Meet My Oldest Dairy Cow: Amazing Grace

A tribute to a legendary cow- she’s an udder triumph

When you look at Grace, she does not look a day over 6 years old. She is strong and elegant. Her body condition is pristine. Her udder is still above her hocks. You would be shocked to learn that well over 5 truckloads of milk have passed through those teats! Grace is a whopping 13 years old. She even has a perfect calving record- 11 calves and counting. She is currently on her 11^th lactation and going strong. She is due to go dry in a few months.

This is what I love about being a dairy farmer: getting to see the animals excel in their roles. In a natural setting, Grace would have never have lived this long. Read more about the lifespan of dairy cows here.

She has been given the best health care possible, highly nutritious feed available 24 hours a day, and a comfortable barn to sleep in (equipped with fans, misters, and curtains). Not to mention, a farmer to attend to her every whim. I have been there for her when nature was not. Storms, floods, re-location, droughts, shortages, a fire, and a backwards calf are just a few of the things we have faced together over the years. It has been a privilege to provide everything she needs just in exchange for some milk.

Activists will try to argue that she has been exploited her whole life, but that could not be further from the truth. Grace and I are living in a symbiotic relationship. She has lived a longer, healthier life because of my stewardship and dedication. She of course provides nutritious milk for my community and gives me calves which will eventually replace her role when she reaches the end of her long, happy life. Dairy farming is all about symbiosis. It is good for the cows; it is good for the people and it is good for the planet.

Activists will also argue that I have stolen those calves from her but that is also untrue. Grace has daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters on my farm. She has created a beautiful legacy. Yes, I do raise the calves for her, but where do you think they eventually go? The answer is of course: straight back into the barn with her. I am basically a nanny, a daycare service & a boarding school for my cows. Once the calves reach 2 years old, they become milk cows and rejoin their mothers in the herd.

It will be a sad day when Grace passes away on our farm. She has been the heart of our milk string for over a decade. She is a big, black and white landmark that has been a comfortable daily sight to me for so long. I will miss seeing her kind face waiting patiently at the gate to be let into the milk parlor. Her old blue tag so faded you cannot even read her number anymore. I always notice her nose first. It is really dark, unlike so many of my other cows. She likes to rest her chin on the second pipe on the gate, right by the latch. Her dark nose poking out as if to say, “it’s right here, unlatch it so I can be first to be milked and first back to the fresh feed.” She is my daily reminder that even though this job is hard work and long hours, my dedication is paying off.

Grace with one of her granddaughters