Patricia Temples Photography

Feeding the Calves

Today I made it to the farm in time to see the feeding of the forty calves.  At birth the calves are separated from their mother, and they are taught to drink milk from a bucket not long after.  Sometimes two fingers are put in the bucket of milk, and the calf sucks at them.

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Then the fingers are gradually lowered into the milk until the calf discovers it.  One calf I saw today was two weeks old and still hadn’t learned that, but most of them learn the first day.  The calves are separated into groups of eight and kept together in stalls based on their age.  As they get older, they are moved one stall to the right, until they get old enough to be released into the field to eat grass.  They are given about a quart of milk a day, sometimes with supplements, and grain is added as they become able to feed on something other than milk.

The fun of watching this was the introduction of the buckets to the young.  Each bucket was filled with an appropriate amount of the milk mixture, then two men each held  two buckets in each hand.  They walked the buckets up to the fence line, then on “Go” the buckets were placed on the ground in reach of the calves.  The babies were eager to eat and each had their own bucket, but if timing wasn’t right, there could have been a commotion.  It didn’t take long for them to finish their milk.  Afterwards, they licked each other’s mouths, “sucking face,” if you will, to get the milk leftovers.

One calf had a little gastrointestinal distress, and she had been lying in the stall alone. She was encouraged to get up and walk but would be put on cow’s milk if the problem didn’t correct itself soon.  Sometimes that’s the best solution for a calf. Supplements will help, too.  The care that is given to these calves, and in fact, to all the animals, takes time and patience, and people who love animals.  These animals are very lucky.

Life at the Dairy Farm

I spent a couple more hours at the dairy farm this morning.  I was invited to go out to feed the cows, which meant I rode in a truck through every field in the farm.  I got up close and personal to my favorite barn in Greene County, I walked among the cows who, once they learned I had no food, completely ignored me.  I saw where the milk is stored until the trucks pick it up every other day.  I saw where the sperm is stored for inseminating the cows.  I watched as three brothers moved a cow who was “down” to a shady spot in the front yard where she would be cool.  What an interesting day.  Dairy farming involves not only cows, but fields of corn, brewer’s yeast brought in from Williamsburg to be a supplement to the cows’ food, knowledge about animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, mechanical skills and using good old ingenuity in dealing with day-to-day issues.

A high point of the morning was when I climbed through a barbed-wire fence, walked through 4-foot high Johnson grass and dodged poison ivy to find the graves of Dr. May Burton and his wife Sarah Head Burton.  Thanks to Steve, my guide for the day, for a terrific view of a fantastic farm.

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Coincidences of Life

I have been thinking about my Dairy Farm Adventure.  Forty years ago this month I started my first full-time job as a teacher at Albemarle High School at the intersection of Hydraulic Road and Lambs Road in Charlottesville.  A year later I transferred to Jack Jouett Middle School, located immediately behind the high school, to become a school counselor there, which was my dream job and the goal of my educational experiences.  Jouett Middle School has an address on Lambs Road.  I learned on Monday that Lambs Road was named for the man who started the dairy farm (in 1953) that I am now photographing.

On the Dairy Farm there is a pre-Civil War home, once used as a tavern.  It’s a small, abandoned house in an area of the county once called Burtonsville.  Dr. May Burton once lived in that area and had a medical practice on that land.  My maiden name is Burton.  I have no idea whether my Burton ancestors were related to Dr.May Burton, but it’s worth investigating.  Some day soon I’ll visit the Greene County Historical Society.

Coincidences in life are amazing and spine-chilling to me.  I feel that I have come full circle in forty years.  What drew me to the farm?  Who knows? But, as my nephew Jared says, there is a reason for everything.