Friday 30 October 2009

Entertaining the Troops

While Kippa and Ben were here we took them to see La Gargantua, a prehistoric monument not very far from Preuilly.

A herd of dairy cows was occupying the field next to the car park, and Kippa entertained himself by showing them a dance routine. As you can see there was a range of reactions from the cows...

The scene looks out over the valley towards Charnizay, and this field is full of skylarks in the summer. It's a lovely place.

The senior bossyguts cow, hogging the molasses lick (below). I suspect the collar is to indicate that she has been confirmed as in calf. I expect the milk from these cows goes to the co-operative in nearby Verneuil, which is apparently one of the top three butter producers in France.


Susan

4 comments:

Abbeysmum said...

They look like Holstien /Friesian cows (don't know anything about French breeds) a rather large cow, nice nature, that gives lots of milk, but not as creamy as the Jersey's milk

Carolyn said...

Holstein milk is known hereabouts as blue milk. But if it's good enough for Verneuil butter, used by Jacky Dallais.....

Jean said...

The image of kippa dancing with cows has reminded me of a movie clip I saw last year :

http://www.vimeo.com:80/1211060?pg=embed&sec=1211060

Hope the link still works.

Susan said...

Jean: That video of Matt dancing all over the world is rather sweet :-)

Abbeysmum: Yes, I think they are probably Holstein Freisans. Most French dairy herds are. There are a few French dual purpose breed herds around here - Normande, Salers, but they are both just raised for meat in this area and not used for dairy like they are in their traditional regions.

Carolyn: You had the best Verneuil has to offer when you came for lunch I think? (The baratte formed cultured butter.)

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