Animal Terminology

Animal husbandry has a language all its own. There are terms for males, females, young, having babies, raising them, and equipment. I once referred to a hay mow (rhymes with cow) in a story and a fellow author wanted to know what on earth I was talking about. I just sort of assumed everyone knew what a hay mow was - but farming and animal terminology are becoming a specialty.

 

So, for all you non-farm types, a mow  is the storage for hay usually found on the second floor of a barn. Dairy barns, at least the ones for small dairies, are set up with the cows on the bottom or basement floor, and hay storage above in a mow. Stantions are like a head gate - their the way cows used to be locked in place in a barn, so they faced their manger, where they ate, and their butts pointed to the gutter, where they pooped. That's a mini-course on dairying - at least on the small farm scale.