An Interesting Photo Shoot … Of Manure

The grass-fed mixed herd of dairy cows that supply the milk for Cedar Summit Farm, New Prague, MN, were kept in a holding area after milking while I scouted out manure piles. The ideal photo, at least in my mind: One of a manure pile in the foreground and the cow that supplied it just beginning to walk away, turning her head toward the camera. The first piles seen had been stepped in – too messy – and the cows were lying down.

Here I found a “perfectly” formed pile, but, again, no cows were standing nearby. So I patiently waited for more cows to slowly but warily walk from the milking parlor to the holding area, hoping they were ready to “unload.”

Just as I was crouching to get an interesting angle of cows feeding on round bales, I heard the distinctive “plop, plop, plop.” I quickly but cautiously duck-walked toward my targets – a small, greenish-looking pile of manure and the Jersey-cross cow that created it.

But the camera-shy cow would have nothing to do with me as I approached and I was obviously at the wrong angle to showcase the manure.

The cow behind must have either felt sorry for me or just wanted to enjoy watching me move toward that pile. I framed the shot, focused, and she posed willingly.

Here's the end result use of the photo - with informative manure scoring photos courtesy of Mary Beth Hall, USDA-ARS, and the University of Illinois, and a photo illustrating locomotion scoring for an accompanying story.