in the last pic has some mistreated teats for sure.
Love you dearly there sista, and miss you bunches!!
HEYYY Maybe you can get stitchin in the willows , or some of the other girls to make u some teater Quilts !! LIL Bitty Teater Quilt Socks to slip over the teaters when they are not in use for milkin
ReplyDeleteWOW , I think I just might Patent That Idea !
I think the official names is "Teets" ...
ReplyDelete:-)
OMG!!!! I shall never look at a woman again! lol.
ReplyDeleteI was really concerned about my little Jersey; her calf runs with her, so of course when he's done nursing her teats (I say tits too) are wet. Wet teats and zero weather do not mix. But I got her up to milk her the other day and there was no damage. I have had cows get the ends of their teats frostbitten.
ReplyDeleteFreth is correct btw it is teets , however using the incorrect form of the word in the wrong venue will get a man in heap big trouble
ReplyDeleteYou know, when you visit blogs, you just never know what you'll learn!
ReplyDeleteLooks pretty gross. Never thought about that. Thanks for the enlightenment today. =o)
ReplyDeleteTotally understandable ... I mean, I personally prefer my own teaters indoors and generously covered when the wind chill hits minus 25! Love your down-to-earth glimpses of real farm life, Heidi ... although that last photo made me shudder a bit.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting... I learned some thing today... So what's on the quiz on Monday?
ReplyDeleteHave a good day stay warm or at least as warm as you can.
Interesting...
ReplyDeleteNot exactly what I expected to see, but interesting.
Have a great day!
I grew up in a farming community, I remember the first time I read on a tin of salve the word teat, I laughed so hard to find out that it meant tit, I asked my Grma why dont they just put tit on it cuz thats what we all call them. Freth & Coffee Watkins calls them teats.
ReplyDeleteWow! I live in WI, dairy farm, and have never seen frostbitten teats. I call them teats not tits so my girls grow up with the correct terminology. My husband, however, calls them tits. I asked why, he isn't sure...what do you call them and why?
ReplyDeleteYes, we call them tits.. but the kids know they are teats... I guess we are to lazy to say teat so, tit comes out and I live with a bunch of men...self explanatory!! LOL **snort**
ReplyDeleteFarm terminology can be just as embarrasing as auto parts terminology!!! Many a time while I was working at the NAPA store I just walked away from a converstaion - they LOVED how I still turn pink at times ... and yet when I'd look the part up, yup, that was it's 'technological' name. 8-/
ReplyDeleteAs I was rading parts of this posting, bits from the book "Farmer Boy" (part of the 'Little House on the Prairie' series) came to mind. :->
http://thebzhousethatlovebuilt.blogspot.com
I just found your blog and added it to my list. We have a dairy farmalso and one day in the school cafeteria we had a blow up cow hanging in there complete with tits and my 7 yr old(at the time) son came through and a teacher was talking about the cow and my son siad something about her tits, well the teacher tried to correct him about teats and seemed a little upset. I had to explain that around the barn we call them tits and that is where my son got it from and then I told my son at school he should call them teats. After that I told my husband he better watch what he calls the manure spreader, lol !!!
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