Miss Bossy

I grew up with advertisements for milk and milk products that featured Bossy.  This weekend we really saw the Bossys of New Zealand. Unlike other places that we have visited that have been sheep country this part of New Zealand has to be a favorite of the dairyman.  Cows, cows everywhere!  We saw them of every kind and color. We passed one big field. On the right side of the road was a field that was full of cows and calves. Across the road on the left hand side was a big bull.  He was standing at the fence, staring, maybe too intently, at all those cows on the other side.

A bit further down the road we saw a long, long line of cows, three and four deep, following one another to a distant milking barn. They walked towards the right, on the left hand side of the road, under the road and then continued on to the barn. There had to have been 300-400 cows, all ready to be milked. Later we were told that there are no humans involved in bringing these cows to the milk barn. They just know when they were full and it was time to head for the barn.

It was kind of a cool, rainy day when we were driving from Hamilton to Waihi Beach. Maybe you remember in a different blog I mentioned how they keep blankets on their horses? I speculated as to the reason why one of which was to keep them warm.  Well, in one field, a bit in the distance, I saw a herd of cows, each with its own blanket. Or so I thought.  This is what I saw:

It took me a few moments before I realized that it was not a blanket at all but the actual cow. It is called a belted galloway cow.  They originate in Scotland and it is some sort of cross breding. We saw many herds with all sorts of different cows. There were brown ones and other black and white cows, like the Chick-fil-a cow but never was this belted galloway cow mixed in with the other breeds.