Cow Herd Growing Strong
Not everyone wants a milk cow in their backyard but they sure would love some fresh raw milk. Here’s the latest in the barnyard gossip.
HAIRDOO
Hairdoo joined our herd earlier this year. She wasn’t even 2 years old and already had a calf. She also only has 3 working teets. (cows normally have 4)
A few weeks after she arrived we successfully got her bred. She will be blessing us with a calf next January. She hasn’t been giving much milk and as soon as Daphne gets on the milk line I’m going to let her dry up and spend some time growing up and caring for the new baby inside her.
I personally don’t think that cows should be bred until they are 2 years old so that they have time to build a proper bone mass. But in the dairy industry where the average age of a cow is 4 years old, they have to take advantage of everything they can, and a heifer in the field costs money where a cow in the stall makes it.
Hairdoo has been getting some extra love lately. As the apples are hitting the ground she’s been allowed to wander the orchard and back yard after her morning milking. I often wonder if her milk tastes different from the others because of all the fruit she’s getting.
DAPHNE
After a 2 month rest, Daphne has finally had her calf. She’ll spend the next couple of weeks adjusting to her new milk. The first 48 hours she produces colostrum. Then she’ll start producing milk.
It’s important that we pay close attention to her getting infections at this time. We will test the milk daily until we get the numbers we’re looking for and the milk is safe for human consumption.
Until then she’ll be feeding her calf plus another calf named Bat. For the next 30 days, we’ll carefully watch her because she can go into Ketosis or get milk fever from producing so much milk.
BAT
We introduced a new calf to our farm. His name is Bat. He was on the ranch and got an eye infection in both eyes. By the time he was found he was almost completely blind. He was walking around in circles.
We had the vet out and in a month’s time, we had his sight back. He has about 80% vision in one eye and the other is about 20%. As he gets older and his eyes heal he’ll get better vision.
We decided to tie him out one day so he could get some fresh green grass. He got tied up with his rope and ended up tearing a tendon in his back leg.
The vet said he’ll be ok but it will take 6 months to get it back to normal. In the meantime, he’s on some painkillers, and at each feeding, we rub his leg down. He’ll be a very tame steer when he grows up.
HipHop
This guy is getting big. I haven’t spent as much time as I’d like with him. He’s warming up a little each day. He’s also starting to become a little sh*thead. Anytime we need to get one of the other calves into the stall, he’ll block the stall and won’t let the calves in. I’m learning patiance with this one.
I’m going to halter break him along with the other calves this fall. I have a feeling he’s going to be the biggest challenge. I’ll keep ya updated on this guy.
SnowFlake
This little guy is growing by the inches each day. He eats like a horse too. I’ve finally been able to pet him but only if I have food. He’s not shy about coming up to me but we’ll see how that goes after he get’s the halter on.
I might have a buyer for him as a bull. This would be wonderful and he’ll get a few more years here on earth then if he becomes a steer.
Newbie Doobie
This cute little man was born to Daphne. He came into this world fistey. We’ve been socializing him and working with him each day to gental him.
The vet came out a couple days after he was born and gave him some vitamins and castrated him. His 1st 2 weeks of life are the riskeist so we want to make sure he’s get’s a clean bill of health.
I’m excited to see him grow.
