Cow Farms
Cow farms can be divided into two categories, those where dairy cattle are kept, and those where beef cattle are raised. Both types of farms are busy places, though the work done is quite different for each.
A cow farm where beef cattle are raised is usually referred to as a ranch. Rather than spending most of their time in a building, or in a pasture next to the farm house, beef cattle are usually moved from pasture to pasture. The farmer, or rancher, will check the pasture the cattle are currently in, to see when the grass is nearly all eaten, and it's time to move to another pasture. Depending upon the size of the herd, a beef cattle ranch can cover a very large area. Usually the cattle are rounded up (by motor vehicles, aircraft, or horses) and moved to a pasture near the ranch house for the winter, and may need to be given hay as a food supply at that time. In the springtime the beef cattle are shipped to the slaughterhouses.
Life on a dairy cow farm is quite different. Here the cows have to be tended, which is to say fed and milked, on a daily basis. It's normally more expensive to operate a dairy cow farm, as the cows are kept close to the main milking building, and food must be brought to them. Even though the farmer may grow much of the cow's food supply, food still needs to be stored. Dairy cattle also require grain and other food supplements containing vitamins and minerals, which also must be stored, then doled out at feeding time. A problem that the dairy farmer faces more often that the beef cattle rancher has to deal with is manure management. Where to put manure is not an issue when the cattle are moving from pasture to pasture over a large area. The dairy cows however, are confined to a much smaller space, and collection and storage or cow manure can become a very big operation indeed.
Work on a dairy cow farm often begins before the sun comes up, especially in the winter, and may last until the sun has gone down. The cows have to be milked, and before that is done, the milking equipment has to be cleaned. Stalls have to be cleaned as well, especially in the winter, if the cows are spending much of their time indoors. The milk itself has to be checked for impurities, stored under cool conditions for a short time if need be, and prepared for shipment. The animals themselves have to be constantly checked. If that isn't enough to do, when the farmer is raising food for the cows, there is the work to be done associated with growing and harvesting feed crops.
When we drive by a cow farm we may see cows grazing in a pasture, be they dairy cattle or beef cattle, or feeding at a trough. It's a peaceful picture, which belies the busy, and at times hectic, activity going on in the background.