I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve thought having four legs might be an advantage over two. My husband and I are expecting our first child in August, and I can’t help but feel a little jealous of the dairy cows I know and love. We are so blessed to be welcoming a little boy into our family. I’ve had a relatively easy pregnancy, but pregnancy is not a breeze like I’ve always thought it was. Shoutout to moms everywhere – you rock!
Because of my job and my upbringing, I am constantly comparing my pregnancy to that of cows. Perhaps some might view this as demeaning or cruel – and I apologize to any who might take offense to some of these comparisons. Life in any form is a precious miracle, and I do not take that lightly. However, cows seem to handle this pregnancy thing a little better than I have.
For example, I don’t see many cows struggling to make it to the parlor in the first trimester. They hop right up and eat, drink and milk like they’re not growing a life inside them. My first trimester saw me gagging every time I brushed my teeth, dry heaving at the slightest smells and losing my lunch often.
In the second trimester, I don’t think cows are toddling around and out of breath after walking to the feedbunk (or taking the stairs, in my case). I find myself nodding off when I sit down and now understand why cows take naps midday. Cows seem not to miss a beat.
Cows also get a few months off before calving, where they get to eat, drink and sleep without work, social commitments or other human-related tasks. With an August due date, I’m pretty envious of that little vacation. These summer months have been hot. Also, I’ve been trying to figure out how to put misters and fans up in every room in our house. Why isn’t that a common practice in homes, not just barns?
I also consider myself blessed to have been exposed to the wonder of birth for the majority of my life. As producers, I think we can get a little calloused to calving and birth, as we see it so often. I learned this lesson this spring. It had been a full year since my parents sold our cows, so I hadn’t seen a calving in quite a while. My in-laws took a vacation during calving season, so my husband and I got to monitor their small beef herd for a week. It’s crazy how in one year I had forgotten the beauty of seeing a calf take its first breath. I’m sure my own pregnancy hormones influenced my feelings around calving this year, but I found myself getting emotional watching calves take their first steps. As I said, life in any form is so precious, and we as producers are so blessed to have a front row seat to some of God's most beautiful creations.
In the last few months of my pregnancy, I'll be looking for ways to adopt more cow-focused technology into my life. Automated feeding and manure collection seem like a worthy venture ... any ideas for how to make those human focused?
