Skip to main content

RIP Molly Moo

I don't have a proper post to write today.   At the moment we are just a bit stunned.  Pete found Molly dead on Monday when he heard her calf bawling.  We don't know what happened to her.  She had starting losing condition due to feeding her calf (we haven't been milking) and we had just put out hay to make sure that everyone was getting enough to eat.   We don't know if there was an underlying condition, or that something else affected her while she was already weak, but she didn't seem deathly ill to me when I chatted to her on Sunday afternoon.  I googled it and there are over 200 causes of sudden death in cattle, so we will probably never know for sure.

Her absence is still sinking in.  I've stopped looking for the cow with horns when I do the herd check.  Her calf is, fortunately for us, about 3 months old, so can be weaned as long as he gets enough hay.  He is wild and there is no way to catch him at the moment without making everyone walk through the yards again, he's with the rest of the herd and seems ok.

 Molly came to our property in 2011 as a six week old calf with her mum Bella.  She grew up to be the best milker, always happy to stand patiently while I put on the milking machine, and she made plenty of milk for us and her calves.  Molly was MY cow, I spent the hours sitting in the yard with her to keep her tame for milking and she would always come to me for a scratch (and I learnt to avoid her horns when she was excited).

I'm actually not as upset as I would have expected, I think a sudden death is easier in some ways because I didn't have to watch her suffer or try to nurse her or decide to euthinise or not, the decision was made and she is gone and we have to get on with things.

Thanks everyone who left lovely messages on my Instagram and Facebook post.  A house cow is very close to a dog in status, very nearly more a pet than livestock, and I thought she would be around for longer than six years.  I really appreciate the kind thoughts.

Here's what I've written about deadstock in the past....  Anytime you have livestock you have deadstock and it sucks, but most days are better than this.  

I'll write another installment of "the story of our house cows" next week.... we still have Bella and the babies (Rosey and Charlotte), so this is not the end!



Me and Molly


Bella with Molly the calf when they first arrived in 2011

Molly and Bella

Molly with her most recent calf



Molly with her second calf

Molly licking my shoe

Comments

  1. I'm so sorry to read this about beautiful Molly. Our animals become members of our family and it is horrible when they die. Like you, I am grateful that she didn't suffer, but it doesn't stop the sadness. Sending you my love.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your stories always remind me of Sally's on Jembella Farm too, Liz. It is a fact of life that you will lose animals but it is also so sad as well as they become so much a part of your daily life. Big hugs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. so sorry for your loss, awful losing a friend no matter how they go
    Molly was a lovely looking cow, loved those rings around her eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So sorry for the lost of Molly. I do still peek in once in a while. I'm just getting to old.
    Granny 🇺🇸

    ReplyDelete
  5. Although we've communicated all there was to say on Insta, dear Liz, I still feel a big lump in my throat and a tear in my eye reading this again. Lovely photos and good memories of a beautiful cow. XX

    ReplyDelete

  6. Im so sorry to hear about Molly, It must have been such an awful shock. I can tell how important your animals are to you from all you write, and how much effort you put into caring for them.

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. as you mention - there are so many things that can cause death in animals -- but here's just one thought you might like to look in to --- a loss of condition (especially after calving) AND a rather rapid decline (ending in death) may indicate theileria orientalis --- its worth looking into whether or not this is the case as it has some lasting implications for the other animals on your property (or future animals you may introduce to your farm) --- your DPI should have info - but here's a link to a PDF that's simple and easy reading (https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/1351024/2012-BFD-Theileria-Wagga-Beef-Forum-August-2012.pdf) -- ps do not take the areas of endemic distribution as gospel.... this bugger turns up in previously non-prone areas and there's even some debate about the known vectors....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ronnie, that one is new to me and we certainly have bush ticks here, so I'll look out for it in future. I'm pretty sure that Molly still had appetite (she was first to find the new hay bale and looked like she was enjoying it), but I guess not all symptoms are relevant in every case. Appreciate you sharing the information.

      Delete
  8. Losing livestock is just gut-wrenching. Dear me - I'm so sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Having other cows to tend, would make it easier adjusting to her sudden absence. It's when you have nothing to continue, as you did every day with her, that the grief becomes more pronounced. Because we miss how they made us feel, and how we structured our days around them. But still, not easy to say goodbye. Hugs.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks, I appreciate all your comments, suggestions and questions, but I don't always get time to reply right away. If you need me to reply personally to a question, please leave your email address in the comment or in your profile, or email me directly on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com

Popular posts from this blog

Chicken tractor guest post

Sign up for my weekly email updates here , you will find out more about chickens, soap and our farmlife, straight to your inbox, never miss a post!  New soap website and shop opening soon.... Tanya from Lovely Greens invited me to write a guest post on chicken tractors for her blog.  I can't believe how many page views I get for chicken tractors, they seem to be a real area of interest and I hope that the information on my blog has helped people.  I find that when I use something everyday, I forget the details that other people may not be aware of, so in this post for Tanya, I tried to just write everything I could think of that I haven't covered in previous posts.  I tried to explain everything we do and why, so that people in other locations and situations can figure out how best to use chicken tractors with their own chickens. The dogs like to hang out behind the chicken tractors and eat chicken poo.  Dogs are gross! If you want to read more about chicken tractor

The new Eight Acres website is live!

Very soon this blogspot address will automatically redirect to the new Eight Acres site, but in the meantime, you can check it out here .  You will find all my soaps, ebooks and beeswax/honey products there, as well as the blog (needs a tidy up, but its all there!).  I will be gradually updating all my social media links and updating and sharing blog posts over the next few months.  I'm very excited to share this new website with you!

Garden Update - July 2013

This month I'm joining the Garden Share Collective , which was started last month by Lizzie from Strayed from the Table , to allow vege gardeners to share their successes and failures and generally encourage everyone to grow more of their own food organically.  This first month, I'll give a detailed update on everything that's growing in my garden, for anyone who hasn't been following for long.  I'll do my normal farm update on Tuesday as well. If you've just joined me, welcome to my vege garden.  I recently wrote about gardening in our sub-tropical climate , so if you're wondering about the huge shade structure, that's for protecting the garden during our hot, humid summers.  At the moment though, the garden is full of brassicas, which grow best here in winter, and are suitably frost-proof.  The garden is about 12 m long by 5 m wide, and surrounded in chicken mesh to keep out the chickens and the bandicoots.  The garden has spilled out around the edg