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World's Oldest Cow Still Hard At Work
It's been just over two years since the "world's oldest cow" moved on to the big pasture in the sky. But Big Bertha's hardly been forgotten around Blackwatersbridge, County Kerry, Ireland.
That's because Jerome O'Leary, who owned the unbelievably productive cow for nearly 50 years, had her stuffed and mounted like a statue on his farm. He also puts her on display at Irish county fairs, hauled on a special trailer O'Leary had built for just such occasions. It's actually a continuation of the last years of her life when she raised over $100,000, most of it for cancer research traveling to various fairs.
O'Leary bought Big Bertha (a Dremon) as a 2-year-old for $14 at a fair in 1946. Big Bertha was not only listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest cow (49 years, nine months) when she passed away the day after Christmas, 1993, she's also listed as the world's most productive, having 39 calves.
At last report, two of those calves remained in O'Leary's herd. One is 35 years old, the other a mere 30. He received many offers to buy the older cow at Big Bertha's wake, which was celebrated in true Irish fashion, but O'Leary refused them all.
"She's very much like her mother, the greatest animal ever known to me," he told FARM SHOW.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jerome O'Leary, Gerah, Blackwatersbridge, Killarney, County Kerry, Republic of Ire-land.


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1996 - Volume #20, Issue #1