Three and a half Weeks

Lucy in her favourite corner of the paddock, looking for her herd.

Honey, resting by the fence in the sun. She licks her lips when I approach her! She is 5 weeks old.

This is the little paddock they are being kept in, it's pretty dry and sparse.

How time flies! We've had Lucy and Honey for 26 days now. It keeps getting better. I take care of the cows on my own most of the time now, and still enjoy it. I am getting used to Lucy's behaviour and learning what signals she's giving me. I've never really had to communicate with cows before!

Lucy's favourite - lucerne

We've had virtually no rain for ages and have the cows in a smaller paddock within the house paddock. We're supplementing their feed a lot. In the morning Lucy gets a bucket whilst feeding Honey which contains a mixture of dairy pellets, copra, cracked corn, calf crumble, molasses, water, dolomite, seaweed powder, sulfur and water. Almost all of it is pre-mixed in a big bin - I only add the water, molasses and minerals and combine. Then I fill a big tub with top quality lucerne mixed with a little rhodes grass and refill two water containers. During the day sometime I usually throw in another hunk of lucerne and check the water. In the afternoon Lucy has another bucket with the same mix - half whilst she feeds Honey in the pen and half in her tub in the bails for when she's being milked. Then a little more lucerne to keep her busy and I top up the water containers again. Honey has the fluffy green tops from the lucerne hay, grass in the paddock and a tiny bit of calf crumble to supplement her two feeds each day from Lucy. She also nibbles at some of the mixed feed Lucy drops on the ground but I think it's too rich for her.

I've also given Lucy some pigeon pea branches, carrots, apple cut into quarters, corn cob husks and ends and lettuce and cabbage outer leaves from the garden. I think it's all new to her so it's funny to watch her taste and feel the new foods before eating them. Oh, she didn't eat the pigeon pea much, only nibbled a few leaves and pushed it aside.

We're getting a bit more milk lately so I'm going to start making some cheese. So far I've only frozen some (in ice-cubes for smoothies and the like) and made custards and yoghurt. I have a couple of recipe, so hopefully tomorrow will allow me some time in the kitchen... Stay tuned!

This is the pen where I feed the cows and Lucy feeds Honey, they were locked here all the time for a couple of days then every night for two weeks as well. The fencing is portable panels, the shelter is a silver tarp and the bedding is sugar cane mulch hay. They sleep in here on the hay most of the time - the gate to this pen is always open now.

This is Lucy feeding Honey in the afternoon. Notice the back quarters of her udder are very full! This is after we began to feed her a fair amount of lucerne each day. I only milk out in the afternoons and that day got over 4L from the back teats.

Honey feeding in the afternoon. She feeds from Lucy twice a day at 'bucket time'. I love the froth - it gets everywhere! She normally drinks from only the front quarters but has begun to suck one back teat at most feeds as well. She still leaves us plenty of milk each day.

Two Weeks!

It seems like longer that we've had Lucy and Honey with us, but it's just over two weeks. We've had our ups and downs, but it has generally gotten easier. There's so, so much to learn about - the milking part is relatively easy compared to knowing knots, fencing, building, feed mix (% protein), etc.

A wonderful resource from our local library

Overall, I'm rapt that we got a cow and calf. Getting a herd cow and foster calf is probably the hardest way to go about it, but it's near-impossible to go out and buy a house cow with her own calf at foot.

We're currently still putting the calf to feed from Lucy twice a day at bucket time. Now that Honey is stronger and knows what's going on, this doesn't take much intervention at all. Whilst they're both filling their bellies I can shovel manure, refill water troughs, rake hay and mix feed. In the morning I let them both into the paddock to graze.

In the afternoon I bring them both in for another bucket time. Honey has less milk in the afternoon, and never bothers with the back teats at all. So once she's done (usually collapsing onto the hay with milk froth at her lips and glassy eyes!) I lead Lucy from the pen, out of the paddock and into the milking shed. I clip her halter on a short rope near her feed bucket to hold her still and so she can't turn around in the bails, tie a rope around her hind end so she can't walk backwards, and tie a rope to one leg so she can't kick me. Really, three ropes - and three gates!


Then I wash the udder and squirt a little milk from each teat to flush them out. I wash my hands, put the bucket in place and start milking. At first the milk went in many directions, but by now we're getting almost every drop into the bucket. I keep a second bucket behind me, and tip the milk in every few minutes so that if she should kick or step in the milking bucket, we don't lose the whole lot.Whilst we're milking (my husband helps me) Lucy is quiet. She sniffs and nibbles at her feed, but doesn't eat - just stands there and sighs a lot. We normally take about 3L of milk. If we wanted more milk, we'd feed Lucy more grain mix etc, but for now 3L is enough for our family to drink and make yoghurt and custard.

Once the udder feel nice and empty we move the milk to a safe place and start to untie ropes. We then open the back door to the shed and lead Lucy with the feed bucket back to the pen to be locked up with Honey overnight. They have some mulch hay for bedding, water, and shelter in there.

Then it's time to hose out the milking shed if necessary, roll up all the ropes and open or shut gates ready for the next day. Sometimes I mix and cover the morning feed if I am going to be in a hurry the next day. Finally it's time to put my gumboots away in the shed!
I wash my hands and strain the milk into glass bottles. These go straight to the back of the fridge, behind the previous days' milk. All buckets, strainer, funnel, etc are then washed in very hot soapy water and put away for the next day. All rags (for cleaning udder and wiping up milk spills) go into the wash.

So far I love my routines with the cows. The weather has been mostly fine and everyone normally leaves me in peace to get on with the work. We've all learned a lot and of course, the milk is fantastic!

One Week On...

Lucy looking more relaxed

Lucy and Honey together

Contented Honey after a feed

They're here!

Honey the calf on Day 1

Honey and Lucy getting to know each other.

Wow! What a huge learning curve! Our house cow and her foster calf arrived yesterday and what a huge 24 hours followed! Tonight they are happily fenced into a small pen together, bellies full and asleep beside each other on the soft grass... And we're all exhausted!

The first feed Honey had from Lucy

First attempt at milking Lucy

Two of us milking into the shiny new bucket