Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2007 20:05:17 GMT -5
Hello everyone,
To introduce myself, our family, me. husband, and five grown sons, moved to a farm in Maine from Pennsylvania in early July. We became owners of two Jerseys- Anna who we think is about six, and her calf, Aster who is now 13 months. Our two oldest boys became the caretakers of Anna and Aster and do all the milking too. I am the cheesemaker.
We had quite a time getting Anna rebred. The previous owners had had the AI guy out twice and we had him out three more times and think she has finally taken and will be due in June. She was not getting minerals and the soil of the pastures and also both cows on hairtest tested low phosphorus. We told that to a good farmer friend and he immediately said, "then the egg won't stick to the uterus." She doesn't like the minerals and is very talented at leaving them behind while eating all of her grain. After much trial and error, we soak beet pulp overnight and then mix the minerals with it and Anna can't pick it out. She has become more lively, though she is a wonderfully mannered cow. After three months of minerals, we think the breeding took. Aster will lick up anything the boys put down for her, so she gets minerals too. We had never had anything bigger than a chicken, so this has been quite and adventure and we are grateful that Anna is so easy to work with. Aster is an October baby and had been in the barn all winter. She was not fence trained or trained to be led, so we had quite a rodeo for a while. She definitely minds one of the boys better than the other, but is very good now. She figured out really quickly that if they were leading her, it meant she was going to get some grain. Looking forward to learning more about cows. I'm betting that we will go through some fun when Aster is ready to be milked.
LJ
To introduce myself, our family, me. husband, and five grown sons, moved to a farm in Maine from Pennsylvania in early July. We became owners of two Jerseys- Anna who we think is about six, and her calf, Aster who is now 13 months. Our two oldest boys became the caretakers of Anna and Aster and do all the milking too. I am the cheesemaker.
We had quite a time getting Anna rebred. The previous owners had had the AI guy out twice and we had him out three more times and think she has finally taken and will be due in June. She was not getting minerals and the soil of the pastures and also both cows on hairtest tested low phosphorus. We told that to a good farmer friend and he immediately said, "then the egg won't stick to the uterus." She doesn't like the minerals and is very talented at leaving them behind while eating all of her grain. After much trial and error, we soak beet pulp overnight and then mix the minerals with it and Anna can't pick it out. She has become more lively, though she is a wonderfully mannered cow. After three months of minerals, we think the breeding took. Aster will lick up anything the boys put down for her, so she gets minerals too. We had never had anything bigger than a chicken, so this has been quite and adventure and we are grateful that Anna is so easy to work with. Aster is an October baby and had been in the barn all winter. She was not fence trained or trained to be led, so we had quite a rodeo for a while. She definitely minds one of the boys better than the other, but is very good now. She figured out really quickly that if they were leading her, it meant she was going to get some grain. Looking forward to learning more about cows. I'm betting that we will go through some fun when Aster is ready to be milked.
LJ