Got Milk? We do!

After 5 frustrating days of getting almost nothing at milking time, we finally got a decent amount this morning. Up until now, we've been getting barely enough to wet the bottom of the milk pail. It was so pathetic it wasn't even worth the trouble, but we knew we had to keep up the routine to get Pumpkin used to it. In case you didn't know, cows LOVE routine. They want to do the same thing at the same time everyday. When you mess up their schedule, they get very grumpy. The best way to get a cow comfortable is to do the same thing every day. After a week of routine, Pumpkin is finally settling in and getting comfortable.

There were a couple of reasons we figured we weren't getting much milk. First, she wasn't letting down for us because she wanted to save it for the calf (as any good mother would). Second, we were leaving the calf with her all day, which normally would be fine, but he's snacking all day so the udder never has time to get really full. Thirdly, she's having digestional problems. I won't get into specifics, but let's just say she needs some Imodium AD pretty badly. Just like we all know when our kids have this problem, she's losing a lot of fluids and is probably pretty dehydrated. She's still eating and drinking fine, but you can just tell she doesn't feel tip top. The best cure for this is lots of good hay and water. Eventually her system will get used to the change in feed, and she'll be normal again. With so much fluid going out, she probably isn't producing at her best. I expect her production will pick up when this condition abates.

We went ahead and started seperating the calf from the cow at night. The calf is in a pen inside the barn where momma can see him and smell him and knows he's o.k. That gave her a chance for her udder to fill up. Any woman who has breast fed knows that when you're really full, it's not easy to stop the let down. (This is all second hand information to me) That's what we were counting on, and it worked!

Last night Reg seperated them for about 3 hours before she milked, and got 1 quart. She let him eat for a couple of hours, then put him back in the pen for the night. They were seperated for about 9 hours before I went out this morning, and I got 3/4 of a gallon. So, all together we got 1 gallon yesterday. We are extremely happy with this considering the miserable amount we've been getting. She only has to give us 10 gallons a month for us to break even on feed costs, so I'll take a gallon per day. We expect that to pick up as her lactation cycle continues (it usually peaks at 3 months post calving), and once her bowel problems subside.

She continues to be an angel in the stanchion, and has not gotten irritated or even acted like she might kick. If we like her production and we decide to sell a cow, I think she's the one we'll keep. We love Chloe, but Pumpkin is a joy to milk while Chloe is kind of hit-or-miss, depending on how she's feeling that day.