Personalities are funny….but especially so when you are talking about bovine personalities! I know I have talked about this before, but we have a variety of HUGE personalities here at the farm. Jersey, the mom, grandma and great-grandma has her stubborn moments, but for the most part, she is quiet-natured and easy going…kind of a go-with-the-flow kind of girl.
However, her daughter, Mocha is definitely NOT those things most of the time. She is our “diva” cow…she knows what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it, and lets you know if you haven’t met her expectations! One example is our morning and evening routine: Jeff cleans out the stall while I get the dairy feed ready. If he takes too long and doesn’t close the stall door, OR if I take too long getting the feed ready, she puts her nose on the stall door, shoves it open and walks out to where I am filling her feed bowl. Sometimes she just stands there and waits and sometimes she comes over to see what is taking me so long! Patience is definitely NOT one of her virtues! Mocha shows typical signs of PMS when she is in heat: moody, sulky, difficult to get along with, etc. But, she is smart! She is way too smart for her own good, and ours! Mocha is a leader and sometimes mouthy but seems to understand the way things work. When there is a variation in routine, she complains for three days, but after that seems to acclimate to the new routine.
Mocha has birthed four daughters: Cocoa, Caramel, Truffle and Hazel. Cocoa was fairly easy going, more like her grandma than her mama! Caramel is far more skittish than either Jersey or Mocha. Truffle is very smart like Mocha, but she is far more loving and docile than Mocha. Oh, don’t get me wrong…Mocha has her special ways of being affectionate with her humans… but Truffle is outwardly affectionate. Truffle is also a leader, much like her mama. Hazel is like the best version of Mocha and all of her sister calves put together. She is big, strong, sweet and so very smart!
Since Hazel turned four months of age in January, it was time to move her out of the barn where she has been with Mocha, to the west pasture. It is always emotional for me to know when that last time is that they will be together, so I always snap a few pictures to commemorate the occasion.
I was eager to see how easily she would adjust to being away from her mama and living full time with her uncle Oreo and her sister Truffle. It has been so much fun to watch. Oh, she mooed incessantly for three days, carrying on a long-distance duet of sorts with Mocha but even during her vocal displays of displeasure at being separated from her mom, she emerged the new leader on the block! From her first moments in the pasture with them, she was self-assured and just walked around checking everything out.
Oreo and Truffle followed her around as if they were self-appointed babysitters, but it quickly became apparent that she was taking a leadership role with them. Normally, the youngest calf has the low spot on the pecking order, but not Hazel! She has claimed the prime sleeping spot in the shelter and has made her place at the round bale of hay in the MIDDLE OF THE FRAME. She climbs into the frame and eats from there. I guess she thinks she can’t be challenged or booted out of there since she is the only one small enough to get in there.
Soon, there will be another addition to the west pasture as Snickers, Caramel’s daughter, will soon be ready to leave her mama and join the other calves. She, like her mama is more skittery, so it will be interesting to see who she attaches to and where she makes her place. She isn’t as assertive as Hazel but really like Hazel, so I am eager to see how all four of them get along.
One of the interesting things that has developed is the fact that Oreo has seemed the most interested and attentive to Hazel since she has joined them. I guess I expected the sisters to bond the most, but he follows her most closely and is so interested in where she is and what she is doing. I will enjoy watching all four of them as they grow and enjoy the pasture this summer.
