{"id":133,"date":"2011-11-03T09:43:35","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T14:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/?p=133"},"modified":"2011-11-23T07:45:48","modified_gmt":"2011-11-23T12:45:48","slug":"white-gloves-and-party-manners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/white-gloves-and-party-manners\/","title":{"rendered":"White Gloves and Party Manners"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning while watching our young herd of first-time mamas, yearlings and babies moving into their new pasture, I found myself remembering a book that my mother gave my daughter.\u00a0 It was called White Gloves and Party Manners and was about being mannerly in all you do.\u00a0 Now, you say, whatever was the connection?<\/em><\/p>\n

Everyday we move our girls from the small pasture they grazed yesterday to a new one full of fresh lush grass.\u00a0 Even in November we have managed to keep verdant pastures.\u00a0 That’s due to a trick called mob grazing that we’ve written about elsewhere.\u00a0 Now, I want to tell you how these young ladies and one two week old gentleman behaved.\u00a0 They had been off getting water in an adjacent paddock and watched us as we \u00a0opened \u00a0up the new area.\u00a0 They stood behind a closed gate and mooed appreciatively at our work.\u00a0 They knew what was coming.\u00a0 And they were ready and eager for the\u00a0new grass to munch upon.<\/em><\/p>\n

The gate opened inward so they had to back up to move around the gate and ME!\u00a0 They did this in an orderly fashion with no pushing or shoving and gradually made their way up the alley way to the new eats.\u00a0 We watched their progress.\u00a0 Again there was no shoving and not even any high jinks.\u00a0 They fell in line behind the leader, one of the older females and marched single file to the new grazing area where\u00a0once there fell to!\u00a0 They each found an open spot and began their daily munching.\u00a0 Their \u00a0good behavior reminded me of the book and its stress on good manners and orderliness.\u00a0 That was something considered important in the old days.\u00a0 Maybe it is still there somewhere.<\/em><\/p>\n

You may wonder why I find this so great in a herd of cows.\u00a0 Well….it helps!\u00a0 We can move our cows easily from one place to another.\u00a0 We can load them into the trailer when that is needed.\u00a0 They feel safe.\u00a0 We feel safer….we are safer!\u00a0 The animals are not stressed out and neither are we.\u00a0 When the time comes to part with them, they will go without panic.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday we saw another benefit.\u00a0 We had prospective buyers here and we went around to our various pastures where we keep our separate groupings.\u00a0 Not one animal turned heel to run away.\u00a0Some even came up to have their noses patted and to lick a friendly hand.\u00a0 Our guests were impressed with their friendliness.\u00a0 Yes, they are not only docile, they are friendly!\u00a0 They make eye contact and are known to moo their hellos and good-byes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Again you may say that is all very fine and well but what useful purpose does mannerliness have for a cow or for its eventual end user?\u00a0 It has been proven scientifically that a calm non-stressed cow actually provides better meat.\u00a0 Wild and unruly \u00a0cows that become stressed undergo a chemical change that causes their meat ot toughen up.\u00a0 They’re called “dark-cutters” \u00a0in the trade.\u00a0 That’s why most up-to-date abattoirs stress their good animal handling.\u00a0 They know the value of keeping costs down and profits up.<\/em><\/p>\n

And for us producers, what could be better than having animals that are calm 24-7?\u00a0 And so, you see, that is where the white gloves and party manners fit into the picture.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning while watching our young herd of first-time mamas, yearlings and babies moving into their new pasture, I found myself remembering a book that my mother gave my daughter.\u00a0 It was called White Gloves and Party Manners and was about being mannerly in all you do.\u00a0 Now, you say, whatever was the connection? Everyday we move our girls from the small pasture they grazed yesterday to a new one full of fresh lush grass.\u00a0 Even in November we have managed to keep verdant pastures.\u00a0 That’s due to a trick called mob grazing that we’ve written about elsewhere.\u00a0 Now, I want to tell you how these young ladies and one two week old gentleman behaved.\u00a0 They had been off getting water in an adjacent paddock and watched us as we \u00a0opened \u00a0up the new area.\u00a0 They stood behind a closed gate and mooed appreciatively at our work.\u00a0 They knew what was coming.\u00a0 And they were ready and eager for the\u00a0new grass to munch upon. The gate opened inward so they had to back up to move around the gate and ME!\u00a0 They did this in an orderly fashion with no pushing or shoving and gradually made their way up the alley way to the new eats.\u00a0 We watched their progress.\u00a0 Again there was no shoving and not even any high jinks.\u00a0 They fell in line behind the leader, one of the older females and marched single file to the new grazing area where\u00a0once there fell to!\u00a0 They each found an open spot and began their daily munching.\u00a0 Their \u00a0good behavior reminded me of the book and its stress on good manners and orderliness.\u00a0 That was something considered important in the old days.\u00a0 Maybe it is still there somewhere. You may wonder why I find this so great in a herd of cows.\u00a0 Well….it helps!\u00a0 We can move our cows easily from one place to another.\u00a0 We can load them into the trailer when that is needed.\u00a0 They feel safe.\u00a0 We feel safer….we are safer!\u00a0 The animals are not stressed out and neither are we.\u00a0 When the time comes to part with them, they will go without panic. Yesterday we saw another benefit.\u00a0 We had prospective buyers here and we went around to our various pastures where we keep our separate groupings.\u00a0 Not one animal turned heel to run away.\u00a0Some even came up to have their noses patted and to lick a friendly hand.\u00a0 Our guests were impressed with their friendliness.\u00a0 Yes, they are not only docile, they are friendly!\u00a0 They make eye contact and are known to moo their hellos and good-byes. Again you may say that is all very fine and well but what useful purpose does mannerliness have for a cow or for its eventual end user?\u00a0 It has been proven scientifically that a calm non-stressed cow actually provides better meat.\u00a0 Wild and unruly \u00a0cows that become stressed undergo a chemical change that causes their meat ot toughen up.\u00a0 They’re called “dark-cutters” \u00a0in the trade.\u00a0 That’s why most up-to-date abattoirs stress their good animal handling.\u00a0 They know the value of keeping costs down and profits up. And for us producers, what could be better than having animals that are calm 24-7?\u00a0 And so, you see, that is where the white gloves and party manners fit into the picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wooz","tag-docility"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}