Category:
Farming
Farming
Elm Farm Ollie Day
Feb. 18 is Elm Farm Ollie Day, commemorating the first flight in a plane by a cow. An article posted over at rootsweb.ancestry.com tells us that Elm Farm Ollie (aka Sunnymede Ollie, Nellie Jay, or Sky Queen) is remembered each year at the dairy festival in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin:
Celebrated as a pasteurized legend of the pasture, Ollie has for 60 years remained the star attraction at the Feb. 18 dairy festival held each year at Mount Horeb, Wisc. In addition to having her praises sung in such works as "The Bovine Cantata in B-Flat Major" (from Madame Butterfat) and the stirring "Owed to Ollie," she has been the subject of stories, cartoons and poems. E. D. Thalinger even painted her portrait for posterity.
A 1930 news-wire story provided details about the historic flight:
Will Milk Cow in Air
Claude M. Sterling, of Parks Air college, will pilot Sunnymede Ollie, Guernsey from Bismarck, Missouri, over the city in a tri-motored Ford.
The cow will be fed and milked and the milk parachuted down in paper containers. A quart of milk will be presented to Colonel Lindbergh when he arrives.
Weighing more than 1000 pounds, the cow will be flown to demonstrate the ability of aircraft. Scientific data will be collected on her behavior.
-The Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minn.) - Feb. 18, 1930.
Claude M. Sterling, of Parks Air college, will pilot Sunnymede Ollie, Guernsey from Bismarck, Missouri, over the city in a tri-motored Ford.
The cow will be fed and milked and the milk parachuted down in paper containers. A quart of milk will be presented to Colonel Lindbergh when he arrives.
Weighing more than 1000 pounds, the cow will be flown to demonstrate the ability of aircraft. Scientific data will be collected on her behavior.
-The Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minn.) - Feb. 18, 1930.
More info at wikipedia and mustardmuseum.com.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 18, 2020 -
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Category: Animals, Farming, Air Travel and Airlines, 1930s
Weirdo the Cat-Killing Superchicken
Weirdo was a giant among chickens. He weighed a colossal twenty-three pounds — about four times the size of an average rooster. Throughout much of the 1970s and 80s, he was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the heaviest chicken in the world. He was said to have the strength and stamina of an ostrich.
"Grant Sullens holds his prize 23-lb. White Sully rooster. Note the gloves he is wearing for protection. Note also that the photographer stayed on the safe side of the fence." Source: Farm Journal - Nov 1971.
However, Weirdo had a temper and ferocity that matched his size. His violent exploits were legendary. He killed two cats and pecked out the eye of a dog. He routinely tore bits of metal off his feed bucket, demolishing feeders at a rate of one per month. When an ungloved visitor made the mistake of trying to touch him, he removed their fingertip. He shattered the lens of a camera. And, in his crowning achievement, he managed to rip through a wire fence and attacked and killed one of his own sons, an eighteen-pound rooster.
Just as unusual as Weirdo himself was the story of how he came to exist. He was the result of a seven-year chicken-breeding program conducted by a teenage boy, Grant Sullens, of West Point, California. Sullens had decided that he wanted to create a breed of "superchickens," and he actually achieved his goal, succeeding where highly paid poultry researchers had failed.
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Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 18, 2019 -
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Category: Animals, Farming, 1970s
Bossy the Electrified Cow
In the future, when robot cows rule the world, they'll look back on Bossy as one of the first of their kind.
Sumter County Journal - Apr 17, 1941
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 29, 2019 -
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Category: Robots, Technology, AI, Robots and Other Automatons, Farming, Cows, 1940s
Champion Chicken Picker Ernest Hausen
Ernie Hausen, of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, had one great talent. He could pick the feathers off of chickens really, really fast.When he started picking chickens, in 1904, it took him a full half hour to defeather one. Since he was paid 5 cents per chicken, he wasn't making much money. Over the years he sped up. By 1922, he won a Chicken Picking Championship by picking his chicken clean in 6 seconds. He topped this in 1939, upping his time to 3.5 seconds. As far as I know, that record stands to this day.
His technique:
Hausen dips the chickens in 164-degree water, quickly runs his large, powerful fingers across the wings, from the tips inward; does the same with the legs, finally peels the feathers from the back and breast. Suddenly the bird is as bare as a billiard ball.... He tells of picking 1,472 birds in 7 hours and 45 minutes in a contest.
-Ithaca Journal - Feb 7, 1946
-Ithaca Journal - Feb 7, 1946
More info: Hoard Museum
Wisconsin State Journal - Jan 2, 1946
Appleton Post-Crescent - Jul 28, 1936
McAllen Monitor - Oct 28, 1946
Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 27, 2019 -
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Category: Animals, Farming, Human Marvels, World Records
Knickers the Giant Cow
That's one big cow!Though, technically, he's a steer, not a cow. And yeah, he looks bigger when seen alongside cattle who are relatively small.
More details.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Apr 05, 2019 -
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Category: Farming, Cows
Chicken Diapers
Julie Baker, owner of Pampered Poultry, is cashing in on the recent fad for keeping chickens as pets. She's selling 500 to 1000 "chicken diapers" every month, for $18 a piece. More info at The Outline:In wealthy cities like San Francisco, chickens have even become an unlikely status symbol, with poultry owners going to unimaginable lengths to care for their pets. As The Washington Post reported in March, certain chicken owners have hired “chicken whisperers” to consult on their pets’ comfort (to the tune of $225 per hour).
(Thanks to Gerald Sacks for the link!)
Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 10, 2018 -
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Category: Animals, Farming, Fashion, Excrement
Cowvertising
$500 a year to put your ad on the side of a cow.
Twin Falls Times-News - Apr 8, 1984
Detroit Free Press - Apr 13, 1984
Posted By: Alex - Fri Apr 20, 2018 -
Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, Farming, Cows, 1980s
Munch Meter
An invention that measures how much a cow has eaten by recording the motion of its head while it eats.
Hartford Courant - Sep 14, 1972
Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 18, 2018 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Farming, Inventions, 1970s
Soil My Undies Challenge
The California Farmers Guild is challenging farmers to soil their undies. More info: farmersguild.orgAnd Scottish farmers are also taking up the challenge. (telegraph.co.uk)
Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 05, 2017 -
Comments (1)
Category: Farming, Underwear
Artist Lays Egg
Poincheval hatching eggs
Chuck mentioned a few weeks ago that French performance artist Abraham Poincheval would soon be sitting on a dozen eggs until they hatch. He's now well into the process of doing that and has hatched nine eggs already.
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Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 22, 2017 -
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Category: Publicity Stunts, Performance Art, Farming, Eggs
| Who We Are |
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |