A Good Life

How long will a dairy cow live? Records show that at one time many dairy cows lived productive lives, reproducing and lactating, well into their twenties or even thirties. Today, though, dairy cows in the commercial setting become liabilities at somewhere between three and four years of age on average, after which their highest potential is as fast food burgers.

This post is a good-bye to Honey, our lead cow for six years (from age 3 to age 9), who, when a dicky hip made our steep hills too great a challenge, went on to spend 6 years on Wild Sycamore farm as their lead cow. Today, at age 15, she was harvested in her own pasture, by her own people. She will nourish them in death as in life. We are grateful that our own lives are built out of such relationships. The alternative - anonymous calories wrung from a poisoned soil at a tenfold petrochemical price - seems to us an unworthy substitute.