Post by dmbenson on Dec 30, 2011 13:25:00 GMT -5
I took a 3 day seminar a few years ago on equine reproduction and learned a ton - but by the end of it, I was absolutely amazed that equines hadn't just died out - there are SO many things that can go wrong - and even more that must go absolutely right to end up with a baby horse.
So now, I'm looking into getting my very own family cow (hope to have one by spring), and I'm reading this board almost daily - and am fairly well on my way to scaring myself to death. Now granted - a lot of what is posted on here is of the "I/My Cow has a problem, what do I do", type of thing, so the information is (I certainly hope) skewed towards the issues. I'm having only moderate success telling myself that thousands of people have had millions of cows for hundreds of years and a) the human species has managed to own, breed and milk said bovine species without killing the majority of them off through either ignorance or bad luck and b) the bovine species is still going strong,
I don't mind, and fully expect, a fairly steep learning curve, but I DON"T want to injure, or God forbid, kill a cow both (to be honest) for the cow's sake as well as the financial stake a milk cow represents. I've had animals for years and years, horses, goats (meat and milk) dogs, cats, poultry, a couple of beef heifers, and even llamas - so it's not as if I'm walking out of a studio apartment in NYC and acquiring a large, specialized animal , but frankly, I'm concerned, between the ketosis', milk fevers, mastitis', the won't eats, the will eats, the creeping goombahs and the what nots.
What, can I do, besides study as much as I can (which I do for EVERYTHING I get into by the way ;D) and then just kind of jump right in and go with the flow? There really isn't anywhere I can go, (that I know of) where i can get the small farm, single cow, hands on experience with some of these issues that I'd really like to have before bringing a Bossy home.
I guess what I'm asking - if you've gotten this far (warned you I'd ramble) is if issues are the 'norm' or the exceptions? Do y'all for the most part have your cow(s), milk her, breed her, feed her, love her, care for her and toddle along for years without any major (life threatening) problems, or are milking cows really the hot house flowers that sometimes they appear to be?
So now, I'm looking into getting my very own family cow (hope to have one by spring), and I'm reading this board almost daily - and am fairly well on my way to scaring myself to death. Now granted - a lot of what is posted on here is of the "I/My Cow has a problem, what do I do", type of thing, so the information is (I certainly hope) skewed towards the issues. I'm having only moderate success telling myself that thousands of people have had millions of cows for hundreds of years and a) the human species has managed to own, breed and milk said bovine species without killing the majority of them off through either ignorance or bad luck and b) the bovine species is still going strong,
I don't mind, and fully expect, a fairly steep learning curve, but I DON"T want to injure, or God forbid, kill a cow both (to be honest) for the cow's sake as well as the financial stake a milk cow represents. I've had animals for years and years, horses, goats (meat and milk) dogs, cats, poultry, a couple of beef heifers, and even llamas - so it's not as if I'm walking out of a studio apartment in NYC and acquiring a large, specialized animal , but frankly, I'm concerned, between the ketosis', milk fevers, mastitis', the won't eats, the will eats, the creeping goombahs and the what nots.
What, can I do, besides study as much as I can (which I do for EVERYTHING I get into by the way ;D) and then just kind of jump right in and go with the flow? There really isn't anywhere I can go, (that I know of) where i can get the small farm, single cow, hands on experience with some of these issues that I'd really like to have before bringing a Bossy home.
I guess what I'm asking - if you've gotten this far (warned you I'd ramble) is if issues are the 'norm' or the exceptions? Do y'all for the most part have your cow(s), milk her, breed her, feed her, love her, care for her and toddle along for years without any major (life threatening) problems, or are milking cows really the hot house flowers that sometimes they appear to be?