The Argument I Am Glad I Lost

Reader Contribution by Brenda Arthur
Published on March 23, 2015
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“Why did you bring her home?” That’s what I asked my husband after he brought our mid-mini Jersey heifer, Dolly, to the farm. Dolly was a 3-year-old heifer who had been raised on pasture with little to no human contact. Me not knowing much about cows at the time, except for my experience with Daisy (who stands for milking and even insemination without being tied or stanchioned), figured all cows were loveable and friendly toward humans – boy was I wrong!

I had been looking at mini and mid-mini Jersey cows for a while. Our full-sized Jersey Daisy needed a friend and since she was dry a few months of the year, I wanted another cow to fill in the dry times. A couple calves a year would be a bonus too!

I found Dolly online and after a couple months of debating and then waiting on the weather to be at least warm enough so that she wouldn’t freeze on the six-hour drive home, I sent my husband off to pay for her and bring her home. He finally got home with her around 9 that evening and proceeded to unload her. He warned me that she had been snorting and kicking the whole way home. I figured I probably would have been doing the same if I had been stuck in a hot trailer on the Interstate for hours so I let her bad mood go by the wayside.

Her bad mood though didn’t dissipate. She pawed the ground and snorted like a crazed rodeo bull each time I went into the barnyard. Daisy, however, was thrilled at having a pal and the two became fast friends immediately. Daisy wouldn’t let me near Dolly – I thought she was just being jealous that I would give the newbie all the attention that was supposed to be hers alone! I think now I was wrong, and she was just protecting me from a crazy cow! After a few weeks I still couldn’t get anywhere near Dolly without her pawing and snorting at me and told my husband that she would have to go to freezer camp. He wouldn’t have it, saying we spent too much money for her to end up in the freezer.

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