A Herd Update

It has been 1.5 years since we got our first cow and calf, and I am continuing to learn every day. In the last few weeks, Honey went to live at my friends' farm, as they will run a horned herd over there. She's currently with the bull, and they hope to be milking her by the new year!

Honey, 1.5 years old, the day she left

It was a little hard to let her go, being hand-reared by us and so loving and quiet. But I am rapt we'll be able to visit. It also means I can raise more calves without crowding the paddocks if some of them move on!

Wags and Poppy are a year old now, and growing big and strong. They both love a scratch under the chin and are very tame. Wags is destined for the freezer when he's about two years old. Poppy will hopefully be in calf by this Winter sometime, delivering in a year or so.

We are hoping for a calf from Lucy before the end of the year.

Today Lucy was Artificially Inseminated (AIed), so will hopefully deliver a Jersey calf around Christmastime. If today didn't work, we need to try again in 3 weeks' time. I've been charting her cycles and reading all about the signs of bovine fertility for a few months now, another learning curve.

I am still milking every day, but getting much less - about 6L, once a day. I make a lot of yoghurt, and the labneh I make from the yoghurt is so creamy and delicious. I can't make enough of it to keep it up to the family! I think I'll tackle fetta this week. Jersey fetta is very yummy!

Labneh - photo from this tutorial

Our House Cow Journey Continues

I began milking Lucy when Wags was a few weeks old. Until then, he and Poppy the foster calf shared all the milk. As they began to eat a little grain and some hay and grass, I decided to separate Lucy and Honey from them during the day, giving her several hours to graze the grass in the orchard and house paddock, and then I brought her in to be fed, checked over and milked before releasing her back into the small paddock with the babies and Honey for the night. I did this around four times each week, taking around 3 to 4 litres each milking. The other days they all grazed together. This routine went well for a little while, and then Lucy was only giving 2 litres at each milking, and then just a litre for the final couple of milkings last week. And then I gave up. Why go to all the bother of mixing feed, setting up, milking, cleaning the dairy, the buckets and everything for a mere litre of milk? As I led Lucy back to the small paddock, her udder would swell and teats fill with the rest of the milk she had withheld from me, ready to feed her babies she'd been apart from all day.


Last week we let them all into a larger paddock to allow us to do some maintenance on their small paddock and the areas we graze them inside electric fence tape. I'm not milking Lucy for awhile. We've slashed their paddocks and we'll harvest some manure and hay from near their pens to use in some of the raised garden beds I've emptied out recently. Do I still have a House Cow? Or a dairy breed with her calves let loose in the paddock? I'm trying to convince them they're still our dairy herd by encouraging them back to the water troughs daily for their minerals, perhaps some hay or another treat, and some checking over and brushing. Poppy and Honey especially love to be brushed, I think because they've had less affection from Lucy, being foster calves. I use a horse brush on them and they mostly love careful strokes around their face and ears.

When it's time to wean the calves, I'll bring Lucy back to the small paddock. I'm not sure on the exact management of the herd from there, but I'll try to get her into once-a-day milking again. I don't think I'll bother with another foster calf for a little while.

We have just castrated Wags using the banding method, which seems to us to have been a humane way to carry out the process. His job now is to eat grass and grow big!

The next thing we need to think about is getting Lucy artificially inseminated (AIed), which is usually done three months after a dairy cow calves.

So much to consider... And to think that once I just thought that cows ate grass, drank water, made manure and existed with little human intervention!

Our Herd

I am so filled with joy every day when I see our cows grazing together in the orchard, or taking a nap under the trees...

When Wags was three days old, our foster calf for Lucy, who was then 3 weeks old and named Sweetheart, was delivered. Sweetheart was cold and hungry and wet and covered in manure from the calf pen.

Sweetheart on Day 1 here (3 weeks old) - we have since changed her name to Poppy!

At first Lucy was not interested in her new charge at all and pushed her away. So my daughter Abby and I led the calf to the milking shed and washed her off with warm water and rags. We dried her with old towels, as it was a cool, rainy day. Then we led Lucy in to milk out some of the excess colostrum (just as we had the day before). When she was in place having her snack of grain, hay, minerals and molasses we encouraged Sweetheart forward to feed from Lucy's udder. She fed with gusto, having been kept away from the nurse cows at the dairy that morning to make the mothering-on process easier for us. After awhile we thought that Sweetheart might be taking too much milk, and get a tummy ache, so we took her back to the shelter where Wags was waiting. Honey was in an adjoining paddock at this point, in case she got jealous of the calves and hurt them, or tried to feed from Lucy.

Once Lucy had finished her food, we took her back to the calves. When Sweetheart saw Lucy come into the paddock, she snuck around between her back legs and drank more milk, and Lucy let her! We were so relieved! She then collapsed for a nap in the hay beside Wags.

Lucy feeding her two babies. She is so patient! It rained for two weeks after Wags was born, hence the muddy paddock entrance!

I continued to watch Lucy and the calves carefully each day - checking the calves' health and bowel movements (Wags was scouring for awhile), checking Lucy's udder and generally observing their interactions with each other.

Wags is a big boy now! He's 1.5 weeks old in this photo, and so very cute.

After two weeks Honey went back to sleep in the main cow paddock at night too, as well as grazing alongside Lucy by day, with or without the calves. She watches the calves during the day, resting alongside them, calling out to them and seeming to help Lucy care for them.

The name Sweetheart was too confusing as I use it as a term of endearment when speaking to the other cattle, and possibly even the hubby and kids! I hadn't noticed before she arrived, but I'm mentioning her name a lot more often than I'm actually speaking to or about her... So after a week of trying it out, we had a family vote and re-named the foster calf Poppy.

We're about to start milking Lucy again now that the calves are doing really well and the colostrum has gone. It will be interesting to share milk with two calves, as last time we only had Honey to share with. The times I milked out excess colostrum (to prevent mastitis and to have some in the fridge and freezer in case a calf was ill), Lucy was very accepting of being milked. In fact she wandered into the bails of her own accord one day during her time grazing in the house paddock.

Honey and Poppy (was Sweetheart) resting together in the afternoon. Honey is Lucy's foster calf from last year, and 7 months old now.

I remember when Lucy came here and she was quite lonely - calling at the fence for some cow friends. Now she has her own herd - a son and two foster daughters - and she seems very, very content.

Lucy has a calf!

BEFORE

This is Lucy two weeks before calving. She wanted to lick the camera! Cows are very curious creatures.

Two days before calving her very round shape changed, see her sides are quite flat now?

From the side she even started to look skinny as the great weight of her baby weighed her down. All of a sudden, ribs were showing!

We kept looking at her tail, which would appear lifted quite often, and for dips on either side, which indicated softening ligaments. We were also looking for signs of swelling, redness and mucous.

And Lucy's udder began to swell up and feel firm. Her teats enlarged. These changes happened in the two days before Lucy calved.

After what feels like a very long time waiting, we awoke this morning to see that Lucy had her calf in the wee hours. I had to look up this site to show the children the happenings we missed!

Newborn loveliness

I had spent a lot of the previous week researching about calving because I didn't really know what to expect. On the one hand people told me, "Just leave her to it, she will be fine!" and the next minute someone would ask, "What will you do if she needs help?" I expected that she would birth the calf fine as she has before, but it was interesting to read about different things which can happen for birthing cows. I found a lot of information and valuable links on the Keeping a Family Cow forums.

Wobbly legs

So when I launched out of bed at 6.30am and raced in my cow print nightie and gumboots (sorry, no photos of that!) to see the new addition, it was such a relief. I spent about 1.5 hours in the paddock fixing up Lucy's shelter, fetching minerals and food, laying out fresh hay and observing Lucy and her baby boy.

Lucy after calving but before delivering the placenta.

When I came up to the house I called my friend and asked about the placenta and what to expect. My friend thought that maybe she'd birthed it and eaten it, so I stopped worrying for awhile. About two hours later I saw it across the paddock a bit and it was HUGE and gross! I left it there for most of the day and Lucy looked at it once that I saw, but left it. So I packed it up in a garbage bag tonight and put it in the shed fridge in a bucket! We are bringing home a foster cow, so might need the placenta for its (awful) scent yet. Since I don't eat red meat, I find placentas of any description quite horrible! Amazing, but yucky...

Lucy's placenta with the toe of my gumboot showing to see the size of it.

I was worried that Lucy's tiny calf could not latch on to her hugely swollen teats. I crept up to check how he was going and he turned to look at me with milk coming out of his nostrils. He later jumped about a bit, moo-ed ever so quietly to his mama and lay down for a nap. I haven't seen him latch on since, but he has a lot of energy and knows which end to find the udder at now. I'll be spending a lot of time watching him feed, pee and poo tomorrow, so that I know he's getting a lot of colostrum. I will have to milk Lucy out somewhat too as her udder will be over-full and he is only tiny, taking a small proportion of the colostrum she's producing. I believe I'll freeze it in case of a calf emergency of any kind...

Can you spot the calf in these photos?

This afternoon, Lucy took little Wag for a walk to catch some sunshine and hide from the humans. He was so well camouflaged and began to lighten in colour as he dried off!

So now Lucy and baby are asleep on the hay this windy, rainy night. Lucy is eating some grain and lucerne, she had molasses and a lot more calcium and seaweed supplements. I had been giving these to her in increasing doses before she freshened (delivered), so hopefully I'm on the right track there. Of course there's a lot of conflicting advice out there regarding bovine nutrition!

Soon we will hopefully collect the foster calf, who must be 2.5 weeks old now (a Jersey heifer). And so the story continues...

A Dry Cow

Nosey Honey

We stopped milking Lucy in mid-January and so Honey was weaned at almost five months old. At first she was a little sad to not have milk from Lucy, but overall she has been fine, and her condition certainly hasn't dropped at all.

Toward the end of Lucy feeding Honey
(she still had to be tied up to feed her, being an adopted calf)

Lucy coped well with the drying off as we did it quite gradually - from one feed a day, taking less each time during the last week. I checked her udder daily to be sure it wasn't too full, hard or hot. It took about two weeks for the udder to look quite empty and dry.

Lucy got too fat for our old milking shed door!

Lucy missed my company and waited at the fence each afternoon for some food and attention. I visit her almost daily for a scratch and to check her condition and handle her.

We cut the protein from her diet for the time that she was drying off, and she's now eating pasture and a little lucerne hay, with some copra and hemp meal mixed with supplements from time to time. She likes "salad" from the garden - arrowroot, comfrey, spent cabbages and lettuces etc. And she loves the corn stalks after we pick the cobs. They nibble pigeon pea most days now, keeping the bottom half of each bush nicely pruned.

Here's Lily (7) with Lucy and Honey recently - they're hardly diffeent in height! See they have no halters or ropes now. And little Honey's horns are growing.

Lucy's calf should be a wagyu cross (1/2 jersey, 1/2 wagyu), so should be small and dark and cute! Of course all calves are cute. It is due around March 22nd. Stay tuned!

PS - The Family Cow is a good book, recommended reading for anyone who wants to know about keeping a house cow.

Four months old

Honey is now over four months old and has grown so big! She is coping well with being gently weaned and loves to graze alongside Lucy and chew her cud in the shade. She still has the back quarters (and strips out the front) each afternoon, but in the coming couple of weeks will be completely weaned from Lucy's milk. Lucy is due to calf on March 22nd and needs time to rest.

I've been using diatomaceous earth to deter flies and other parasites - it is mixed with their other supplements into their daily feed, used as a dusting powder and sprinkled onto their bedding area. So far, I think it really is making a difference!

After much deliberation, Honey hasn't been de-horned. Yet. Apparently I don't need to decide immediately, though this is the optimum time to remove her horn buds. Because she will always be in a small herd, and has been handled from when she came here, I'm leaning toward letting her keep her horns.


I'm about to start reading The Family Cow by Dirk van Loon. I picked it up from Fishpond for under $25 and it looks to be a fairly comprehensive addition to the farm bookshelf.

This isn't the greatest photo, but it does show how huge Lucy's belly is (with still 3 months to go) and how tall Honey has become compared to Lucy.

We're still getting between 4-5L of milk each day from the front quarters, and leaving the back quarters to Honey. I have loads of milk in the fridge and freezer and numerous yoghurt and cheese experiments going on! It will be such a shock to have no homegrown milk for 2+ months.

We're always reflecting how far the girls have come in 3.5 months. They're easy to catch now, and Lucy is easy to lead. Honey isn't as well-trained to the halter as she could be. They're affectionate and curious farm-pets who have really fit into our family and routine nicely.

Weaning begins

Curious

It seems like no time since Lucy and Honey arrived, but already Honey is over 3 months old. It is time to begin to wean her from Lucy as we prepare for when she dries off to have her own calf around March 22nd.

Honey loves to lick my hands. I'm not that keen!

So, much to Honey's disappointment, she is having only one milk feed a day and eating grass, hay and a tiny amount of Lucy's grain and mineral mix (when Lucy's not looking)! We've been doing it this way for over a week now, and both are doing well with the new routine. Honey still tries to get Lucy to feed her occasionally (she never accepted her as her own calf and only allows Honey to feed at "bucket time").

Scratching Honey's chin

In a few weeks I will have to cut out Honey's afternoon feed, and as demand drops, so will Lucy's supply, and then when I stop milking once a day as well it will be time for her to rest and eat grass and concentrate on growing a healthy calf.

And so the cycle goes...

Meanwhile, we are learning about:
* strip grazing through using electric fence
* getting the mineral/supplement mix and Neem spray applications right for deterring flies
* de-horning (dis-budding) calves (still researching)
* making cheeses
* handling a calf that weighs more than I do!

Lucy, 6 months gestation, enjoying the green grass after our first summer rains.

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.