Cora Freson’s male cow “Walter” was rescued by the Ross Twp. Fire Dept. after falling in the family’s nine foot deep pool, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010. The cow was lured to the steps and out of the pool in under 15 minutes from the time of it’s fall.

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If these cows could talk they would probably say to let them out in the field and enjoy all the freedom they can get for as many days as they can!

story here:
cow and her triplets

Although it is much more thin, the cow and her unborn calf are in good condition.

The cow went missing this late December after a farmer took it for grazing. When she didn’t return at night, the farmer and family members searched but couldn’t find her.

A neighbor finally saw the animal inside a mountain pit. Many persons then came to help the farmer pull out the cow.

I guess she will be more careful around mootain pits now;0)

Baby sitting on a toy cow.

The bovine backside has been attached to the side of the Rowan Tree pub in the city’s historic Old Town.

It lifts its tail and shoots out a cloud of white smoke at passers-by throughout the day.

Pub landlord Norrie Rowan, a former Scotland international rugby star, said the cow was becoming as popular with tourists as nearby Greyfriars Bobby.

It was installed on the side of the pub earlier this year, but the mechanics that allow it to break wind at 1100 GMT, noon and 1300 GMT are a new addition.

A dry ice machine ensures the flatulent beast is regular and helps locals keep track of time in a similar way to the city’s famous One O’clock Gun.

Mr Rowan said the cow was a bit of fun that had already become a popular landmark in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh.

He added: “The cow is already famous around Edinburgh and I get hundreds of tourists coming by and taking pictures of it.”

For students at Cameron Elementary School, it was the prospect of seeing their principal, William Mannion, kiss a farm animal that motivated them to raise more than $1,000 for victims of the recent Southland fires.

On Wednesday, the students’ efforts paid off.

Led out by members of Covina High School’s agriculture department, a 7-month-old steer named Little One was greeted by hundreds of excited students, all of them cheering “Kiss it, kiss it!”

“Mr. Mannion will kiss the cow,” school librarian Vicki White said to the crowd. “And then, because you doubled it and got to $1,000, I will do it.”

The crowd erupted with each kiss gently placed on Little One’s nose.

“It was kinda weird to see Mr. Mannion do that,” commented Daniel Alvardo, 10. “He’s pretty cool because he keeps everything he says.”

Even Pamela Fowlkes, the office manager at Cameron Elementary, ended up kissing the cow.

“I’m just so proud to be able to kiss a cow because of everything that’s been done,” said Mannion. “It demonstrates what we do here at Cameron, because we really do care about our community. This is just about the best place I’ve ever seen.”

The event and school-wide fundraiser was conceived by White after realizing a need among the thousands of displaced residents following the fires surrounding Los Angeles and San Diego.

“When the fires started we wanted something to donate to locally,” White said. “We told the students that their coins would benefit the kids who lost their books and toys.”

White knew, however, that children respond well to reward.

After a short negotiation with Mannion concerning what might be an apt payoff, a compromise was agreed upon: If $500 was raised, Mannion would kiss a surprise farm animal during a special assembly.

So, for the first two weeks in November, buckets donated by the local Dollar Tree store were stationed in each classroom.

A total of $1,295.78 was raised during those two weeks, far overshooting the $500 goal.

Representatives from the Community Foundation serving Riverside and San Bernardino counties were on hand to receive the check. The money will be put toward the foundation’s Fire Victim’s Relief Fund.

“This donation means that citizens outside of our two county areas are concerned enough to dig deep into their pockets and provide assistance to those who are in need,” said Paula Myles, controller for the foundation.

In a high-profile example of the growing need for alternative energy, Huckabay Ridge gets manure from local dairy farms, processes it with grease and other restaurant waste, purifies it and turns it into natural gas.

“The beauty is that you take the waste products and you create a useful form of energy,” said Richard Kessel, president and CEO of Portsmouth, N.H.-based Environmental Power Corp. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Microgy Inc., owns the facility. “We look at these as non-depleting gas wells with a long-term supply of renewable energy.”

The Lower Colorado River Authority buys the gas and uses it to power homes in Central Texas, officials said. Next fall, San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will buy natural gas from Huckabay Ridge, which will generate the energy equivalent of 4.6 million gallons of oil annually.

“This is a turning point in agriculture. … Agriculture is no longer just food and fiber; it is now food and fiber and fuel,” state Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, said Monday at the plant’s opening ceremony, where only a faint odor of manure wafted through the air. “Agriculture is going to responsible for producing a large percent of the world’s fuel.”

Huckabay Ridge is near Stephenville in rural Erath County, the state’s top-producing dairy county. The state has about 335,000 dairy cows, including 52,000 in Erath County. Each dairy cow produces more than 15 gallons of manure per day.

The site had been a composting facility where farmers took manure. Now, more than a dozen farmers take their herds’ waste there, paying only for transportation. The facility does not buy the manure or charge farmers to drop it off.

“It’s a great thing for everybody,” said John Traweek, whose family-run Jam Dot Dairy has been operating in nearby Lingleville for 45 years.

He said it was a much-needed benefit for Erath County dairies, which have come under fire for manure runoff in the Bosque River. It is the main water source of Lake Waco downstream, where an overabundance of phosphorus caused massive algae blooms that were blamed for tainting Waco water’s taste and odor.

Last year Waco dropped its federal lawsuits against six of the 14 dairies it sued in 2004 in exchange for farmers’ changes designed to reduce water pollution. Waco previously reached settlements with eight dairies.

“I think the dairymen are excited about the opportunity this facility does provide, but this type of technology might not be the solution for every dairyman,” said John Cowan, executive director of the Texas Association of Dairymen.

Each day, about 10 manure-filled trucks arrive at the Huckabay Ridge, driving up a ramp made of dried, dark manure. The loads are dropped into a small tank where water is added, and then into a 1 million-gallon drum called a slurry tank, where the liquified waste swirls around.

The manure and restaurant grease then go into one of eight 900,000-gallon digester tanks, where bacteria feed on the waste for weeks to create methane gas. After purifying it to commercial standards, the natural gas is then distributed through a pipeline.

Officials said Texas has been a leader in agriculture and energy.

“Today these two sectors of our economy join together for something very special,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. “Today is a real winning solution for agriculture, for our environment, for our state’s economy and for new sources of energy.”

Environmental Power has started similar projects in California and a few other states. It also has three digesters on small family-owned Wisconsin dairy farms that produce enough electricity for about 1,800 homes.

Proud owners and Dairy Farmers suppliers, Cameron and Marie Lou Janke, of Westbrook, 15km west of Toowoomba, said the yet unnamed baby heifer has already shown traits of her mother.

“She’s huge,” Cameron said.

“And very particular – she’ll have a go at you if you try to get close.”

Cameron said he named all his cows, but so far, had not decided on a name for Duchess’s newborn.

“Somebody suggested Isabella because it was what Princess Mary called her new baby,” he said.

“I quite like it, as we think Duchess has a touch of royal blood.

“But I’d love to hear if anybody else has got any other suggestions – it gets hard finding names for a whole herd.”

Duchess is still recovering from the June 24 birth, which coincided with a cold snap.

“Also, it was a big baby, so she needs time to recuperate,” he said.

During her last lactation, Duchess produced 80 litres of milk per day, more than double the litres of any ordinary cow.

In an amazing feat, this genetically superior Holstein Friesian clocked up 17,750 litres at 3pc protein and 3.7pc butter fat within 305 days on just two milkings per day.

With Cameron’s herd average peaking at 35 litres per cow per day and considering Duchess was fed the same ration and mix of silage and grain as the rest of the herd, 27 year-old Cameron admitted she was a “pretty special” cow.

“We bought Duchess as a dry cow from a local breeder for $1200, but she originally arrived in Australia as an imported embryo from the US,” Cameron said.

“Her genetic make-up has a lot to do with her ability to produce milk, but you only get a cow this good after many generations of balanced breeding.

“She’s tall and wide and has a dominant personality – she also has a top udder.”

Interestingly, Cameron’s current number-one milk producer is actually Duchess’s first daughter, which is on her second lactation and producing 67 litres of milk per day.

“This is currently double that of my herd average, which leads me to think, she may even outperform her mother,” he said.

Cameron and Mary Lou manage a herd of 350 cows with Cameron’s parents, David and Cindy Janke, who own 400 hectares of land which they use to run their milking and dry herd, and grow silage crops.

The old cow with dodgy back legs was treated to a bucket of her favourite food – dairy pellets – and plenty of pats from family and friends who gathered to celebrate her special day.

Her owners, Kyabram’s Robert and Sue Johnston, say turning 21 is a rare feat for a dairy cow.

“(Modern dairy cows) walk a lot and are not kept after their productive years,” Mr Johnston said.

Eliza – full name Pagini Eliza Dawn – was born at Mr Johnston’s previous property in Bamawm Extension on May 14, 1986.

She calved down about 10 times and peaked at 6471 litres/year, comprising 342 kg butter fat and 256 kg protein.

“I never had the heart to sell her,” Mr Johnston said.

“She won the region’s (Jersey) On Farm Challenge in 1995 as a nine-yearold.”

Mr Johnston sold the farm about 21/2 years ago and set up a nursery with his wife just outside Kyabram.

“We kept two cows. I couldn’t part with her and the other one wasn’t good enough to sell,” Mr Johnston said.

“She (Eliza) would’ve been out of the second cow I ever bought.

“I didn’t like parting with any of my cows and knew all of them by name and their pedigrees back five generations.”

Eliza now has almost a hectare of reasonably green pasture to herself, but Mr Johnston is surprised she’s still kicking given arthritis plagues her hind legs.

“Seven years ago, I thought that was it, and every winter we think it’s her last,” he said.

So the Johnstons put a blanket on Eliza to keep the chill out during the winter months.