Around our small English village there were a number of farms, the closest about a mile and a half away. I would wander up there on school holidays and weekends to have a look around.
I was always interested in cows. I liked watching them, they were always eating and then making room inside of themselves so they could eat some more. If you know what I mean.
What a life I thought! These cows were mainly milking cows - I guessed that by the size of their udders. I wondered ‘How did the milkman get the milk from these cows?’ I needed to get closer to the buildings to find out.
This farm had a quiet country road going through the middle of it. At each end there was a big gate across the road, which drivers had to open and close as they went through.
A lot of drivers would drive through the gate, but not close it after them. This meant the cows would wander off through the open gate. On seeing this, I would find myself a decent stick, herd the cows back to the right side of the gate, then close it. It wasn’t too hard, they seemed to know that they shouldn’t have been outside the farm’s boundaries. This happened quite frequently.
One summer school holiday, I went to the farm gate and found it closed. It was a nice day, warm and sunny, and I was bored. I thought to myself, ‘if I open the gate now, go home and have lunch, then come back and chase the cows back in, that would kill the afternoon’. (That wasn’t the first time I had done that.)
As usual, I went up to the farmhouse and let the farmer know about my good deed.
A big, tall, very rough looking man came to the door. He was the boss. I started to tell him what had happened, however he cut me off, saying, “if you are so bored, you keep letting the cows out, then chase them back in, I’d better give you a real job”.
I started work there and then. The farmer took me round to a small barn, gave me a pitchfork and told me to throw the muck out into the yard. I did this, then later in the afternoon went with him to bring the cows in for milking. I was amazed, the cows were already coming towards the dairy by themselves. They even went into the dairy and into the individual stalls by themselves. Then the farmer showed me how to attach the equipment to the cow’s udder.
Then I moved to Australia.
Phil Hughes
February 2023