Michigan

[EeyoreD]

Yeah you're probably going to want to save the colostrum milk for Maybelle - she needs it.

 

[SillyChicken]

Shes sweet Daron, congratulations, I love the name... but chicken grandma is right, the calf should have nothing but the moms milk for 3 or 4 days to get the colostrum, it has antibodies etc that will help the calf's immunity system etc. It's also like a milk primer to give the calf's digestive system time to adjust to processing milk and then food.
Give her a few days before you start giving it out to the others.

 

[snowflake]

It isn't here yet. I have my fingers crossed to get it.

Like I need another critter to PO the neighbors.

I wonder if I can train it to aim...

Congratulations Theron!!!

x2, love your plans for the future, good luck

Shes sweet Daron, congratulations, I love the name... but chicken grandma is right, the calf should have nothing but the moms milk for 3 or 4 days to get the colostrum, it has antibodies etc that will help the calf's immunity system etc. It's also like a milk primer to give the calf's digestive system time to adjust to processing milk and then food.
Give her a few days before you start giving it out to the others.

congratulations Daran, sweet calf and name

 

[Totalcolour]

I would imagine it's also, in large part, the reading. There is something to be said for learning new words in context rather than just learning them from a list. Not to mention being exposed to different styles of writing and how they impact the reader.

One of the things we had to do in school, was to read a book by a famous (not necessarily contemporary) writer, and then write a "précis" (I'm not sure what the American version of this word is), using the author's style. Of course, this was in the last century and a different country!

One of the things I find quite shocking in this country, is the number of people who home school, who are barely literate themselves. Worse still, my daughter told me of a "remedial reading" class in the college she attended. How on earth can one get into college if one cannot read properly?

 

[1muttsfan]

Farmerboy is right, he can milk Bella and feed the calf from what he milks. Dairy-type cows give so much more milk than the calf can eat, that if he didn't milk her she would suffer discomfort from an overful udder, and possibly the pressure would reduce her milk production. As long as the calf eats only colostrum for the first 48 hours. Longer would be better. In addition, allowing a calf to suckle increases the risk of bacterial contamination of the milk, so milking the cow and feeding the calf what it needs from that is more sanitary if you are going to consume the milk for yourself.

 

[Totalcolour]

Congrats Daron - that's a BEAUTIFUL baby cow! I wish I had the acreage to have a cow or two. I guess I'll just have to be happy with the goats.

 

[swampducks]

I've got a meatie roasting in the oven. My very last one. Found it at the bottom of the chest freezer. My future roasters will be extra roos and the occasional fat hen. Haven't had a nice roast chicken in a while. Perfect day for it, cold, gloomy and rainy. Some nice asparagus on the side, a bottle of dry white wine from Michigan. Dang, I'm getting hungry and there's at least another hour to go!

 

[Olive Hill]

Nice heifer, Daron! Bella is Holstein/Angus, right? What kind of bull did they use on her? As for the milking, keep doing what you're doing. As you know from working on a dairy, Bella is producing more than Maybelline can eat. Milk her off to keep her healthy and her production up.

 

[Elliemae 77]

Awwwww. She's beautiful Daron! I agree with color....makes me want to raise a dairy cow.....shoot I'd be happy with a goat. Still working on hubby though....We've graduated from "no animals" to "ok, you can have a horse again, but nothing else" ...to" well I guess you can have 1 or2 chickens" ...to. " how many do you need?"...and from "No, we will not have a dog again" to..." You're right. The kids should have a dog to grow up with".....There is hope. Yup, I count my blessings everyday, and thank God for a understanding husband.(Now you all see where my username comes from)

 

[Ferrret]

Worse still, my daughter told me of a "remedial reading" class in the college she attended. How on earth can one get into college if one cannot read properly?

While it seems strange, there is a reason for it. Some people have learning disorders such as dyslexia and cannot read as well, or as quickly, as their classmates and they perform better in a remedial class. I ended up in a remedial class in high school, I had issues with my sophomore English teacher, and it was set up halfway between a normal class and a special education class. There were students in the class who were just lazy and didn't feel like being in school and, unsurprisingly, they simply stopped showing up after a month, but there were about 5 students who had legitimate issues reading and keeping up in a normal class. The teacher I had was also my German teacher and I was a student aid for him (I had a total of 3 classes with him) so he knew I wasn't a struggling or lazy student. He had me help the struggling students understand the work better and the students appreciated having someone there for one on one help when they needed it.

Gifted students get frustrated when they are in a class that moves slower than they do, leaving them bored and frustrated. Just as frustrating is a class that moves much faster than you can keep up with, making many give up on getting any work done. Schools used to divide classes up so the gifted students could work at their pace and struggling students could get the help they need. With larger class sizes and screwy standardized tests it's much harder to separate the over and under achievers.

College shouldn't be held out of reach for someone just because they have difficulty in one area of education, so remedial classes are offered to help struggling students. Someone who struggles at basic reading may be brilliant at mathematics or science and vice versa, so it's not really fair to squash all potential based on one set of skills.