Post by rochellep3 on Apr 11, 2006 16:46:24 GMT -5
Hi everyone,
I found you, yeah! I am so glad. I have already been browsing a bit, and am so thrilled to see a resource like this. I am already a fan of message boards for other areas of interest, and now that our cow is here, I am no longer just interested, I am committed!
So, my name is Rochelle. I live with my husband, 3 children, inlaws, and various other people who wander in and out. I am a city girl, but since moving here we have had chickens a couple of times, and raised a couple of Angus steers for beef. I wandered across Weston Price after my son's teeth fell out at 2 years old, and now 2 years later I got up the guts to get a cow. All the other grown ups in this family have had dairy cows before-and none of them were particularly anxious to do it again, though fortunately my husband is at least willing.
We bought our cow "Rosie", nice boring first cow name, hunh! from a local Jersey farmer. He's one of the last left. She is pregnant for the third time, due a week before I am in September She was only giving 2 gallons a day, and getting fatter and fatter, and he sold her to us for $550. She said that in her first milking she gave the herd average nearly the entire time (I don't remember what the herd average was, but it was a lot more milk than I want!) She is used to machine milking, obviously, and we have been milking her by hand for the last 10 days. She went down to 2 quarts/milking, though we changed her feed this week (better hay, and different grain) and she is back up to 3 quarts/milking. We are looking to get a milking machine. Right now it is taking us a half hour together to milk her, for 3 quarts! I cannot even imagine what would happen to us if she goes back to normal when she calves, and with me 9 months pregnant! Plus we have our own business, and get around quite a bit, and would like to be able to talk the in-laws into milking her, I think we would have a better chance if we had a machine.
Even with the small amount of milk she is producing, she is still outstripping us! We have accumulated 4 gallons of milk in the fridge. We have made our own butter (sweet), and yogurt (so easy, and so good!) and are looking to try cheese next. Here in AZ we can't "sell" milk legally, but we think we've found some people who might take some off our hands. Overall she has been the perfect cow to break us in.
I do have a question. It's just got hot here in AZ and the flies are bad. She seems to be licking raw spots on her two left legs. We asked at the feed store and they sold us a block of something for her to lick, that will then kill the flies, and also an ointment to put on her that is supposed to heal the wounds, and keep the flies off. But when I read the ingredients this sounds like really nasty stuff, and I don't want it finding it's way into our milk, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions? Both for what to do about the flies, and how to help her heal.
Oh also, she is a full sized Jersey (a fat one at that!) but all the more experienced people who have seen her say she has really small teats, even that it is impossible to milk her the normal way (I myself am not intimately acquainted with what normal is ) Does anyone have any suggestions re milking machines in this situation?
Thanks for letting me join, and thanks in advance for any advice.
Rochelle
www.SlingRings.com (let me know if this is okay for my signature)
Meg 00, Peter 02, Sara 04, #4 due fall 06
Rosie-our new jersey, also due fall 06!
I found you, yeah! I am so glad. I have already been browsing a bit, and am so thrilled to see a resource like this. I am already a fan of message boards for other areas of interest, and now that our cow is here, I am no longer just interested, I am committed!
So, my name is Rochelle. I live with my husband, 3 children, inlaws, and various other people who wander in and out. I am a city girl, but since moving here we have had chickens a couple of times, and raised a couple of Angus steers for beef. I wandered across Weston Price after my son's teeth fell out at 2 years old, and now 2 years later I got up the guts to get a cow. All the other grown ups in this family have had dairy cows before-and none of them were particularly anxious to do it again, though fortunately my husband is at least willing.
We bought our cow "Rosie", nice boring first cow name, hunh! from a local Jersey farmer. He's one of the last left. She is pregnant for the third time, due a week before I am in September She was only giving 2 gallons a day, and getting fatter and fatter, and he sold her to us for $550. She said that in her first milking she gave the herd average nearly the entire time (I don't remember what the herd average was, but it was a lot more milk than I want!) She is used to machine milking, obviously, and we have been milking her by hand for the last 10 days. She went down to 2 quarts/milking, though we changed her feed this week (better hay, and different grain) and she is back up to 3 quarts/milking. We are looking to get a milking machine. Right now it is taking us a half hour together to milk her, for 3 quarts! I cannot even imagine what would happen to us if she goes back to normal when she calves, and with me 9 months pregnant! Plus we have our own business, and get around quite a bit, and would like to be able to talk the in-laws into milking her, I think we would have a better chance if we had a machine.
Even with the small amount of milk she is producing, she is still outstripping us! We have accumulated 4 gallons of milk in the fridge. We have made our own butter (sweet), and yogurt (so easy, and so good!) and are looking to try cheese next. Here in AZ we can't "sell" milk legally, but we think we've found some people who might take some off our hands. Overall she has been the perfect cow to break us in.
I do have a question. It's just got hot here in AZ and the flies are bad. She seems to be licking raw spots on her two left legs. We asked at the feed store and they sold us a block of something for her to lick, that will then kill the flies, and also an ointment to put on her that is supposed to heal the wounds, and keep the flies off. But when I read the ingredients this sounds like really nasty stuff, and I don't want it finding it's way into our milk, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions? Both for what to do about the flies, and how to help her heal.
Oh also, she is a full sized Jersey (a fat one at that!) but all the more experienced people who have seen her say she has really small teats, even that it is impossible to milk her the normal way (I myself am not intimately acquainted with what normal is ) Does anyone have any suggestions re milking machines in this situation?
Thanks for letting me join, and thanks in advance for any advice.
Rochelle
www.SlingRings.com (let me know if this is okay for my signature)
Meg 00, Peter 02, Sara 04, #4 due fall 06
Rosie-our new jersey, also due fall 06!