Sara is weaning her heifer herself!
Feb 17, 2014 15:50:50 GMT -5
simplynaturalfarm and blaithin like this
Post by hoperefuge on Feb 17, 2014 15:50:50 GMT -5
The end of last week I was starting to suspect, but now I'm quite sure of it. I was planning to wait until March when Tundra will be 8 mo. old, and the weather warms up a bit, to separate them, but apparently Sara has other plans. What a good old cow!
Last week Sara came in (to the parlor for her snack in the morning) with her udder increasingly full a couple days in a row. And Tundra had started regularly coming down to the barn in the evenings. The little stinker has figured out where there are low spots in the ground that she can duck under the fence without getting zapped, so she comes down to the hay room in the barn to have a private munch-fest. She's such a sweet darling though, I can hardly get angry with her. So I've been penning her, after finding her in the hay room, in either the stall or the corral overnight & letting her back out in the pasture in the morning.
Anyway, the one morning Sara's udder was quite full & hard, and a couple hours after turning Tundra back out with her, she still hadn't nursed. But then the next morning we had an empty udder, so I thought maybe she wasn't actually weaning her after all. But yesterday, Sara's udder was partly full again, and I saw her driving Tundra away when she tried to nurse after I turned her back out. And this morning her udder was twice as full as yesterday, so I don't think poor Tundra had any milk yesterday. They just now all came back down the mountain for water & mineral so I ran out quick & checked, and yep, Sara's udder is still quite full. It will be interesting (to me anyway) to see if Sara lets Tundra empty her out again or not.
It certainly makes for a nice, gradual, stress-free weaning anyway...and no frustration on my part! I really do feel sorry for those of you who have such trouble getting heifers weaned. Instead of trying to keep them separated and the cow & calf bellowing & trying to get back together, I have the cow weaning herself and the heifer getting out of the pasture to go spend the night in the barn. It's so backwards it's ridiculous! But it's my "happy thought" today. I love my Dexter girls!
Kim
Last week Sara came in (to the parlor for her snack in the morning) with her udder increasingly full a couple days in a row. And Tundra had started regularly coming down to the barn in the evenings. The little stinker has figured out where there are low spots in the ground that she can duck under the fence without getting zapped, so she comes down to the hay room in the barn to have a private munch-fest. She's such a sweet darling though, I can hardly get angry with her. So I've been penning her, after finding her in the hay room, in either the stall or the corral overnight & letting her back out in the pasture in the morning.
Anyway, the one morning Sara's udder was quite full & hard, and a couple hours after turning Tundra back out with her, she still hadn't nursed. But then the next morning we had an empty udder, so I thought maybe she wasn't actually weaning her after all. But yesterday, Sara's udder was partly full again, and I saw her driving Tundra away when she tried to nurse after I turned her back out. And this morning her udder was twice as full as yesterday, so I don't think poor Tundra had any milk yesterday. They just now all came back down the mountain for water & mineral so I ran out quick & checked, and yep, Sara's udder is still quite full. It will be interesting (to me anyway) to see if Sara lets Tundra empty her out again or not.
It certainly makes for a nice, gradual, stress-free weaning anyway...and no frustration on my part! I really do feel sorry for those of you who have such trouble getting heifers weaned. Instead of trying to keep them separated and the cow & calf bellowing & trying to get back together, I have the cow weaning herself and the heifer getting out of the pasture to go spend the night in the barn. It's so backwards it's ridiculous! But it's my "happy thought" today. I love my Dexter girls!
Kim