Five young long horned heifers together with a bull and fine examples they are. When we approached showing an interest in them a couple of the young heifers showed a similar interest in us. As is normal with young animals they came to the corner of the field to look us over closely but they would not let me touch them. The bull stayed where he was, wise chappy.
Having spent a good majority of my youth in the company of cattle of one breed or another I think they are great... If you have never let a cow lick the soles of your feet you have never lived... they have tongues like sandpaper... I am not sure of the breed of these beauties so if anyone out there does know please leave a comment, Thanks.
6 comments:
Dear Elizabeth and Colin,
I came to your blog from Jean's of Pressigny. Glad I did as I so want to learn more about France and life there. As to the heifers and the bull. All we had on our nonworking farm back in the '40s and '50s was a Guernsey. She was a dear cow who gave us milk rich in cream.
Peace.
The most likely is that the bull is Charolais and the heifers Salers. There are other possibilities though. Charolais are by far the most common breed of white cattle and are a beef breed. Salers are a little more unusual, a dual purpose breed used as a beef animal in the lowlands, on poor pasture with low stocking rates. They take longer than the main beef breeds to mature and are smaller animals, so you have to hope to get a premium for them or be farming them for some particular reason eg organic. Nature reserves use them as their large grazing animal sometimes. In the mountains they are most famous as a dairy breed.
The male certainly looks like a Charolais. When we were farming in Rhodesian days we had Herefords. Love having cattle around, we have lots of sheep here. Diane
Thanks Susan they certainly look like Salers when you do a google image search. Not a breed I am familiar with, until now. They certainly look special and very nice beasts.
Welcome to the site, Dee! We hope you continue to enjoy it. As we say in our "about us" section, we only set out to keep family and friends back home up to date with what we're doing. We're amazed and thrilled that so many people take a look at the site. Thanks for commenting!
I wonder how many people could say that they've had a cow lick their feet.
SP
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