Post by pearlegirl on Jan 1, 2010 9:01:57 GMT -5
Happy New Year everyone! A new year and a new idea is brewing. Thanks to those who commented and helped me last week as the three month old calf started chewing up Pearl. All of that got me to doing some evaluation so I am starting a new thread to get your thoughts.
Milking once a day has been a good thing. With four your children whom we homeschool, a farm/house to keep, and a husband who works a lot, this was really all I could manage and do it well. Truth be told though, I am worn out and having some health problems (it's been a rough year for our fam) and the cold air is causing me some asthma-type symptoms, which is new and I don't like it. So with this new year, I need to take better care of myself. So here is my plan...
Send Pearl and her calf (who wants all of her milk anyway) to the bull farm for breeding (friends w/ beautiful devon bull, whom we have used now for 3 years...go Devons!), take two months off and miss most of the bitter cold weather, bring them back in beginning of March, wean the calf, and start milking again, hopefully once a day. What do you think?
I did not seperate the calf last night as I wanted this morning off. I thought I would keep them together here a week or so until her milk adjusts and then send them. Will I need to milk her a bit to keep her comfortable the next couple of days? I don't want to make her make more milk, but keep her comfortable. And I certainly don't want mastitiis.
This is hard for me as I don't like to give up...so I am not going to look at it that way... I just need to get healthy and slow down, enjoy the kids more.....you all know what I mean.
Thanks for listening...look forward to some honest opinions.. Again, Happy New Year!
Dawn
Milking once a day has been a good thing. With four your children whom we homeschool, a farm/house to keep, and a husband who works a lot, this was really all I could manage and do it well. Truth be told though, I am worn out and having some health problems (it's been a rough year for our fam) and the cold air is causing me some asthma-type symptoms, which is new and I don't like it. So with this new year, I need to take better care of myself. So here is my plan...
Send Pearl and her calf (who wants all of her milk anyway) to the bull farm for breeding (friends w/ beautiful devon bull, whom we have used now for 3 years...go Devons!), take two months off and miss most of the bitter cold weather, bring them back in beginning of March, wean the calf, and start milking again, hopefully once a day. What do you think?
I did not seperate the calf last night as I wanted this morning off. I thought I would keep them together here a week or so until her milk adjusts and then send them. Will I need to milk her a bit to keep her comfortable the next couple of days? I don't want to make her make more milk, but keep her comfortable. And I certainly don't want mastitiis.
This is hard for me as I don't like to give up...so I am not going to look at it that way... I just need to get healthy and slow down, enjoy the kids more.....you all know what I mean.
Thanks for listening...look forward to some honest opinions.. Again, Happy New Year!
Dawn