From Spiral Garden
For awhile, we've been wanting a house cow. We have lots of grass and lots of water and we love fresh raw milk from Jersey cows. Recently I heard of a farmer who was changing to only bigger breeds of cattle and selling off his handful of Jersey milkers. I got a farmer friend to help me choose a sound animal and waited to find a foster calf for her.
This is Honey, the foster calf. She came from another dairy. She was excess to their needs because she isn't of the breeding they wish to pursue in their herd. She is a Jersey heifer calf and came here at just under 2 weeks of age.
This is Lucy the cow (formerly known as 3361) getting to know her foster calf. She has never raised her own calves before as they're separated on most farms. Lucy probably didn't know her own mother cow either, but fed from a nurse cow twice a day at the dairy.
This is probably one of the first times an actual calf has suckled on Lucy. We had to tie them up so we could more easily handle them (the photos don't show all the kicking and head-butting which went on!) Honey had been feeding from a cow, though, not a bottle, so she knew what to do!
Once Honey was full, we had to milk out what remained in the udder. Lucy is used to being machine-milked in a dairy, not hand-milked in a paddock by two inexperienced milkers! At first we just milked onto the ground to give her very full udder some relief.
And then we introduced the bucket and caught some milk to take up to the house. The children lined up with cups for warm creamy milk fresh from the cow!
This is Honey a week later. She's feeding twice a day from Lucy and trying little bits of other feed too. She might be feeding more often from Lucy, but I supervise two big feeds whilst Lucy has her grain mix in a bucket and stands still for longer.
Lucy can be led to the bails now, so we're milking her out in there each afternoon, once Honey has had her fill. They still sleep together a pen each night, but Lucy is free to come and go into a larger paddock throughout the day.Lucy is in calf so will feed Honey until she weans, then probably have a couple of months' break before delivering her own calf (another heifer we hope), and so our little milking herd will grow...
12 comments:
We also have a Jersey named Lucy who is with calf and due end of January. Another new farm experience! We have raw goat milk and can't wait to have the fresh cow milk and butter...thanks for sharing.
I've been interested in getting my own cow for a while and have always wondered about this: The baby cows. I assume you have to have foster calves or have your milking cow keep having her own calves, so that she keeps lactating, but what do most people with house cows do with these once they are weened?
Cherie, we have a foster calf because we don't need all the milk which Lucy supplies. We also wanted to raise another heifer to be our future house cow.
Once Honey's weaned, Lucy will have a break then have her own calf to feed for awhile and I'll share the milk with it. We're not sure what to do if it's a bull calf. We might swap for a heifer calf from a dairy which raises them for vealers...
Then we'd have the option of trying with another foster calf, or just milking once or twice a day for our own.
In the dairy industry, cows are generally in calf again by 3 or 4 months after they last calve. I have a friend with a house cow, though, who is heading into her 3rd year of once-a-day milking (about 3 litres now, it drops down over time) and she's doing great.
There are many options for herd management and how one cares for house cows can certainly differ from how they raise dairy cows on large farms.
I guess ours will go -
* Lucy feeds Honey till Lucy's 7 months gestation.
* Dries off for 2 months.
* Has calf (who takes as much milk as she wishes for a month and we take the excess).
* We start sharing the milk more because the calf has other food (ie - we keep them apart sometimes and take the milk first, instead of last).
* Then we can choose to have her inseminated again, or give her a break and milk her till our replacement house cow is lactating. We intend to run a few dairy cows in time and perhaps raise and sell some as house cows for others.
And so it goes...
Regan Family, Lucy is a great name for a cow, isn't it? The kids also call ours Lulu.
Oh Bel, I'm still so jealous. If only we had another couple of acres! We will probably get goats at some point, but I really really want a cow!
How much milk are you getting a day while the calf is also feeding? It seems a much kinder way to do it than taking the calves away, as is done in the dairy industry.
Rinelle, we're getting a few litres a day with the one milking, but Honey will drink more and I presume Lucy's milk will drop off a bit as we're not feeding her tons of supplementary feed (1kg feed = 1L milk, they say)... In time we will probably separate Honey and Lucy overnight, to take the milk in the morning, but not till Honey is eating other stuff (and we won't milk Lucy out completely).
It has certainly been a learning journey, but is easier every day...
Your girls are very pretty! I've always wanted a cow (we do have a medium sized horse farm, so there would be room!) but I'm afraid of selling all those calves, I don't know if I can bear it...
I just have to ask about your friend - their cow is still giving milk even though her last calf was three years ago, is that right? (English is not my first language so I might have understood that wrongly) I alwas thought you have to have a calf a year to keep the milk flowing! If not so, that would considerably change things for me...
Katja, that's right, my friend's cow had her calf about 3 years ago now. As long as you keep up the feed and keep taking the milk every single day, the cow can keep producing. It's like humans, really, some of us breastfeed for a short time, and others for a few years - the milk keeps flowing - supply and demand. :)
Oh, Lucy is lovely. I do wish I could have a cow. Maybe someday when I don't live in the city... Jersey milk is wonderful.
Lucy and child are beautiful - Congratulations on the new additions :)
How fun. We buy our milk from a local farm that does everything the natural way. They're dry in the winter and we get great milk the rest of the year. I'll never have my own cow so I'm glad I can find someone locally to get my raw milk from. Especially someone that takes great care of their cows!
I hope all goes well with your new cow!!!
Congrats! =) I am envious.
My grandfather had a small herd of milking Jerseys. He also had a Holstein. When his son-in-law, my dad, asked him why the Holstein, grandpa said; "to rinse out the milk pail!"
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