I married a man whose first love was a Holstein cow. Mine was not. I love them now but I admittedly made fun of the dairy kids growing up. And when I say "made fun" I mean they knew it and they jabbed right back with comments like, why was I walking so fast and why was I carrying a stick! They walked backwards. And walked slowly. And what was up with the white pants? To this day I have yet to wear white ANYTHING and not have it tarnished let alone wear white when dealing with the bovine "elements".
I will also admit though I found them beautiful creatures before I loved my husband too. I may have even had a little jealousy for their majesty; especially the big girls. Jealous because they could clip most of their hair off and not have to spend hours training it to go a particular way. Jealous because they seemed to never display a three-ring circus when they were shown (we have all seen a class or two like this at a county fair beef show).
When we started dating, it was pretty obvious, although his family didn't milk cows any longer, these girls and the friends he made along the way were still a big part of his life. And still are today (he works with some of the best cows in the business on a daily basis). Some of our best friends are dairy families and my jealousy has been replaced over the years by admiration; for the cows and their owners. Admiring them for their 24/7 commitment. Their persistent desire to make the next generation better than the last. For their obvious love of these bovine beauties and not because they have to but because they want to. And those cows. . . aahh. I have said many times, I love my (beef) cows but there are few things in agriculture more beautiful to me than a Holstein cow.
We still have a few donors that come and go at home. We have been known to have a heifer or several hanging around and we have even calved a few in. Throughout these years, I have truly grown to love them. For all those reasons I admire them (and their owners), but also because Tod does too.
In 2012, our daughter showed for the first time in the 10 and under class at the district Holstein show and it was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. To see her work at something that brought such joy to Tod's life was ... Wonderful!
So the emotional end of things I clearly have down . . . what I wish I knew more about though was evaluating them. Separating the cream from the crop; pun intended. I mean, I can tell you a good one from a bad one. What (or who) I'm not as good as is Tod. Seriously, the guy as got an eye and knows what he is looking for.
We have some friendly competitions from time to time and the current competition is the Hoards Dairyman (HD) judging contest. He was reluctant at first; probably having mercy on me. It would be like me playing Scrabble with my 4 year old, I imagine! He did finally agree though and we are writing down our placings on a post-it note taped to the inside of a cupboard door as the issues of the publication arrive in the mail. Here is a link to last year's contest if you want to check it out.
So wish me luck...I will probably need it. I don't think we are ever too old to learn so I'm going to try and add some knowledge to however little dairy judging skill I have. Some is more than none, right!?
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