Post by devonmilker on Oct 14, 2009 19:54:03 GMT -5
We've been preparing for this day for over a year now. Today we finally milked our 6 year old milking Devon cow, Betty. She calved last week and we let Otis (bull calf) get all the colostrum and new milk. We held off until today, not sure if she would leave her calf in the field to come up to the barn to be milked. Prior to her calving, we had worked on training her to come up into a stanchion, which she did just fine. Now that she had a calf to worry about, we weren't sure what she'd do.
So tonight, Betty was at the field gate, anxious to get to the barn, and when we opened it up, she literally RAN to the barn - not far, only 30-40 yards or so. I barely had time to get the stanchion open before she was in the barn!!
I was concerned that she might have a problem with one of her quarters, since it looked more swollen than the others and thought she might have a clogged teat. There are some teeth marks/cuts on this one and she may be kicking Otis off that quarter, although we haven't witnessed that. As it turned out, everything is fine, just a different shape than the others. I was able to express it without any problems. What's more exciting (since WE had never milked her before) was that she stood stock still, eating her alfalfa pellets while I applied hot towels to her udder and then milked her. She is such a gem!! Since we were mainly checking her quarter out, we didn't make provision to collect any milk, so the little that I got out of her went onto the barn floor. So tomorrow, we will bring her up to the barn and collect our first raw milk to drink!! Tonight we broke out and washed all the milking pails, strainers, and filters we've had for over a year now!
This was my first official milking of a cow, so I am now officially a GENUINE COUNTRY BOY!! ('bout time after 54 years!) Ain't life great!
Rich
So tonight, Betty was at the field gate, anxious to get to the barn, and when we opened it up, she literally RAN to the barn - not far, only 30-40 yards or so. I barely had time to get the stanchion open before she was in the barn!!
I was concerned that she might have a problem with one of her quarters, since it looked more swollen than the others and thought she might have a clogged teat. There are some teeth marks/cuts on this one and she may be kicking Otis off that quarter, although we haven't witnessed that. As it turned out, everything is fine, just a different shape than the others. I was able to express it without any problems. What's more exciting (since WE had never milked her before) was that she stood stock still, eating her alfalfa pellets while I applied hot towels to her udder and then milked her. She is such a gem!! Since we were mainly checking her quarter out, we didn't make provision to collect any milk, so the little that I got out of her went onto the barn floor. So tomorrow, we will bring her up to the barn and collect our first raw milk to drink!! Tonight we broke out and washed all the milking pails, strainers, and filters we've had for over a year now!
This was my first official milking of a cow, so I am now officially a GENUINE COUNTRY BOY!! ('bout time after 54 years!) Ain't life great!
Rich