With patient help from various teamsters, some decades younger than me, I got my first pair, Topper and Flash, to follow voice commands in the show ring and at home, but away in parades and outside the show ring, I never gave up on the lead rope.
Karen Meyers of WMUR visited Miles Smith Farm to learn how to train a calf. She got the basics and is on her way to becoming a "cow whisperer."
Many of the cattle I get are scruffy-looking things that have never felt a human hand. So, all my cattle go through my "training course." If they pass, I'll sell them as backyard pets. Folks in Florida, Virginia, Ohio, and California buy my tame cows, calves, and steers.
Farming is hard work but can be exciting and picturesque – especially for kids. Family farms are fewer these days, but plenty of grownups still cherish memories of sunny, sweaty summers amid crops and livestock.
Who doesn't love a day-old calf? You owe it to yourself to check out this cutie.
Twenty children (ages 8-14) have signed up for one of two weeks of calf snuggling, horse riding, and stall cleaning at Cow Camp at Miles Smith Farm, and we have room for more.
