Considerate Cows

In the early summer when the grasses in our pastures get quite tall, as the cow herds rotationally graze them the cows are managed in such a way as to "eat the best and trample the rest." Below is a photo that shows a strip of pasture that was just grazed overnight, next to a strip the cows would be coming back to after milking.

This short-term high impact by a herd of grazing animals has many effects. The act of actually eating a portion of the plant causes part of the roots to slough off and begin a cycle of renewal. There's the obvious fertilizing addition of manure and urine. And when the cows trample a significant amount of plant litter over the surface of the ground, it creates a thatch which protects soil from erosion, evaporative moisture loss, and extreme temperatures. Eventually this plant litter will decompose and feed the diversity of life in the soil. There is so much that happens below ground, facilitated by (dependent upon!) the biology in the soil when plants are allowed to both recover and rest after a grazing event. I'm still learning about those processes myself, but maybe one day I'll be able to articulate more of what I'm learning.

The other day I had Jesse and Isaiah helping me take care of the nurse cows. The cows and calves had been doing a great job of getting a lot of those mature pasture plants grazed and/or knocked down. Then I noticed a little patch that was still standing. I stood behind the patch so you could see how tall it was. That's what the whole pasture was like before the cows came through. Everything around it was considerably flattened after they'd spent 24 hours there. Why was this small patch not trampled, you ask?

This is what was woven into the grasses and stems of a (I believe) curly dock plant:

A little bird nest with one solitary egg in it.

Now, I know this was almost certainly not the only bird nest in that pasture. We have a lot of birds on our farm! There were probably others that did get knocked down (I did see another nest upside down in a flattened area elsewhere...whether there had been eggs in it I couldn't tell you). But this one was left alone. One nest holding one single red-winged blackbird egg.

Imagine...a herd of around 25 cows and about 30 calves managed to avoid knocking over the scaffolding holding up this woven egg incubator. Maybe there was a super protective mama or papa bird that made grazing uncomfortable. Maybe the birds pooped nearby enough to make the grass undesirable (though I didn't see any). Or maybe the cows were actually cognizant of the presence of this fragile portion of their ecosystem, and refrained from causing it harm.

Did you ever think cows could be so considerate??

Creation is amazing, isn't it?

Kinda reminds me of a scripture too.

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty...
He will cover you with His feathers;
under His wings you will find refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and rampart...
Though a thousand may fall at your side,
and ten thousand at your right hand, no harm will come near to you."
-Psalm 91:1,4,7

Though all around you things may be pressing down and seemingly causing destruction, you can experience peace in the midst of the storm when you seek to dwell in the presence of God Most High.

Selah.