Post by Mitra on Oct 4, 2009 10:51:08 GMT -5
A little over a month ago, Cara (Moomaine) posted in the Auction Barn that she had two cows for sale. One was a registered 4-year-old Jersey and one was a 15 month old 4-H heifer who also happens to be Helen's granddaughter. I had NOT been planning on getting a new cow but these posts were like bolts of lightning!
Helen was down to giving us a mere 3/4 gallon/day (barely enough for the house), is in the 24th month of this lactation, and may or may not be bred. Meanwhile, I have 150 broiler chicks that I'm selling as milk-fed poultry and three piglets that I need milk for. I had been getting lots of wonderful clabber from Joann's cow Jasmine but that was about to come to an end with drying her off for the next calf, due in early November. I was facing a huge milk shortage and saw these two posts.
For sentimental reasons, I thought it would be wonderful to have Helen's granddaughter, especially since she was a well trained, well mannered heifer. But I was going to have to wait for milk for a long time and I needed it NOW. Cara's other cow, Nellie, was giving 6-8 gallons a day and she wanted $700 for her. It was a no-brainer.
Cara said she was very sweet, her best milker, sent me pics, and it was a done deal! One of the reasons she had to sell her is that she runs an organic operation and Nellie had had pneumonia in July which required antibiotics. She wasn't going to be able to sell her milk any longer. Nellie is also a three-teater. I told Cara, that I didn't care how many spigots there were if I was going to be getting that much milk. So we started making plans to get her over here. It took a month of planning because neither she nor I had a trailer.
My sister-in-law Marcia does have a beautiful horse trailer and she is an expert trailer-backer-upper and tower. So we found the date that would work for all of us and that happened to be last Wednesday as Joann described in this week's iteration of Heifer Diary.
Cara asked me if I might also want a bull calf (for free). ummmm yes! Cara's cow Emily (Helen's daughter whom she purchased a couple three years ago) had a bull calf about a month ago and she was really holding up for the calf so Cara wanted him outta there!
So on Wednesday we went to Cara's farm and with Joann's expert cowmanship help and Marcia's expert trailer maneuvering we got Nellie and the calf loaded onto the trailer. Nellie is such a tiny cow compared to Helen! Such dainty little ankles! Helen looks like a moose compared to Nellie! And the teat size difference! I can clasp my entire hand around Helen's teats and there's still about a half inch of teat that pokes out from the bottom of my hand. Nellie teats are about an inch long and would definitely require thumb and index finger milking if I was hand milking her. I can't believe it when I have to use those two fingers to strip her after she's been machine milked.
Thank goodness Joann stayed after the cow unloading, to help me milk Nellie. I am borrowing Joann's Surge milker (exactly the machine Nellie is used to) until I get my own machine from Willie (BissyandBessie)! I had never used a milking machine before and would have been completely lost without Joann's help. We managed to milk about 2.5 gallons that evening.
When we unloaded the calf from the trailer he had a foamy milk mustache so he wasn't shy about calming his nerves on the ride by sampling from Nellie. We have named him Bo Diddley. He's very cute and spunky. We had to drag him from the trailer to his stall. He learned quickly about the calf bottle and is now consuming about 1.5 - 2 gallons of milk a day from the bottle. A couple days ago, I tried him on Helen per Joann's suggestion that I could cut out two chores by putting them together - milking Helen and bottle feeding him. It went okay for him but Helen was so upset by this that I decided it was too much for the old gal to deal with, even if he is her grandson.
We kept Nellie locked in her stall until yesterday when she was given access to the barnyard. I was sure that Helen was going to show her that she was boss but it didn't happen. Nellie is a very curious and friendly cow but any time she gets close to Helen, Helen is compelled to travel in the opposite direction to get as far away from her as she can. I would NEVER have guessed this. Yesterday she even acted a bit mopey. Joann said Helen was probably thinking, "What? I wasn't good enough?"
After milking Nellie last night, I decided to lock her back in her stall overnight so that Helen could come into the barn and rest if she needed to. The weather was foul, a cold pouring rain all night long and I could see that if I hadn't locked Nellie up, Helen may have stayed out of the barn all night to avoid her. When I checked on them last night, Helen was in her stall chewing cud as was Nellie, right next door.
Today we let them both out of the barnyard and Helen took off to the farthest corner of the fenced area with Nellie right on her heels. Nellie has since stopped following her and they have resumed their opposite corners stance.
Bo has yet to come out of the barn but maybe this week when the weather improves.
I promise to post pictures in the next couple of days.
Helen was down to giving us a mere 3/4 gallon/day (barely enough for the house), is in the 24th month of this lactation, and may or may not be bred. Meanwhile, I have 150 broiler chicks that I'm selling as milk-fed poultry and three piglets that I need milk for. I had been getting lots of wonderful clabber from Joann's cow Jasmine but that was about to come to an end with drying her off for the next calf, due in early November. I was facing a huge milk shortage and saw these two posts.
For sentimental reasons, I thought it would be wonderful to have Helen's granddaughter, especially since she was a well trained, well mannered heifer. But I was going to have to wait for milk for a long time and I needed it NOW. Cara's other cow, Nellie, was giving 6-8 gallons a day and she wanted $700 for her. It was a no-brainer.
Cara said she was very sweet, her best milker, sent me pics, and it was a done deal! One of the reasons she had to sell her is that she runs an organic operation and Nellie had had pneumonia in July which required antibiotics. She wasn't going to be able to sell her milk any longer. Nellie is also a three-teater. I told Cara, that I didn't care how many spigots there were if I was going to be getting that much milk. So we started making plans to get her over here. It took a month of planning because neither she nor I had a trailer.
My sister-in-law Marcia does have a beautiful horse trailer and she is an expert trailer-backer-upper and tower. So we found the date that would work for all of us and that happened to be last Wednesday as Joann described in this week's iteration of Heifer Diary.
Cara asked me if I might also want a bull calf (for free). ummmm yes! Cara's cow Emily (Helen's daughter whom she purchased a couple three years ago) had a bull calf about a month ago and she was really holding up for the calf so Cara wanted him outta there!
So on Wednesday we went to Cara's farm and with Joann's expert cowmanship help and Marcia's expert trailer maneuvering we got Nellie and the calf loaded onto the trailer. Nellie is such a tiny cow compared to Helen! Such dainty little ankles! Helen looks like a moose compared to Nellie! And the teat size difference! I can clasp my entire hand around Helen's teats and there's still about a half inch of teat that pokes out from the bottom of my hand. Nellie teats are about an inch long and would definitely require thumb and index finger milking if I was hand milking her. I can't believe it when I have to use those two fingers to strip her after she's been machine milked.
Thank goodness Joann stayed after the cow unloading, to help me milk Nellie. I am borrowing Joann's Surge milker (exactly the machine Nellie is used to) until I get my own machine from Willie (BissyandBessie)! I had never used a milking machine before and would have been completely lost without Joann's help. We managed to milk about 2.5 gallons that evening.
When we unloaded the calf from the trailer he had a foamy milk mustache so he wasn't shy about calming his nerves on the ride by sampling from Nellie. We have named him Bo Diddley. He's very cute and spunky. We had to drag him from the trailer to his stall. He learned quickly about the calf bottle and is now consuming about 1.5 - 2 gallons of milk a day from the bottle. A couple days ago, I tried him on Helen per Joann's suggestion that I could cut out two chores by putting them together - milking Helen and bottle feeding him. It went okay for him but Helen was so upset by this that I decided it was too much for the old gal to deal with, even if he is her grandson.
We kept Nellie locked in her stall until yesterday when she was given access to the barnyard. I was sure that Helen was going to show her that she was boss but it didn't happen. Nellie is a very curious and friendly cow but any time she gets close to Helen, Helen is compelled to travel in the opposite direction to get as far away from her as she can. I would NEVER have guessed this. Yesterday she even acted a bit mopey. Joann said Helen was probably thinking, "What? I wasn't good enough?"
After milking Nellie last night, I decided to lock her back in her stall overnight so that Helen could come into the barn and rest if she needed to. The weather was foul, a cold pouring rain all night long and I could see that if I hadn't locked Nellie up, Helen may have stayed out of the barn all night to avoid her. When I checked on them last night, Helen was in her stall chewing cud as was Nellie, right next door.
Today we let them both out of the barnyard and Helen took off to the farthest corner of the fenced area with Nellie right on her heels. Nellie has since stopped following her and they have resumed their opposite corners stance.
Bo has yet to come out of the barn but maybe this week when the weather improves.
I promise to post pictures in the next couple of days.