Post by barefootfarmer on Dec 11, 2017 10:40:54 GMT -5
There's nothing like jumping right back in with both feet! Last spring I decided to end my milk sales and milk for just my family. That was a great decision for our family and I never looked back. Then in July I decided to dry off my last milk cow a few months earlier than planned. I was in the process of selling a house, opening a floral/produce retail shop and deciding this would be the last year I'd offer a produce CSA. Lots of changes for our family and farm.
Things stayed busy- just in new ways and I didn't breed back any of my milk cows on my normal schedule. My bull was butchered and I hadn't gotten around to replacing him. I was looking at a very long dry season and was disappointed that I was going to go another winter without making cheese. Until November when the family who I had purchased my holstein Nelly from two years ago called to say her daughter Ella was due to calve at the end of December and would I like to buy her back? Yes! Ella arrived a week ago and on the very day she showed up Nelly showed some discharge. I was thankful I'd decided to buy Ella because if Nelly was in heat it meant I would have gone so much longer without milk. A week later, and Nelly blew up like a tank and is making a bag! I poured over my records and it's obvious I wasn't doing a good job keeping them- I had Nelly slated for a March calving on one sheet and an early Feb on a second sheet. The milk test I had sent in that would have given her a December due date had come back as "open". I know I was being pulled in so many directions over the summer that I just wasn't paying attention to details. And since I wasn't milking any cows, I wasn't picking up on cues the way you do when you see them twice a day. My husband had taken over the feeding etc and doesn't have the same eye as I have.
So- it appears that I will be experiencing a true abundance of milk in the very near future. My cheese press will be working over time and I might even raise a couple of extra pigs. It did take some work on my part to convince my husband that I truly didn't plan this- I really wouldn't have purchased Ella if I'd been more on top of my record keeping. However, he's quite fond of sausage and with all of the extra milk- there will be a lot of tasty sausage in his future
Things stayed busy- just in new ways and I didn't breed back any of my milk cows on my normal schedule. My bull was butchered and I hadn't gotten around to replacing him. I was looking at a very long dry season and was disappointed that I was going to go another winter without making cheese. Until November when the family who I had purchased my holstein Nelly from two years ago called to say her daughter Ella was due to calve at the end of December and would I like to buy her back? Yes! Ella arrived a week ago and on the very day she showed up Nelly showed some discharge. I was thankful I'd decided to buy Ella because if Nelly was in heat it meant I would have gone so much longer without milk. A week later, and Nelly blew up like a tank and is making a bag! I poured over my records and it's obvious I wasn't doing a good job keeping them- I had Nelly slated for a March calving on one sheet and an early Feb on a second sheet. The milk test I had sent in that would have given her a December due date had come back as "open". I know I was being pulled in so many directions over the summer that I just wasn't paying attention to details. And since I wasn't milking any cows, I wasn't picking up on cues the way you do when you see them twice a day. My husband had taken over the feeding etc and doesn't have the same eye as I have.
So- it appears that I will be experiencing a true abundance of milk in the very near future. My cheese press will be working over time and I might even raise a couple of extra pigs. It did take some work on my part to convince my husband that I truly didn't plan this- I really wouldn't have purchased Ella if I'd been more on top of my record keeping. However, he's quite fond of sausage and with all of the extra milk- there will be a lot of tasty sausage in his future