cattle

 Monday morning when I went to the barn at 5:30 to start chores, I heard a wonderful sound inside - the soft low moo of a mama cow talking to her newborn.  There is nothing like that ever so peaceful sound.

We had been anxiously awaiting our milk cow's calf and really, really hoping for a heifer (female) calf so that one day we can milk her, too. Our plan was for our youngest daughter, Maggie, to bottle feed it and halter train it so that she could be shown at the County Fair next year. She would be tame and trained to be easily handled for milking when she grew and gave us a calf of her own. Of course, if it was a boy dairy calf it would only be destined to be meat so we couldn't make a pet of him. We really really wanted a heifer.

I came around the corner in the barn Monday morning to see Roo, our milk cow, standing quietly over a still wet calf. She was attentitvely licking off the calf, and the calf was laying down with it's head upright and alert. All was well.

I went to get some clean straw to spread out to cover the messes, and as I spread it around I checked to see what Roo had given us. It was a girl!  I went in the house to wake Maggie so she could get started with her calf. 13 year old Maggie was so thrilled so see it take it's first steps and drink it's first bottle. She named her Rosie.

We are proud to welcome Rosie to Bear Creek Acres

The last two days have been great fun.  We had special guests both days. The Ely and the Babbitt Head Start classes came to see where meat comes from. The Ely group braved a drizzly rain to see cows, pigs and chickens. The next day the Babbitt group brought sunshine but had to put up with mud.

All the kids and adults were a delight, and I hope that they had a good time. I sure enjoyed having them. I wish I had a photo to share with you all, but I get so excited showing them around that I forget to take pictures!

But before they came, I took some pictures of the cows and calves. Maybe you'll enjoy those...

Mamas are resting in the sun. Please excuse the cowpies....

Some calves found a high spot out of the mud.

Aren't they sweet?

About two weeks ago, Shannon, our son Jack, our friend Joe, and I went on a 3 ½ hour drive into Wisconsin to buy for me a …….dairy cow!

We have been buying my milk – raw – from a local dairy farmer, but the farm is a long way away from us. So for a while, I have been toying with the idea of a family cow. You can read a lot about the concept of a family cow on this forum: http://familycow.proboards32.com/index.cgi

Shannon and Joe have both been nudging me along in this idea, and when the opportunity came up – I jumped in.

Roo comes from a certified organic dairy farm. She is a Jersey Shorthorn cross. Roo is in her second lactation and is expected to freshen (have a calf) in August. She gives us about 2 gallons of milk a day. The dairy no longer wanted her because she has one quarter ( an udder is divided into four quarters each with it’s own teat) that is bad and one that doesn’t make enough milk. For us – she’s perfect.

We don’t need all the milk she can make so our pigs get the extras. Pigs love milk! Her owner told us that after she freshens she’ll give 6 gallons a day!

 You can't see it, but there's a bowl of milk under all these noses and ears...

 Really!

It’s getting busier here on the farm.  Yesterday, this little fellow was born. 

Normally we bring our cows into the barn when they get close to calving, but our barn’s full of sows and their pigs and one  special gal – I’ll share that story another day.  Anyway, it’s nearly time for a couple of the sows to wean their babies so we hoped to combine the litters and open up a stall or two for calving. Betty preferred not to wait for us. Her handsome bull calf was born outside. Betty did her best with him, but he just couldn’t get himself up off the ground and got terribly chilled. I was home alone and had never had to warm a calf before. I was hesitant to get involved because I sure didn’t want to make matters worse. But when I saw that we were headed for a disaster, I stepped in with warm towels, syringes filled with warm milk, and a bale of hay.  It took all day, a lot of rubbing and heaving him up and trying to keep him up.  When I went into the house at 7 last night, he was looking stronger but still unable to stand on his own. I just didn’t know if he’d make it our not.  Shannon came home and we decided to put two sows and their litters together in one stall –hoping they’d all get along. Then we’d have a stall for Betty and her calf. After supper the little bugger was standing on his own….not gracefully…but he was up.  So we did all the rearranging and this morning he was up and drinking from his mom. All is well.