The cows
Bellvale Farms has grown over the years to 460 acres, with about 150 cows, a mixture of Holsteins and Jerseys. About 50 of the cows are housed in the barn by the homestead on Bellvale Lakes Road; the rest are in a barn off State School Road.
The youngest calves are kept in little hutches, close to the Buckbees house. When they’re ready, they move to the nursery shed where they learn to get along with other cows.
“It’s managed like school,” Al Buckbee said. “You can’t have the seniors with the kindergartners.”
When the nursery group is ready to move on, he said, the smallest stays behind, becoming the leader of the next group, “showing the little ones where the water is and all.”