The story of Cliffy Young has just finished on the tele but Wayne is still slogging through his own ultra-marathon at the dairy. It’s 10pm and it’s been a tough day that started at 5am.
As I was rattling the kids around the house in readiness for Nippers this morning, Wayne was having some youngster trouble of his own. A freshly-calved heifer simply sat down on the milking platform behind her neighbour. Now, if you’ve worked in or watched a herringbone dairy in action, you’ll say that doesn’t happen.
It did.
The cows are lined up at right angles to the pit we stand in to position the cups, with their buttocks against a “bum rail” that’s designed to guide them into position for milking and prevent a cow from falling onto a milk maid.
It didn’t.
A cow spooked by her reclining sister leapt up and backwards, falling rear-first into the pit, brushing Wayne’s cheek with her hoof on the way down as a weld in the bum rail gave way under the strain of this 550kg crowd-surfer. Thankfully, Wayne and the two cows-a-leaping are fine but the machinery was not. With four machines out and the broken bum-rail, milking took hours longer than normal and the clean-up and repair job was a 6-hour undertaking.
I’m really grateful to Clarkie, who broke his long weekend to come and help wield a welding stick, feed the cows and round up at 6pm.
Wayne will up again at 5am tomorrow. It’s 10.30pm now and, finally, the dairy lights have gone out. What will tomorrow bring, I wonder?
The Milk Maid Marian 
Oh, lordy, I am sorry to read this. It is amazing what they can do and how they can do it. You wouldn’t believe it until you see it. Glad all the participants are okay, but so sorry about your parlor.
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Thanks Three Collie – bet you have seen it all!
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When working with large animals, as soon as somebody tells you something can’t happen, be sure that it will. Cows are not quite as talented as horses in getting themselves into predicaments, but we have had to rescue some from very strange places, including the house, the inside of a large reservoir (thankfully full), and the top of a stack of hay bales. (Yes, that one was interesting). So glad to hear the cows and people are all fine.
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Sounds like some colourful stories! All blogged? If not, I’d love to hear them!
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Feel your collective pain. After 14 years in our ‘new’ dairy, I am still amazed at the ability of cows to get themselves into bother in innovative ways. I’ve learnt not to stand back and say, “Well now I’ve seen everything!”; I’m sure I haven’t.
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Ha ha! Cows can be so athletic!
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I’m not really game to comment in case it happens at ours this afternoon!! I have a feeling its leading up to a big one! We haven’t had a cow in the pit for about a month now. Ours tend to go under the splash rail as ours is affectionately known. Though we’ve had more than one breakage! Our is not a new dairy! Glad to hear all are doing well though!
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Gee, I hope I haven’t jinxed you Alison!
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