Well, as you may know from Regina's post, we have a useless cow. I know that may sound mean, but a dairy cow that is not either pregnant or milking is pretty useless. That will all change of course when we have her AI'd (artificially inseminated), but for now she's just good for providing us fertilizer.
Therefore, we have decided to buy a new milk cow. We are not looking to replace Chloe, but we're not willing to wait 9-10 more months for milk. Our plan is to raise them both for the time being, and depending on which one we like better, sell one of them next summer. Needless to say, Jersey milk cows are hard to find around here. This is beef country, not dairy country.
Good fortune has smiled upon us as we have found an all Jersey dairy in La Grange, TX that is willing to sell us almost any of their cows. They have a herd of 140 and said every cow is worth something, so as long as we're willing to pay, they're willing to sell. Their Jerseys range in price from $800 to $2500 depending on health, milk production, age, etc. Seeing as how Chloe cost us $1800, we're happy with the prices. Subsequently, we will be traveling there on Oct 28th to look at some cows and decide on one. We're also going to purchase a young (just a few days old) Jersey bull calf to raise for meat. Our herd is about to increase from one to three in a very short time.
One cool thing is that Belle, the Blue Bell ice cream mascot cow, resides at this dairy. Regina saw her once when she was brought to A&M, and she said Belle is the prettiest cow she has ever seen. We hope to get a couple of pictures of her. I never thought I'd say a cow is pretty, but Jerseys are just gorgeous.
Wish us luck!
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