This is a post about beginnings, or more importantly about being a beginner. It’s also about cows, the explosion of buyers/sellers/‘breeders’ in the rainbow egg community, teaching and learning, but it’s really about allowing oneself the exquisiteness of a first experience, the identity of “I don’t know” and “I am learning”… or what I feel like calling the privileged status of the beginner.
This is our first year keeping cows— dairy cows. With my typical tendency to be all-in with whatever it is I decide to do, we first brought home our Brown Swiss heifer, Perdita, and shortly thereafter two older girls in milk, hojo Whoa Black Betty and our jersey, Georgie. Though we did the research that made us responsible newbies, we found ourselves figuring it out every step of the way. Perdita was an easy arrival, a young halter-trained Jr Grand Champion who is full of sass but in-your-pocket and relatively easy to direct and contain. We quickly learned that cows from a dairy pasture are neither easy to handle, nor in your pocket, nor particularly interested in being so. Midsummer nights stretched out long in front of us as we learned their mannerisms and gestures. Slowly, day by day, we built some order into the chaos and established routines. And with them, some trust.
After milking through summer, we’re now a couple months dry, with Georgie and Black Betty getting very close to calving. Trusted friends have counseled us towards solutions we didn’t even know we needed, invaluable tips and tricks have also come from phone calls and messages with cow keepers that really have no other motive to spend their time other than love of a breed or their hopes that a new farmers find their feet. Acquaintances have become mentors and friends. After all, the animals are the ones that ultimately benefit from the education of their human keepers.
In this world of cow keeping we are total beginners. And what a wonderful thing to be! The first time tasting warm milk sweet as a milkshake. The first time your standoffish cow takes grain from your hand, the first time bumping the calf. Soon, our first births. I have some friends that got their first dog a couple years ago— neither of them came from families that ever had dogs! What a beautiful thing to witness, as their lives exploded with love. How many people rallied to share the ways of the dog.
In the rainbow egg community, there are many beginners. What a wonderful thing to be! There are so many breeders who are happy to mentor, who love to talk about condensing traits and the pressure of selection with others. I’ve benefitted greatly from these relationships over 15 years of chicken keeping— most notably in the last five years! But social media pushes us to position ourselves as experts from the start. Resist. Be careful with phrases like ‘my line’; acknowledge where your stock comes from. Don’t breeder bash to gain some edge. People will still buy your birds if you acknowledge where you’re at in your journey towards becoming a breeder. And you’ll allow yourself the privilege of being a beginner, and the mentorship of those you very much need on your side during all the questions to come. People will still buy your birds if you acknowledge where you’re at in your journey towards becoming a breeder.
I aim to be a beginner with my cows for a very long time.
