I've been sniveling about not having milk. Boo hoo poor ol' me. I guess God heard my silent whining...Anna delivered a healthy 30 pound heifer unassisted Wednesday May 11. Yippee!!! I discovered the pair after I got home from work. Patrick had checked on Anna and Dolly around 3 pm, after a heavy downpour. He said at that time: "they are being cows. Eating at the hay ring." By 7:45 there was a mostly dry baby waiting for me.
The major problem is: Anna herself is only 13 months old. (That's not a typo, she was a year old April 6--last month!) Here I went from "what am I going to breed her to" (she shouldn't of even been bred for another couple of months!) to a fast-forward "toss all that out the window and get to work" mode.
It's a Miracle she calved fine. Another Miracle the baby survived the birth. (At 6 months, Anna got: dehorned, shots, weaned then and transported here from another state. Four stresses right there, she could have aborted.)
Nope, we didn't know she was pregnant, and explains her expanding udder (that I have been racking my brain about). Now that I look back over photos, I should have known. Yeah, a "duh" moment for sure!
And I hear the snickers of some--how in the world didn't you KNOW?? Ya ignorant or somethin??
Welllllll.....when you buy a 6-month old heifer....in all honesty, who would even dare to THINK she was pregnant?? Even two months along already??? And being she is half Jersey and half Braunvieh, she is "beefier" than your average more dainty Jersey. She held condition excellent all winter, and still is more beefy looking than Dolly (who is all Jersey). And there is more to that story....her udder, her heats (or lack of them except for one [so I thought] back this winter) and I never did feel a baby move inside her. (Not that I was looking/feeling for one, either!)
When I called the gal I got her from, she was flabbergasted as well. I think she thought I was fibbin' at first. She started doing some math for me (my brain was scrambled at this point) and filling in the blanks, helping me come to grips of how all of this came about.
Mama and baby are doing fine, me however; I am getting over the unexpected shock! I was totally not prepared....no stanchion training, no nothing for Anna. Sink or swim time for the both of us. My milk bucket and jars were all collecting dust (literally) as well. Plus my hands are in nowhere near "in milking a cow" shape/tone. That will change quickly--all of it!!!
See, with Dolly it was easy, she knew what to expect, as did I. If I didn't know the answer, I asked Ann (her previous owner). Now I'm in uncharted territory, I thought I had about a year to deal with ALL of what I'm talking about. Anna doesn't "know" any better (or worse!) of what is good, bad or not accepted when it comes to milking. It's up to me to show her the way, and that can seem overwhelming, only if you think too much about it. Sometimes "doing" is better than over-thinking (or micro-managing!) some times.
Cows are simple: they thrive on routine. I'm aiming for a no thrills and spills and drama routine first. The rest will fall in to "our" schedule as needed. (I'm sure a wrench will be tossed in this idea at some point, that's only natural!) I'll take things a milking and a day at a time.
For the first couple of days, I have been milking when baby is nursing. This way there is no shuffling, kicking or other ill-mannered (or dangerous!) behavior. This weekend we will see just how well Anna does sans the baby. I expect no letdown. She held up when baby was first born and I or Patrick tried to milk some colostrum out to save.
I will say she is doing exceptionally well thus far. Her small teats are nice and uniform, the fronts are three-finger milkers and the back an easy two-finger milkers. All four orifices are awesome, easy milking! Baby makes the rounds of all four teats, not just favoring one or two.
And her colostrum isn't bad. It is creamy...not salty or flat or weird. I can't wait to taste just milk. And to see how much cream she gives.
Baby isn't named yet--she is lively and curious and will have Patrick wrapped around her little hooves in no time. He's already doting on her. Here he goes spoiling another critter for me! :)
CONGRATS! As long as they're both healthy and happy - it's always nice to have a new baby Moo!
ReplyDeleteJeanene, baby at 13 months. Wow, that's pretty close to a miracle. I didn't even know that they could be bred that young. I'm glad to hear that mother and calf are doing OK. I'm sure your will get back into the swing of the milking cycle pretty quick. It's just like riding a bike. It comes back fast.
ReplyDeleteI always like our one Jersey milk cow that we had. The milk had a higher percentage of cream and she was easy to milk. Compared to the rest of Holstein cows she was small so we called here "Little Bit". All together we had 13 milk cows. I was in charge of milking the cows morning and night. I had help from two milking machines and I milk a couple of the easy ones by hand just to stay in practice. It will definitely improve your grip. We separated the cream from the milk and what we didn't use we sold. The skim milk (30 gallons a day) went to the 15 hogs that couldn't wait to get to trough to slurp it up. Those hogs exploded in growth and paid for one year of college for me.
Have a great day on the farm.
OMGoodness!! Who knew a calf that young, could get pregnant! That means our Clover could anytime now, not that it would be a good thing, but I had no idea she even could already! Wow.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the new baby, and good luck training "Mom" to let you take her milk! Least this way, if she doens't work out, you can start early with her calf, and have her replacement in a couple years. :)
I'll get more photos posted soon. It's been a whirlwind here the past few days!
ReplyDeleteThanks All! :)