Sunday stamps: Farm animals

More than a week after, I finally found some time to scan and add Farm Animals for Viridian's Sunday Stamps # 163.

When hearing about the Netherands (better known as 'Holland', while Holland only is in the western part, the two provinces Noord-(North) and Zuid-(South) Holland to be exact), many people think of wooden shoes, tulips and cheese (and Johan Cruyff and windmills).
Dutch cheese usually is made out of cow milk. And cows have been honoured a few times by being pictured on Dutch stamps.

This is the most recent one, a cow on this year's stamp sheet. The stamps above are used for international mail (worth € 1.05 each), below for national mail (€ 0.64 each).





In 2012 a stamp sheet was dedicated to the various types of cows. The Holstein cow is wellknown all-over the world, but some other types, like the Blaarkop and Lakenvelder cows I hardly see anymore in the present days (or would they be kept inside the whole year round?..).



In 1998 this Delft's Blue (Delftware) cow stamp was issued.



The following, orange-brown long haired, cow not really is living on a farm. The 'Schotse Hooglander' (lit. Scottish Higlander, in English known as Highland cow) has been introduced in the Netherlands to maintain, by grazing, the fields in Dutch nature. To my remembrance they were introduced in our country not so long ago, probably in the nineties, as this stamp was issued in 1997.

The amount shown is hundred Dutch guilder cents, that is one guilder (gulden). This stamp was used for international mail at that time. So in the nineties we could send mail to the world paying € 0.45.



My most favourite cow stamp is this one, issued in 1995. You can see a few similar objects as on the first stamps: tulips, wooden shoes.
But what I like most of all - and I must admit: I discovered it years after seeing this stamp for the first time - is that the spots represent some European countries. A real world citizen, this Holstein cow!



Last but not least I would like to show some miniscule animals. I think most of the ones shown on this stamp sheet (issued in 2011 for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Society for Microbiology) live on farms, too. What could we do without them?!

There are farmers who make their own cheese. And for this, they need the Lactic acid bacteria, the Lactococcus Lactis, which you can see on the left, the second from above.
And the cows produce methan gaz, and are helped to do so by the Methanosarcina, which you can see right from the lactic acid bacteria. Plants, including the cow's food, thrive well due to the Rhizobium, while the Anammox helps to provide all of us with clean water.



P.S. Check Viridians blog and all links for more farm animals!
And don't forget to see many more beautiful cow stamps from all-over the world on Eva's Cow Mail Project!