One Santa Barbara Woman’s Ode to Cows
Sally Isaacson’s Life Alongside Bovines, from Ireland to California
Cows have been part of my life for a very long time.
When I was young, growing up in Ireland, our family lived on a farm in the beautiful hills of Wicklow. The farms in Ireland are generally small, and the cattle are tame; farmers round them up with a big stick. We had 30 acres of good grassland, and the property was able to support about 20 cows.
We had a mixture of many breeds. As Ireland is traditionally a big dairy country, producing lots of milk, butter, and cheese, most cattle were at least partly Friesian (called Holstein in the United States). The government had a program whereby it provided an artificial insemination service to small farms. I remember how excited we’d get when a cow was in heat and the “man with the red van” showed up.
You must be logged in to post a comment.