Soule: Cattle Don't Belong on Golf Courses

The call came in at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Five cows were seen near the golf course that abuts my farm. This was serious. Cattle could destroy the turf.

Except that cattle tend to avoid the golf course because there is nothing to eat. What? Yes, cattle love grass, just not the golf-course variety. The grass is more like astroturf, not tasty to cows. Besides, it's too short. Bovines like tall grass, and golfers do not. So the groundskeepers keep the turf cut close. In the past, only one farm escapee wandered onto the golf course, but it was mid-winter, and the ground was frozen and invulnerable to hooves. The owner was angry, but no damage was done.

But this time could be different. The call was from farm friend Diane Hersey who passed on the message from her friend who lives beside the golf course. Was the whole herd out, or was it just some calves? Without details, husband Bruce and I had to act fast, so we grabbed a bucket of alfalfa cubes and a lead rope and jumped on the ATV. With dog Flora running point, we headed through the pastures to the back road to the golf course.

Thirty years ago, I sold land to Bill Crowley, the golf course designer, so he could expand the course to 18 holes and build houses overlooking the links. Here and there, I recognized a ridge or rock ledge that used to be part of my farm, but nothing else was familiar. The former fields now contained in-ground sprinklers spewing water over manicured lawns that sloped up to McMansions and immaculate flower gardens. This subdivision could have been lifted from a Greenwich, Conn., suburb and seemed out of place next to my farm, where pastures rule and lawns get zero love.

We didn't see any cattle on the course, so we searched in the other direction. I waved down a car and a truck, but no one had seen the escapees until I found Kathy Whedon standing in her front yard.

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Carole Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm in Loudon where she raises and sells beef, pork, lamb, eggs and other local products. She can be reached at carolesoule60@gmail.com.