Cows are not light footed

Before we bought our cows, everyone told us how destructive horses are in a paddock.  They wear paths, they cause soil compaction, and they eat all the yummy grass.  And God forbid should they somehow get out of the paddock.  Not to mention that you need two acres per horse, but only one acre of land for each cow.  Cows are so much better than horses ... so we were told.

Well we've now had the darling cows for over one year, and my husband, who uses the purest language, summarised it "The horses are pussy-ie...cats compared to the cows!"

The cows have managed to jump out of our makeshift crush.  (Ok, it was a poorly made crush, but we never believed that a cow can jump 90cm (3 feet) from a standstill until we saw it with our very own eyes).  They've jumped the fence to the next door neighbour's multiple times.  And don't even get me started on compaction.  Horses make tracks in the paddock, and then they gallop along those tracks.  Cows gallop everywhere, leaving deep indentations of their dainty forked feet here, there and everywhere.  They eat like there is no tomorrow (why has there been no blog updates all winter?  because I've been too busy feeding the cows!), and if you are thinking of an acre per cow you're kidding yourself.

I am glad we have a dam, so at least we don't have to watch in horror how much they drink.

I am not saying that we haven't enjoyed having them.  We've certainly enjoyed having them, and when this lot go (and the land recovers) we will definitely get some more.  It's just that they haven't been the dainty, goofy little creatures we expected.