At the Ferme des Peupliers in the Eure, in the town of Flipou, it’s time to go dancing cows.
Marie is a cowgirl and she tells us about the preparation:
“The main thing to prepare is the fences because for the first outing they are happy and they don’t really pay attention to the wires“
It is also necessary that the ground is dry and firm because otherwise the weight of the cows will destroy the grass instead of promoting its growth.
For a few days the conditions have been met and it is time for Marie to open the barrier. The cows are mooingit’s a real concert, which accompanies the dance of the most enthusiastic:
It’s gone for one real show. The two hundred cows come out and most of them throw their buttocks in the air, make real goat jumps, they look for each other and pretend to fight.
After the first stroke of madness has passed, the calm ones lie down in the grass, the others graze quietly next to ; the brightest continue to play for several tens of minutes.
Among the cowherds, seeing their proteges so happy is special:
“We do this every year, and every year we love it”
But be careful, the first outings can cause some digestive discomfort in cattle, such as diarrhoea. They must therefore be returned after a few hours to get used to their stomach to this young grass lacking fiber. They will go out like this for a few weeks, before being able to sleep under the stars around mid-April.
This is important, especially if you want to control the quality of the milk. We can see this on the consumer side: the Summer butter is often more yellow, a hue given by a grass-rich diet.
These first outings are also an opportunity to take stock of the health of the herd. If Nunuche, a rather calm cow comes out running and mooing, Marie will deduce that she is in heat… On the contrary if Python, the rambunctious Jersey girl, is still lying in the barn, she’s probably sick : we then take her temperature and we make sure that she does not limp.
“Knowing them all individually allows you to see when something is wrong”
Together with his colleagues, they take advantage of this moment every year and sometimes even place bets on which cow will cavort or annoy others the most… This year, as often the previous ones, Python won the gold medal.