Friday, December 14, 2007

Another Homestead Experiment

Here at our homestead, we do things a little differently with our milk cows than a dairy would do. In fact, I do believe my wife's paternal grandfather (a dairy farmer) would think we were nuts. The biggest reason for the difference is that we do not raise these cows for profit. We don't wish to lose money on them, but we also are not looking to minimize costs and maximize income as much as a dairyman would. These are "family milk cows", meaning they exist to provide our only our family (and maybe a few friends who need it) with milk. That being said, some of the things we do are meant for our convenience, and can have an adverse effect on how much milk we get.

For instance, we leave the calf with the cow all day. This does a few for things us. We eliminate the added chore of feeding the calf by bottle, or the added cost of keeping a nurse cow around. Secondly, calves who stay with their mothers are healthier (this is debatable but there is evidence for it) because they get all the attention they need. Calves who are isolated and receive no attention do get sick more often. That's proven. Thirdly, it allows us to leave on trips, because the calf will continue to drink from mom's udder and keep it from getting engorged. This also prevents mastitis, which can be a serious problem in dairy cows. We don't get as much milk because half is being given to the calf, but to us its worth it.

In preparation for our Christmas trip to Georgetown, we experimented last night and left Meatloaf (the calf) with Pumpkin. We skipped our morning milking and will see how full she is tonight. We're not too worried as Pumpkin is not a huge producer and the calf seems to be keeping her from getting too engorged.

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