Dairy

I s’pose that everybody thinks their children are the cutest, smartest, or most special… we’re no different.  The one indisputable fact, however, is that ours TRULY are the cutest and most special!  (Notice I didn’t say smartest; 2 out of 3 ain’t too bad.)  Meet “the girls”.

Lillian is our first dairy cow. She is a registered and highly pedigreed Jersey. We purchased her from some wonderful friends on the Family Hill farm. Theirs is the same small family dairy from which we purchased Lola. In fact, Lillian and Lola are related by grand dam. We bought Lillian when she was a 10-month-old heifer in 2008. She is bred to the Canadian bull Jurisdiction and is now due to calve her first on May 8th of this year.

Lillian is just pure cute. She has that little girl friskiness and never walks anywhere… she flounces and prances. I s’pect that 10 years from now when she is a mature old woman she will still be our baby. Her nickname is Mini-Moose. We are anxiously awaiting our first calf, obviously hoping for a heifer. Our large animal Vet, Dr. Brandy, is also taken with Lillian and calls her “my baby”.

Lillian is quite the natural athlete. Early on, when she was the only cow in the pasture and I was worried about her being bored… (Yeah, OK, I admit it… I was a new cow dad), I bought her a Pilate’s ball which she played with constantly. We even got to the point that when I would kick it to her she would either nose it back at me or kick it with her hind leg.

Stay tuned for baby pictures!!!

 

HERE SHE IS!

Lillian's Brandy Cordial
Born May 10, 2010

Lola is the consummate Queen of the Barn. She too is a registered and highly pedigreed Jersey. You can tell by “the look” in the picture above that she knows she’s special; she has that look that says, “I hope you’re not going to annoy me.” Lola is five years old and is bred to the bull Comerica. Lola is the cow that taught us to be milkers; having come from a small family dairy, she was the perfect choice to learn from. Her nickname is Moose. Lola’s unique personality trait is her textbook neurosis. She demands affection on her terms and to her satisfaction. While the other girls want to get into the milking bail, eat their vittles, get drained, and get out as quickly as possible, Lola dawdles while she eats and then stands in the bail expecting massive amounts of praise, hugging, kissing, scratching, and more hugs. I’m serious! If she doesn’t get 10 minutes of non-stop affection, she won’t leave. I confess, she is a great hugger, especially on a cold morning!

Lola is a chiropractor's dream. Sometimes I call her skeletor because she has an awful conformation. In her youth, she apparently caught her left rear leg in a gate and broke it severely. It never healed properly and she has some serious nerve damage to that stifle. She uses that leg only to walk and balance. Because she has never muscled out properly, she leans funny and is just sorta goofy looking. Nonetheless, she is the picture of health and drops gorgeous calves. Also, I routinely work and/or milk from right behind her as I never have to worry about getting kicked. If she was even to try to kick, she’d fall over!

Rose Mary, Rosie for short and nicknamed Doodle, is a wonderful addition to our family. She was a most generous gift from a dear friend of ours that wanted only two things. First, no longer to be a slave to daily milking, and second, that Rosie would go to a home that loved her as much as her first family. Thank you Kathy and Wayne! Rosie is also five years old and is not registered, though she is purebred Jersey. She is also an amazing producer with butterfat percentages consistently in the 6’s, consistent SNF percentages of 9.9 + and protein above 4.0%.

Rosie has a unique personality mix of sweet as honey and Greta Garbo aloofness. She is gentle to the nth degree but, unlike Lola, Rosie seems to just tolerate affection. When we first got Rosie, she had spent her days in a pasture with a sweet old horse. I’m told they were pretty close pals, but after Rosie came to the Rose of Sharon and started hanging out with other cows, she blossomed in her behavior and personality. Rosie is not currently bred but we plan to breed her to Comerica in May. Rosie and Lola are inseparable. They eat, lie down, cud, and just hang out constantly. Perhaps it is the sameness in their ages; nonetheless, they are never more than 15 feet apart.

Perhaps Rosie’s most, uh, mmm, endearing quality is her penchant for poopiness. She may, in fact, be the world’s poopiest cow. She poops when she eats, walks and moo’s. She even moo’s while she poo’s. You get the point I’m sure. I’ve considered approaching the Guinness folks to see if there is a category in the book about poopiness… Sharon thinks we could rent her out by the day for games of cow pie bingo. We’ll sure have good broccoli this year though!

Rosie is the perfect family cow, and we aim to breed her to achieve that in her offspring.