Meet the herd: Loretta
Name: Loretta
Species: Bovine
Gender: Cow
Breed: Milking Shorthorn
[Original post about Loretta from 2018]
Loretta came to us just under a year ago as a sweet, 10 day old bottle calf.
You know how they say alcoholics shouldn’t go to a bar, and shopohlics shouldn’t go to a mall, because the temptations are too high? Well, “cow-o-holics” probably shouldn’t be in cattle Facebook groups…
I was in Canton, TX at the First Monday Trade Days last fall (2017), and was scrolling through Facebook. Up pops this photo of a Shorthorn heifer bottle calf for sale in Arkansas. I immediately ask for more information; then I text a screenshot to my husband. I had worked a few nights for my mom to earn some extra Canton spending money prior to our trip, and wouldn’t you know it, the spending money I earned was the exact amount they were asking for this cute calf.
Loretta and I on her first birthday!
I’ll save you all of the gory details, but the basics of why I shouldn’t have gotten her are:
My husband thought I was crazy.
Bottle calves don’t have the best survival rate.
She was located over 3 hours from our farm.
Purchasing her would mean traveling 6 hours round trip, the day I got back from a Texas trip.
I didn’t have our barn set up for a bottle calf.
Bottle calves are a huge time commitment.
The basics that won my argument to purchase her:
I’m already in love with her.
I earned the exact amount I needed; God knew I needed her.
I’m obsessed with Shorthorns.
My husband knows it’s slightly pointless to argue with me over animals.
So obviously we brought her home. Henryetta the goat is her BFF. She has made countless trips to schools and loves attention from the kids. Most of all, she LOVES bread.
Loretta loved getting all the attention at school events.
2026 Update on Loretta
Loretta is now 9 years old. She’s still living her best life on our farm. Even though she is technically a dairy breed, she’s lived her life with our beef herd…until now.
Sadly, Loretta lost her calf (no fault of her own) this year, so we brought her up to the dairy barn. We milked her for the first time at 9 years old. That’s really kind of crazy.
She’s done amazing, just like we knew she would. We will keep milking her for a few months, and then slowly dry her off like her body is used to. Then she will likely go back to the beef herd with her other friends and go back to her normal life.
