A SPRING IN THEIR STEP
After a long winter, these organic dairy cows jump for joy at the sight of grass,
BLACKSTOCK, ONT.— It has been an extra-long, brutally cold Canadian winter and “the girls” are twitchy.
The May air is finally warm and scented with fresh pasture. There is human movement at the gate.
The girls — who are dairy cows — surely must remember the 63 hectares of paradise that lie beyond the barnyard?
“Once the cows get out that gate,” says farmer Deb Vice, “they’re like kids at recess — pushing and shoving.”
Have you ever seen a dairy cow run? Jump for joy? Kick up its hooves? Buck like a rodeo bull?
That’s what these working girls do on the gorgeous May morning that Deb and Ron Vice let 48 of them out of the barn, out of the corral and into the field for the first time in six months. The delighted cows stretch, socialize, push and shove, lick each other and take dust baths.
“Getting rid of the winter itchies,” as Deb puts it.
Then the cows lower their blackand-white heads and get down to the serious (but boring to watch) business of grazing.
“Moo,” bellows one cow after an initial frolic. “You’re welcome,” replies Ron. “It’s really quite comical,” the thirdgeneration farmer adds. “When I let them out tomorrow, it will be like they’ve been doing this for six weeks.”
As far as “letting the cows out” days go, this one at Birchwind Holsteins near Oshawa is picture perfect. Not like last year when the girls blithely walkedout and gave a couple of token kicks.
In Denmark, this annual spring ritual has become an informal national holiday as thousands of organic dairy cows are released into the fields at exactly noon on the third Sunday of April.
Danes — nearly a quarter million of them — travel to farms to watch. There’s an online countdown clock already keeping track of the days, hours, minutes and seconds until next year’s event.
They call it “Dancing Cow Day,” although it’s formally called Okodag, or Organic Day, because Organic Den- mark organizes the celebration to show how organic dairy cows must be let out to pasture from April to November.
In Canada, the Vices are also organic farmers who are part of the Organic Meadow co-operative. Mother Nature dictates their grazing season, which runs from April or May until October or November.
“For our farmers, heralding the start of pasture season is an exciting time of year,” says Organic Meadow marketing manager Michelle Schmidt.
“There is definitely an intrinsic sense of joy in watching their cows graze on fresh, green pasture.”
Nobody’s pushing for a formal “Dancing Cow Day” here, so you’ll have to get to know a farmer to wrangle an invitation.
Ron Vice has never heard of the Danish celebration, but once he opens the gates for his herd every spring, it’s like a national holiday.
“Sending the cows out means they can feed themselves and I only have to clean up manure in the barn once a week instead of once a day.”
The idea for this story came from my Star colleague Malene Arpe, who grew up in Denmark. She died this week before we got to show her the “happy cows” video. We will miss her.