BoPeep gave me a bit of a scare a couple weeks ago.  Her milk production dropped drastically one day, and I was worried that maybe she had just decided to dry herself off since Hershey left.  But after doing some investigating, I came to a different conclusion.  Here’s what happened.

Our "weed" growing along the orchard lane between paddocks.

We had previously moved the cows to the brand new paddock over on the “horse side” of the farm.  They had grazed the nice, tall grass in that paddock for a week, then I moved them through the other 2 paddocks next to it over the following 2 weeks.  At that point there was still a good bit of grazing left in the new paddock, so I decided to give them another week in there before moving them the whole way back over to the “cow side”.  Bo was with the herd & I was going out with the halter every morning to lead her in to the cow barn to milk, and then returning her when we were done.  About half-way through that second week on the new paddock, she gave me only 3 quarts at milking instead of her usual gallon and a half…and, yes, I was sure she let down nicely & gave me all of it.  I left her out in the corral behind the barn for a few minutes until I was ready to take her back to the pasture, puzzling whether she could really just be drying herself off suddenly.  Then I saw her poop….an unusually runny, squirty mess.  “Hmmm, what is going on?”  But she didn’t seem to be feeling sick or acting “off”, so I took her back to the herd. (more…)

An excellent, easy-to-follow book by Ricki Carroll.

So, since weaning Hershey, BoPeep has been giving me about one & a half gallons of milk every morning when I milk.  We use a good bit of milk for breakfast, drinking & cooking…but not THAT much.  So what do we do with all that extra milk?  Well, that’s cheesy…I mean…easy!  We make cheese…and butter…and yogurt…and sour cream…and ice cream.  All these delightful dairy products from our very own fresh, raw milk!  It’s been wonderful.  And, believe it or not, it’s not very difficult.  I found a great book by Ricki Carroll called Home Cheese Making that has been a huge help.  Here are a few things to whet your appetite.

A jar of cream with clabber added, to make sour cream. Clabber is started in the same manner.

Keeping It Clean

Before we talk about making things from raw milk, it’s important to know how to keep your equipment clean so you don’t inadvertantly spoil your dairy products.  Everything from your milking equipment to milk jugs, pots & cheese-making utensils needs to be properly washed & sanitized before coming in contact with raw milk.  After use, rinse milk equipment with cool water first, to prevent milk stone from forming.  Milk stone can be as simple as a thin film of milk residue (that you can’t even see!) left behind on items.  Next, add some vinegar to your warm, soapy wash water to help remove any remaining milk residue, and scrub items well.  Rinse, then dunk in a bleach solution to sanitize, and rinse again with fresh water.  A bleach residue left behind can ruin your cheese-making efforts as well.  Then leave items to air dry. (more…)

Chucky & Hershey have their last buckets of feed here Saturday morning.

Well, it’s been a noisy week on Hope Refuge Farm.  BoPeep did not like losing her young’un!  Not that I really enjoyed leaving mine behind either, but at least I didn’t scream my head off for 3 days after getting him settled in at college.  But all in all things went pretty smoothly with weaning, in spite of the bellowing.  Here’s how our week went.

Stephanie tries to make friends, but Hershey's not totally sold on the idea yet.

The cow herd had been moved to a newly fenced pasture paddock on the “horse side” of the farm before we left for Michigan.  So Friday (Sept. 2) evening I brought Bo, Hershey & Chuck (Eavie’s steer calf from last year) back to the cow barn.  I penned Bo in the barn corral like I normally had been for milking in the morning, and put the two boys in the front yard-turned-pasture paddock.  I knew things would go better if Hershey had a friend to keep him company, and even though Chucky is about 9 months older than Hershey they’re about the same size & get along great. (more…)

BoPeep inherited a nice udder from her Jersey momma.

There’s been a hold-up in my milking parlor & I’m sick of it! 

This is one of the difficulties that comes with share-milking (that’s when you leave the calf with momma part of the time, so you’re sharing the milk).  Momma decides that she would rather feed baby than give her milk to you, so she “holds up” when you try to milk.  Which means you get a piddlin’ little bit of thin milk and are wondering what happened, while baby guzzles down the bulk of the milk…and all the cream, which comes at the end.  If this is a frustration you’ve been dealing with, believe me….you are not alone!!  Here’s the story of my big hold-up. (more…)

Our box of tattooing supplies: pliers, ink and number & letter sets.

So, last week I wrote about pulling tails and now this is about sticking ears with lots of little needles.  Seems awfully mean, doesn’t it?  But the calves seem to be such tolerant, forgiving little souls….thank goodness!  The ADCA requires either a tattoo or an ear tag for identification purposes on all registered animals.  I don’t like the look of ear tags, and they do occasionally get ripped out, tearing a big gash through the ear.  So we’ve chosen to do tattoos on our calves.

I clean Trixie's ear thoroughly with a disinfectant teat wipe.

Tattoo Protocol

There is a “normal”, accepted system for tattooing cattle, which the ADCA recommends using.  There are different size tattoo pliers that take varying numbers of characters, so you can decide what specifically works best for you.  Your tattoo number should start with a letter(s) that is an initial for your farm name or herd prefix.  Next comes the calf’s number, as in whether it was the 2nd, 5th, or 10th calf born on your farm that year.  Last is the year’s code letter…yes, there’s a chart showing what letter of the alphabet is assigned to each year.  This year, 2011, is “Y”. (more…)