Choose the Cows
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Kristin Hugo
Team Cliff & Vi
When Ray Ashbaugh’s day at the cow barn ends, he goes home — to more cattle.
Ray has been working as a dairy herdsman at Northwest Missouri State University for 44 of his 69 years. He spends his days with Holsteins, Jerseys, Guernseys and Brown Swiss cattle at the agricultural school, and then goes home to his personal herd of Red Angus and Longhorn cross cattle. Earlier in life, Ray chose to not pursue a romantic relationship so he could focus on a bovine-centered life. He remains a bachelor.
From the time Ray was five years old, he loved cattle, and that love comes out in a variety of ways. “Cows are smarter than people think,” Ray says. “They’re just like people.” He calls them “baby” and “sweetheart,” petting their foreheads lovingly.
Ray is apprehensive about retiring from the school’s dairy herd, despite the urging of others and his awareness of his own aging body. What would he do with more time and fewer cows in his care? And when faced with retirement, he can’t help but think of what that means for dairy cows: “A knock in the head.”
A Guernsey takes a break from the feeding trough to get some head pats from Ray Ashbaugh. Ray feeds, milks, manages and cares for the dairy cattle at the R.T. Wright farm in Maryville, Mo.
Ray monitors cattle as they stand in the milking stanchion with machines attached to their udders. Ray and his student helpers milk the cattle in this barn three times a day.
One of Ray's student helpers, Ryatt Hagerman, prepares an inoculation for a Holstein calf who had been born the night before. Ray keeps the calf down for the shot, which was followed by a piercing for an ear tag.
Ray holds a calf to give him a postnatal treatment. Another Maryville resident has expressed interest in buying the calf and, if she does, the calf will live as a pet.
Attempting to pet two dairy calves at a time, Ray reacts to the newborn Holstein behind him biting him. He jokingly scolded the calf, but wasn’t hurt – cattle and their relatives don’t have upper front teeth, and she didn’t bite that hard.
In his office, Ray keeps cow models that students in the dairy program have given him over the years.
During a brief window of sunlight, Ray checks on cattle as they return to the herd after milking.
At home in nearby Burlington Junction, after a long day with the dairy cattle at the university, Ray looks out on his herd of Red Angus cattle.
Ray walks through the rural house he shares with three cats. He keeps several skulls from Longhorn cattle that died naturally on his property; an occasional opportunity he gives to cows he likes too much to take to the slaughterhouse.
In a rare moment of relaxation, Ray puts up his boots in his office at Northwest Missouri University’s dairy.
Ray brings corn to dairy cattle owned by the university. A cow approaches the trough before her herdmates swarm it.
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