DB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 6,1981
Sweet-tooth Shirley
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
EAST BERLIN If you have a
“Shirley” m your dairy herd, just
forget all those dairy herd
management recommendations
about high TDN, adequate fiber,
protein concentrates and computer
balanced rations.
Shirley is a ten-year-old grade
Holstein owned by Adams County
dairyman Kevin Holtzinger.
Kevin’s first inkling that Shirley
had her own opinions about what
comprises “cow food” came the
day she turned to theft.
The milking crew in the parlor at
the York County farm he was then
renting frequently kept snacks
handy by setting them on the steps
down into the pit. One day as she
was leaving the parlor after a turn
at the milkers, Shirley nosed the
goods on the steps, snatched a bag
of doughnuts and hustled out via
the parlor exit door.
She then proceeded to
systematically devour every
doughnut in the bag.
“She’s pretty good at getting her
nose in a bag and taking out
whatever food she finds in there,”
chuckles Kevin. “Shirley eats just
about anything, especially fruit,
cookies and candy. The only thing
she really doesn’t care for is
barbecued potato chips.”
Grocery bag of goodies in tow,
Lancaster Farming embarked last
week on a research project of the
bovine sweet tooth, based,
naturally, on Shirley.
There were bananas for an
appetizer, not quite as ripe as they
should have been, the faint tinges
of green outlining the yellow.
Shirley never checked. She just
grabbed the banana Kevin offered
and gulped it down. Two, three,
four bananas later, Shirley was
diverted to a second course.
Kevin offered her a doughnut
from a box of a dozen assorted
types. She promptly gobbled her
way nght through the sugared
ones, practially swallowed whole
the chocolate-iced, crunched down
the coconut covered, and neatly
polished off the remaining cin
namons with barely a pause for
breath.
Before Kevm could discard the
now-empty box, Shirley sniffed it,
npped off a comer and began work
on a cardboard cud.
Figuring that variety should be
mcluded in this scientific study, a
salty snack of potato chips was
next on Shirley’s menu. These
were plain, of course, not bar
bequed
After nosing at the crunchy bits,
Gee, it’s so tough to decide which flavor doughnut to start
with. Take them all? Don't mind if I do.
Shirley nibbled at one or two with
only half-hearted interest. She
raised her head, pondered a
moment, and headed towad the
camera, the direction from whence
the sweets had been arming.
Dangling a couple of Hershey
chocolate bars no almonds
before her discerning nose, im
mediately regamed Shirley’s at
tention.
Before Kevin could even remove
the inner wrapper from the first
bar, Shirley stretched out her
tongue and snatched the choclate
from his hand, polishing off the
wax wrapper along with the
contents.
The second bar disappeared just
as quickly. Maybe she knew they
had milk in them.
Shirley capped off this picmc by
finishing the remaining three
bananas.
Now the bag was empty and
Shirley’s dark eyes pleaded for
more.
Reluctant to leave the handouts,
the big black cow finally let herself
be led back into the cow lot, milling
with herdmates eating their
nutritiously balanced, but dull,
portions of silages, hays and
grains.
Her disappointment was ap
parent as she lingered just inside
the gate, eyes hopefully glued to
the former sources of sweets.
“She’ll stay there until we
leave,” assured Kevin. “Just in
case there’s something else we
forgot.”
Kevin adds his herdwoman’s
four-year-old daughter adores
Shirley and recognizes the number
12 on the cow’s bright yellow ear
tag.
The tot recently came to visit the
cows carrying along the sandwich
she was having for lunch. Shirley
borrowed it and swallowed the
sandwich in two bites.
Kevin admits she’s not “too wet"
but he’s reluctant to part with
Shirley because the cow is
everyone’s favorite barnyard pet.
Her forty pounds of production
doesn’t rank her very high in a
herd of 220-cows with an average of
over 16,000 pounds milk and almost
600 of butterfat.
“She’s one of a kind, by all
means,” Kevin grins, shaking his
head.
And the unbiased projection
from this scientific study on dairy
cattle feeding is that a special cow
named Shirley is likely to be
around the Holtzinger bam for a
while longer.
moos, “Ya are what ya eat”
Peel a banana? Why? Didn't your mother
ever tell you there's more organic fiber in it if
Chocolate bars - my favorite! What do you mean “take the
paper off first?" I'd better stop at two, though. Next thing I'll
lose my girlish figure.
you eat it with skin intact?
Potato chips? One of my favorites. Just the plain, of course.