Post by RachelK on Mar 29, 2007 21:24:00 GMT -5
Hey all, great to be on the forum. I love it already, such a wealth of info at my fingertips.
We are a growing family of 6 so far in rural Missouri, near Gainesville. My husband and I moved here from Wisconsin almost 9 years ago. We will be married for 10 years this November and have 3 boys ages 9, 8, and 3; and a little girl that is 20 months old. We have a small farm on a piece of property that we share with my husband's two sisters/families and his parents.
We got our first cow, a Dexter heifer last Feb. but she is going to have a new home next week. She was so skiddish I thought we would never get close enough to work with her. We bought her without really thinking about our needs/wants in a cow but she was the right price at the right time. So this winter we started looking for a Jersey cow. We really like Dexters but need the milk quantity that a Jersey can give. So in January we listed "Chocolate" our Dexter for sale to fund our new purchase. Keep in mind, we were only looking for one cow!!
So in Feb. this year we found a Jersey not too far away that was for sale, the sellers were reluctant to sell to begin with and ended up backing out. We couldn't seem to find another Jersey in our price range so started looking towards a Dexter breeder only 20 minutes away. We picked one out that was in milk, and been milked before and had her set for delivery the end of Feb when all of the sudden we hooked up with woodwfe on the Homesteading Today forum and brought home "Sally", who is hopefully going to be a momma in about 9.5 months. She was just AI'd on Monday. We wanted one already in milk but she was the right price and she was close by so we were willing to wait for milk.
So now we had three cows and Lo and Behold here comes the first seller asking us again if we wanted "Heart" (Our Jersey in Milk). We just couldn't pass it up, a good price and a great cow. So I went cow crazy this spring and instead of bringing our herd up to 2 we are now at 4. Two Jerseys and two Dexters.
"Chocolate" really came around after having company and now I can't keep her off of me. She is getting really close and I use to feed her in the same barn stall I milked our other Dexter in until the morning she was in heat and mounted the one I was milking and knocked me clear across the barn. Needless to say I am new at this and have learned my lesson. But now that she is tamer she was more desirable and she is getting a new home. I would have kept her now that she has calmed down some but Momma needs a new washing machine, in a bad way!! ;D
Anyway that is my crazy story of how wanting one cow turned into four. Oh... did I forget to mention that I bought a bull calf today too! I have COW FEVER. Our Dexter can be tempermental at milking times so we wanted to graft the calf onto her and just milked the Jersey.
Thanks for ready my long rant!!
Rachel K
We are a growing family of 6 so far in rural Missouri, near Gainesville. My husband and I moved here from Wisconsin almost 9 years ago. We will be married for 10 years this November and have 3 boys ages 9, 8, and 3; and a little girl that is 20 months old. We have a small farm on a piece of property that we share with my husband's two sisters/families and his parents.
We got our first cow, a Dexter heifer last Feb. but she is going to have a new home next week. She was so skiddish I thought we would never get close enough to work with her. We bought her without really thinking about our needs/wants in a cow but she was the right price at the right time. So this winter we started looking for a Jersey cow. We really like Dexters but need the milk quantity that a Jersey can give. So in January we listed "Chocolate" our Dexter for sale to fund our new purchase. Keep in mind, we were only looking for one cow!!
So in Feb. this year we found a Jersey not too far away that was for sale, the sellers were reluctant to sell to begin with and ended up backing out. We couldn't seem to find another Jersey in our price range so started looking towards a Dexter breeder only 20 minutes away. We picked one out that was in milk, and been milked before and had her set for delivery the end of Feb when all of the sudden we hooked up with woodwfe on the Homesteading Today forum and brought home "Sally", who is hopefully going to be a momma in about 9.5 months. She was just AI'd on Monday. We wanted one already in milk but she was the right price and she was close by so we were willing to wait for milk.
So now we had three cows and Lo and Behold here comes the first seller asking us again if we wanted "Heart" (Our Jersey in Milk). We just couldn't pass it up, a good price and a great cow. So I went cow crazy this spring and instead of bringing our herd up to 2 we are now at 4. Two Jerseys and two Dexters.
"Chocolate" really came around after having company and now I can't keep her off of me. She is getting really close and I use to feed her in the same barn stall I milked our other Dexter in until the morning she was in heat and mounted the one I was milking and knocked me clear across the barn. Needless to say I am new at this and have learned my lesson. But now that she is tamer she was more desirable and she is getting a new home. I would have kept her now that she has calmed down some but Momma needs a new washing machine, in a bad way!! ;D
Anyway that is my crazy story of how wanting one cow turned into four. Oh... did I forget to mention that I bought a bull calf today too! I have COW FEVER. Our Dexter can be tempermental at milking times so we wanted to graft the calf onto her and just milked the Jersey.
Thanks for ready my long rant!!
Rachel K