If you have a baby then one of the first things it gets after birth is a little paper bracelet around the wrist with its name, weight and date of birth. One of the keepsakes you have as a memory. Obviously this cannot be applied to cows. They have no writsts and the legs as not so organised for bracelets, but the ears are perfect. They have their ears pierced straght after birth and are given a number and even a bar code. Our cows in Switzerland never get lost. The cows in the photo were at our local cheese days. One of our squares in town was converted into a cow exhibition and the best cows even got a special label to show how good they were.

This seems to be a special cow according to the label. It has a name, Olivia. All cows have a name, usually in alphabetical order, and when I took the photo it was already 5 years old, so it is plain to see that it is a milk cow otherwise it would not have survived so long.. Its race was BV, probably meaning Bovine, which are all cows. The father is Hilto and the mother labeled as Zolivo. I am really no expert, but after a little research in Internet, I belive that Zolivo is a normal brown cow. She was quite a heavy weight at 7829 Kilo.

So do not forget to have your cows ear pierced after birth and make sure they are registered.

And the best cows get a special label.

FOWC with Fandango: Label