When placing a float to the left or right of text, is there a way to place
a given number of lines of text directly above it? Or is this not the right
mechanism to achieve this?

What I have now is:
\starttext
\startplacefigure[title=Cow,
location={left, 3*line, force, high}]
{\externalfigure[cow.pdf][width=.2\textwidth]}
\stopplacefigure
\input knuth
\stoptext

which gives:

                   Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[cow image] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


What I would prefer is a pattern like this:

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[cow image] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Alan