BOVINE EXPRESS : TUNNEL WILL HELP IN COW TRANSIT.Byline: Anne Wallace Allen Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Why did the cows cross the road? To graze on the other side. But with 5,000 cars a day speeding by, the trip across U.S. Route 2 has become too dangerous for Barbara Bickford's Holsteins. So the state is building a $200,000, 80-foot tunnel under the road, and the cows soon will be able to enjoy the morning grass without getting run down. ``It's a horror,'' said Bickford, whose family has owned the 350-acre farm since 1924. ``We can try to cross the road and wait for as many as 50 cars.'' Like many other farms in Vermont, Bickford's century-old Echo Dale straddles a major road. When Bickford was a girl, Route 2 was a newly paved pave tr.v. paved, pav·ing, paves 1. To cover with a pavement. 2. To cover uniformly, as if with pavement. 3. To be or compose the pavement of. , narrow farm lane. ``I used to hitch the team up and go to Plainfield and get the horses shod shod v. Past tense and a past participle of shoe. shod Verb a past of shoe Adj. 1. and pick up loads of sawdust sawdust used as litter for chickens and bedding for horses. Sawdust made from treated timber may cause pentachlorophenol and other wood preservative poisoning. Fungi growing in sawdust litter in poultry houses may cause poisoning in the birds. for my father, which is something you wouldn't do today on this road,'' she said. Today, thousands of speeding commuters from Montpelier, 14 miles away, and tourists gawking at the foliage use the two-lane road, which separates the milking barns from the grazing grazing, n See irregular feeding. grazing 1. actions of herbivorous animals eating growing pasture or cereal crop. 2. area of pasture or cereal crop to be used as standing feed. See also pasture. area at Echo Dale. In the early 1980s, 12 of Bickford's cows were hit by trucks. Some died instantly. Others had to be destroyed. Decades earlier, Bickford's mother was hit by a car and seriously injured in·jure tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures 1. To cause physical harm to; hurt. 2. To cause damage to; impair. 3. . The tunnel, a steel pipe 8 feet in diameter, will be completed later this month to eliminate what the state considers a traffic hazard. Bickford's 70 Holsteins will be able to cross safely if they let themselves be herded through the tunnel. ``We built a bridge across the Winooski River The Winooski River is a tributary of Lake Champlain, approximately 90 miles (145 km) long, in northern Vermont in the United States. Although not Vermont's longest river, it is one of the state's most significant, forming a major valley way from Lake Champlain through the Green to connect our land, and it was hell putting those cows across it,'' Bickford said. ``We've gotten it now to where we can get seven Holsteins at a time across it. We're hoping in time, they'll like this, too.'' The cows used to cut across the road twice each day, but the Bickfords built two silos on the barn side so the cows could eat there at night, when the crossing is more dangerous. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: A pipe 8 feet in diameter will become a cattle tunne l under a highway in Vermont. Associated Press |
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