Doctor Green

That is what a vet we used to have called the first green grass of spring. Sarpy Sam's photo of his beef cows casting out across his Montana pastures in search of a few new blades got me thinking about that. Here in the frozen (see photo below) Northeast, dairy cows spend most of the winter indoors. If they are outside too long when it is this cold their teats freeze. (A frostbitten udder is an ugly thing indeed.)


However, after several months of having every bite they eat carried to them (and all of it being stored feed), they need a chance to forage around and nibble on whatever tempts them. Green grass can make them sick if they get an excess in the spring, but they just love to have some.


We have to work hard sometimes to keep them eating through the challenging weeks after they have a calf. This period when their whole metabolism is changing from resting through their "dry period" vacation to working hard making milk is called transition. Sometimes the process goes awry and they stop eating. Cows that don't eat die. Unlike humans who can go weeks without food, a cow had better be eating or chewing her cud almost all the time or you need to start worrying. Sometimes when one is just a little backward, something tasty will make her forget her woes and begin to eat again without being doctored on. There is nothing more tempting to a winter-sour cow than a handful of green grass. Even when it is too muddy to let them out, as soon as the first green spears show up west of the machinery shed, the kids and I go pick some and hand feed it to our pets. Or any cow that is a little off feed....or anybody with a long tongue and a soulful expression. You should see them bang their stanchions up and down when they catch the scent of someone with a pail of grass. It is cupboard love in its finest form. Most of us cringe when we see the doctor coming, but for cows when it is Doctor Green they come a runnin'.