What we learnt on our week volunteering on a dairy farm…

1.      Cows poo…. A lot. They poo when they are scared, hungry, excited, startled, standing still, walking, eating and whilst getting milked (as I found out a number of times...).
2.        Don’t wear nice clothes in the dairy… as you will get covered in poo.
3.      Make sure you have a power hose… nothing else will remove cow poo.
4.       Dry cow poo looks like mud but is more difficult to shift off your skin/clothes.
5.           Don’t mess with a bull when there are cows about... they like to show off and throw their weight (and giant testicles) around.
6.          Cows are stupid.
7.      Calves are even more stupid than cows.
8.       Cows kick.
9.      Cows can jump and squeeze through fences.
10.       Cows smell and make you smell too.
11.       A cow may have massive udders but no milk.
12.      You can recognise a cow by its teats.
13.       Jersey cows have long skinny teats.
14.       By the end of the week we could both spot a good pair of milking teats.    
15.       Cows slip and fall over a lot (especially when the dairy is plastered in poo).
16.          There are calves, heifers and cows.
17.       Cows go crazy for Molasses (a deep brown, sugary treacle/syrup that accompanied their grain and was impossible to get off your hands).
18.       When performing cow crowd control take a long stick and shout a lot (“Moo-ve on”).
19.       You will be surprised how quickly you become comfortable covered in cow poo.
20.      Wash behind your ears…cow poo gets everywhere