We found seats, in the third row – also the last row.
I was reassured to see a handful of people waiting – we weren’t the only ones enthused about bringing animals home.
“Boy, they could have put a tent up or something,” a weather-written man commented not unkindly.
“Who could have known?” someone responded, “it’s been so nice all week.”
Truth be told, it had been unseasonably warm for the last few weeks and I’d packed away our winter coats with jubilee.
“Did you know it’s actually 5degrees warmer today than the average for this time of year?” a third person chimed in. Minor murmurs of amazement sprung up. The white haired gentlemen continued: “It just feels so cold today because we were spoiled with that warm weather.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment, lost in thought, I’m sure, of gardens already prepped, thanks to the unexpected mini-summer, for the warmer weather sure to come closer to its normal schedule.
“I see they already have their cattle trailer over here,” someone else said, indicating the large cattle trailer we noticed when we first found our seats. The rest of the group chuckled quietly.
“Makes a nice windbreak,” a matronly woman said, “I’m glad they agreed to park it there.”
It became clear that the owners of the cattle trailer were not presuming they would go home with a trailer full of livestock, although that wasn’t out of the question, they indeed had parked their trailer in an effort to cut the bracing wind.
Again the conversation ebbed and smaller groups of people began conversing about various topics, but mostly the weather, as any group of farmers is wont to do. We took this opportunity to refer to our blue slip of paper, now well scribbled upon with various notes to ourself.
We again wondered, do we skip over that one if it comes out first and hope we get the other one we really like? Or do we just bid on any of the cows we’re interested in as soon as their turn comes up. If the cows came in numerical order it would mean we could bid on … but if the cows came in a different order, say all the dry cows first …
Thankfully our mulling was brought to an abrupt halt as we suddenly realized the auctioneer and his colleagues had arrived and the crowed had swelled to about 30.
Now the real fun.
They didn’t come out in numerical order.
We soon realized they came out most favorable to least favorable.
We passed on Sweety and Baby – both fetched prices beyond what we wanted to spend, especially early in the bidding. Hope came out about a third of the way through bidding. Her charcoal coat appealed as did her big brown eyes. In comparison to those that had come before her, her splayed back legs and saggy bag were even more noticeable. There was minimal bidding.
Perfect.
We bid.
We were thrilled.
We won. And the price was better than we thought possible.
“Congratulations,” said a kindly woman with a mop of short brown curls sitting next to me.
“Thanks!” I said, beaming. “We’re so excited, this is our first cow, and it’s going to be a family cow, we just moved to our farm, and it’s great.” I rambled on without taking a breath, excited to share my enthusiasm.
“Oh! That’s great!” the woman responded. “We need cows giving milk NOW. We just put in an additional 18 stalls in our barn and we need to fill them.”
“Oh cool,” I responded. “Do you have mostly jerseys?”
“Yes, and Holstein crosses,” she answered.
Another cow was brought in.
We had our dry cow.
Now on to the currently milking girl.
We passed on one, then another.
Should we be happy with the girl we got and go home or wait to bid on another one?