The Singapore Cold Storage Dairy Farm was just a stone’s
throw from Princess Elizabeth Estate.
I can recall back in the late 1960s that, at times, they
let some of the cows roam around PE Estate!
Why they did this was beyond me as the Dairy Farm had a
huge expanse of pasture land.
I remembered seeing the cows grazing on Hillview Circus and along the centre road dividers
of Hillview Avenue. The road dividers then were large and turfed and you could
see the scattered bovines calmly settled down on the grass patches mulching
their cuds.
Occasionally, the herdsmen would even lead their animals onto the fields that
separated the housing blocks at PEE. I don’t recall seeing the cows there
myself but I do know that they must have been there because you can see
evidence of their feeding all over the fields later. (cow dung!)
This morning, these thoughts flashed back when I passed
the open field beside Jurong Point.
There were cows grazing on that field!
This is not the first time that I saw these cows though. They
had these same cows a year ago.
In fact, they were such a sight that many were stolen and
this year they placed a sign saying “Area under surveillance” !
Cow rustling in Singapore? Well, not exactly.
These were the cows I saw this morning.
Besides Singapore Dairy Farm, Fr. Joachim Teng kept 2 cows (one 1/2 black and white, the other brown)in his church yard opposite Boys Town. Remembered one time in the old church building, one of the cows (brown colour) walked on the aisle and left droppings in the middle of Sunday morning service. The adults looked surprise but nobody screamed. The kids laughed because never seen a cow shit so much. Poor Ah Soon had to clean up the shit.
ReplyDeleteCant recall why he needed the cows for unless for their milk.
Holy Cow ! Must have had an overwhelming smell of kemenyan (incense) ?
DeleteI remember visiting someone in the vicinity you mentioned during the late 60's and I saw two cows whose description is similar to what you had mentioned, but I remember it was owned by an Indian family.. And you are right. They were reared for their milk. Fresh milk was used by Indians for washing the bones of those who were cremated, before burying them into the sea.
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