Post by Lannie on Feb 5, 2010 20:13:32 GMT -5
How I have missed it!
Seven has been off Bandit now for several days, except for when he jumped the fence two mornings ago and stole my morning's milk. Bad boy! But last night, which I thought was amazingly fast given the last nursing the day before, Bandit finally let go the floodgates. I'm SWIMMING in cream! It's not half a gallon per, like some of the Jerseys give, but close to a quart I think, per gallon. More than enough for me to start making butter again on a regular basis (with FRESH cream!) and anything else, like cream cheese and sour cream, too.
I can't believe how well everything is going now. Bandit's even cleaner, for some reason. She hasn't been a wetpoopycow for over a week. She comes into her stanchion, sticks her head in to eat her hay, I wipe down her almost-clean udder, and she lets her milk down. Just like that. She's even responding to my verbal commands again without me having to touch her. If she goes sideways a little bit chasing after a tasty morsel of hay, I just say, "Up ya go, Bandit," and she steps right back to me, and if her near leg is too far forward, I just say, "Foot back, honey," and she puts her foot back.
It's like magic! I don't know why all of a sudden she's being so tractable, unless it's because she's glad it's just me pulling on her teats now and not Seven? I dunno. And it's not like she wasn't tractable before, but she was usually messy, and she fussed back and forth in the stanchion frequently, going after hay or pellets that were hard to reach. Now she just stands there and rarely moves at all, and then when she does, like I said, I just give her a verbal and she re-sets herself.
I AM TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH MY COW!!!!! I guess I just wanted to brag on her a little.
~Lannie
Seven has been off Bandit now for several days, except for when he jumped the fence two mornings ago and stole my morning's milk. Bad boy! But last night, which I thought was amazingly fast given the last nursing the day before, Bandit finally let go the floodgates. I'm SWIMMING in cream! It's not half a gallon per, like some of the Jerseys give, but close to a quart I think, per gallon. More than enough for me to start making butter again on a regular basis (with FRESH cream!) and anything else, like cream cheese and sour cream, too.
I can't believe how well everything is going now. Bandit's even cleaner, for some reason. She hasn't been a wetpoopycow for over a week. She comes into her stanchion, sticks her head in to eat her hay, I wipe down her almost-clean udder, and she lets her milk down. Just like that. She's even responding to my verbal commands again without me having to touch her. If she goes sideways a little bit chasing after a tasty morsel of hay, I just say, "Up ya go, Bandit," and she steps right back to me, and if her near leg is too far forward, I just say, "Foot back, honey," and she puts her foot back.
It's like magic! I don't know why all of a sudden she's being so tractable, unless it's because she's glad it's just me pulling on her teats now and not Seven? I dunno. And it's not like she wasn't tractable before, but she was usually messy, and she fussed back and forth in the stanchion frequently, going after hay or pellets that were hard to reach. Now she just stands there and rarely moves at all, and then when she does, like I said, I just give her a verbal and she re-sets herself.
I AM TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH MY COW!!!!! I guess I just wanted to brag on her a little.
~Lannie