Post by soggybottoms on Jun 9, 2023 11:41:04 GMT -5
First Post.
Our family is in Newborn, GA & we've recently thrown ourselves in the deep end of the pool (of cow keeping).
We have friends who owned a 60 cow dairy (they sold raw milk) and just sold their operation. We purchased a 3 year old Jersey from them 2 weeks ago.
We named her "Summer School" (the children had just finished their school year when we brought her home and my wife told them "This is your Summer School." And oh, it has been!
She's a gentle cow - good around our younger children. She lets us close and licks me like I'm her own.
SS came to us on her due date and one week ago she had a bull calf - an Angus cross. He's a sweet thing (and I understand will be even sweeter when it comes time for eating him). For now, we are keeping him on her some of the day and separating them part of the day. Haven't decided how we are going to manage him longer term - we've read up on the trials of keeping a calf with Mama - seems like opinions vary widely about how to manage a calf.
We are trying rotational grazing. We learned of the method from Shawn and Beth Dougherty (don't have the pleasure of knowing them but have their book and have watched them on YouTube).
Our experience so far -
My wife & I argued more in the first week we had SS than we had argued in the previous year. The second week has been much better, primarily because I am working on repenting : ) Turns out this cow is a sanctification tool - brings out stuff in me I didn't know I needed to work on.
We've been pasture milking and it hasn't been half bad. It's a family activity, we chase her around the pasture together (actually she stands still two-thirds of the time, it ain't so bad). We built a stanchion but haven't trained her to it yet (may start today). Right now, we pen the calf for the night (and for a few hours before evening milking) and she lets down for the calf and we get what we get (about 2 gallons a day). We are experimenting with how to get more but are content with 2 gallons for now. We think our pasture grasses are not super great (we live on a site that was farmed for cotton years ago and the soil appears to have been mismanaged - no topsoil and little grows well in our garden without a lot of amending). Maybe the low quality of the grasses is inadequate for good milk production, we don't know, we're just having fun speculating at this point.
I have a question related to grass - how long does it take for a cow to turn green grass into white milk? I see various answers to that online but haven't found a rigorous answer. Is it 2 days? Less, more? I'd love to learn how we know the answer to that also (who studies this sort of thing, where can you find those studies?)
Something special about me - I grew up (during my high school years) next door (across the river actually) from Joann Grohman. Her youngest son, Martin, was a bud of mine (still is). You would think I would have paid close attention to the wisdom Joann had to offer but the truth is, while I did develop a love for fresh milk & Joann's butter, I didn't pay as much attention as I wish I had. I guess the ancient saying is true - a prophet has no honor in her hometown. I sure do honor her now and my children are reading her book at my urging. Her wisdom will live on in our family.
From browsing this forum, I can already tell you have some of the best and brightest here. I hope you can put up with my rookie questions from time to time.
Sure do look forward to hanging around here.
Pete from Soggy Bottoms Farm
Our family is in Newborn, GA & we've recently thrown ourselves in the deep end of the pool (of cow keeping).
We have friends who owned a 60 cow dairy (they sold raw milk) and just sold their operation. We purchased a 3 year old Jersey from them 2 weeks ago.
We named her "Summer School" (the children had just finished their school year when we brought her home and my wife told them "This is your Summer School." And oh, it has been!
She's a gentle cow - good around our younger children. She lets us close and licks me like I'm her own.
SS came to us on her due date and one week ago she had a bull calf - an Angus cross. He's a sweet thing (and I understand will be even sweeter when it comes time for eating him). For now, we are keeping him on her some of the day and separating them part of the day. Haven't decided how we are going to manage him longer term - we've read up on the trials of keeping a calf with Mama - seems like opinions vary widely about how to manage a calf.
We are trying rotational grazing. We learned of the method from Shawn and Beth Dougherty (don't have the pleasure of knowing them but have their book and have watched them on YouTube).
Our experience so far -
My wife & I argued more in the first week we had SS than we had argued in the previous year. The second week has been much better, primarily because I am working on repenting : ) Turns out this cow is a sanctification tool - brings out stuff in me I didn't know I needed to work on.
We've been pasture milking and it hasn't been half bad. It's a family activity, we chase her around the pasture together (actually she stands still two-thirds of the time, it ain't so bad). We built a stanchion but haven't trained her to it yet (may start today). Right now, we pen the calf for the night (and for a few hours before evening milking) and she lets down for the calf and we get what we get (about 2 gallons a day). We are experimenting with how to get more but are content with 2 gallons for now. We think our pasture grasses are not super great (we live on a site that was farmed for cotton years ago and the soil appears to have been mismanaged - no topsoil and little grows well in our garden without a lot of amending). Maybe the low quality of the grasses is inadequate for good milk production, we don't know, we're just having fun speculating at this point.
I have a question related to grass - how long does it take for a cow to turn green grass into white milk? I see various answers to that online but haven't found a rigorous answer. Is it 2 days? Less, more? I'd love to learn how we know the answer to that also (who studies this sort of thing, where can you find those studies?)
Something special about me - I grew up (during my high school years) next door (across the river actually) from Joann Grohman. Her youngest son, Martin, was a bud of mine (still is). You would think I would have paid close attention to the wisdom Joann had to offer but the truth is, while I did develop a love for fresh milk & Joann's butter, I didn't pay as much attention as I wish I had. I guess the ancient saying is true - a prophet has no honor in her hometown. I sure do honor her now and my children are reading her book at my urging. Her wisdom will live on in our family.
From browsing this forum, I can already tell you have some of the best and brightest here. I hope you can put up with my rookie questions from time to time.
Sure do look forward to hanging around here.
Pete from Soggy Bottoms Farm