Post by thystledown on Aug 4, 2018 18:11:29 GMT -5
Linnea the Guernsey is sold. An amazing set of circumstances culminated in her heading down the road right this minute. Many of you know I struggled with Linnea through the winter. I regretted buying this big, clumsy, grain consuming mega-cow who didn’t like my hay, wouldn’t eat pelleted grain, and scared me she was going to fall on the snowy ground. Such a beautiful animal with a lovely temperament. She loves calves and fostered so easily. I made the best cheese of my whole dairy experience with her milk this past year. Nice to have sooooo much milk when making cheese! But she continued to lose condition this summer on grass. With the boys (born the end of December and early January) taking so much milk, I still had to give her grain. And when I didn’t milk, she didn’t get grain. If I tried to grain her without separating her from her calves and the open beef heifer living with her (to help detect heats), she didn’t get much grain. So I told her breeder I was thinking about selling her if he came across a good home.
A couple months later I happened to go onto one of the guernsey fb pages just to see price ranges on Guernsey cows. While there I saw a post by a woman who’s cow went down with milk fever and wasn’t staying up even though the vet couldn’t find a problem. She was getting lots of advice and technical questions. I felt sorry for her and told her the story of one of the cows who went down on our farm when I was a kid and could stand and walk as long as my little 5’2” mother was holding her neck chain. As soon as mom let go, the cow would fall down. Now my little mother was not holding the cow up. She didn’t even actually have to hold the chain. The cow just had to think mom had a hold of the chain. We had to put that cow down. We could not overcome her psychological conviction that she could not stand or walk un-aided. Heart-breaking and a real financial hit on our small farm. A few days after posting that I got a pm that they had had to put their cow down too. I reassured her that this happens and is part of having cows.
Later I got a surprised comment that she’d just been given my name as maybe having a Guernsey for sale. She and her husband own Linnea’s mother and half sister. The breeder sent me their name too. They bottle and sell their own milk and have found the Guernsey’s perfect for their setup and are trading out Holsteins for Guernseys as they can. Linnea was raised by her mother and lived with her and this half sister until they were sold to these folks. She’s going to live with them again!! You know she will remember them. It hasn’t been a whole year. Dam raised cows do remember their mothers. I gave them a good price and they drove 5 hours to get her. I feel confident they know what they are getting with their experience with her relatives.
Think of the odds. I rarely go on the Guernsey fb sites. I don’t think I’ve ever posted on one before. I happened to see the post about the down cow and shared my childhood experience to comfort the owner. That person happens to own the mother of my cow and is in need of a new cow. Happy endings like that have to be orchestrated by God. And yes, I am going to miss her! My 78 year old mother took care of her for a week when we went to pick up the kids from college and loved her. We generally don’t let mom take care of the cows or horses because she could get hurt at this stage in life. But we did not worry about Linnea and neither did she. She really enjoyed her and had to go into the pasture to care for her—and always spent time scratching and petting her. Heiferlump our Jersey is due to freshen in September.
A couple months later I happened to go onto one of the guernsey fb pages just to see price ranges on Guernsey cows. While there I saw a post by a woman who’s cow went down with milk fever and wasn’t staying up even though the vet couldn’t find a problem. She was getting lots of advice and technical questions. I felt sorry for her and told her the story of one of the cows who went down on our farm when I was a kid and could stand and walk as long as my little 5’2” mother was holding her neck chain. As soon as mom let go, the cow would fall down. Now my little mother was not holding the cow up. She didn’t even actually have to hold the chain. The cow just had to think mom had a hold of the chain. We had to put that cow down. We could not overcome her psychological conviction that she could not stand or walk un-aided. Heart-breaking and a real financial hit on our small farm. A few days after posting that I got a pm that they had had to put their cow down too. I reassured her that this happens and is part of having cows.
Later I got a surprised comment that she’d just been given my name as maybe having a Guernsey for sale. She and her husband own Linnea’s mother and half sister. The breeder sent me their name too. They bottle and sell their own milk and have found the Guernsey’s perfect for their setup and are trading out Holsteins for Guernseys as they can. Linnea was raised by her mother and lived with her and this half sister until they were sold to these folks. She’s going to live with them again!! You know she will remember them. It hasn’t been a whole year. Dam raised cows do remember their mothers. I gave them a good price and they drove 5 hours to get her. I feel confident they know what they are getting with their experience with her relatives.
Think of the odds. I rarely go on the Guernsey fb sites. I don’t think I’ve ever posted on one before. I happened to see the post about the down cow and shared my childhood experience to comfort the owner. That person happens to own the mother of my cow and is in need of a new cow. Happy endings like that have to be orchestrated by God. And yes, I am going to miss her! My 78 year old mother took care of her for a week when we went to pick up the kids from college and loved her. We generally don’t let mom take care of the cows or horses because she could get hurt at this stage in life. But we did not worry about Linnea and neither did she. She really enjoyed her and had to go into the pasture to care for her—and always spent time scratching and petting her. Heiferlump our Jersey is due to freshen in September.