Childhood Memories – Poddy Calves

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This has been adapted from a discussion that first appeared on Bubblews. I grew up on a farm in south-west Western Australia. We always had two or three ‘house’ cows – cows that supplied milk for the house. These were milked by hand. When the house-cow calved, the calf was removed from its mother and was taught to drink from a bucket. This was always a challenge. The instinct of young calves is to search upwards for the mother's teat. It is difficult to persuade a calf to lower its head to suck. We would let the calf tilt its head upwards and scoop milk with the other hand into its mouth. Once it tasted the milk, it would usually begin to suck. Once it began to suck on two fingers, we would ease the head down towards the bucket of milk. By spreading the fingers in the mouth, you could feel the milk flowing through The tongue of a calf is quite rough and the suction is much stronger than you might think. The calves were tethered until they were sucking properly. They were then kept in the sheep-yards and later released into a small paddock. When I was a child, I treated them like young horses. I would teach them to lead, pick up their feet and even sit on the quiet ones once they were strong enough to take my weight. Even after some became 'milkers' themselves, you could still safely sit on them. Playing with pet lambs and calves occupied a lot of my non-school hours. And before you ask, I don’t know where the word ‘poddy’ comes from. My research says it’s used in association with handfed animals but doesn’t give the origin of the term. The photo is of a school-friend sitting on Bimbo.