We're getting a cow!!!

[Katy]

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So is the bull calf you got with her, her calf? Is he still nursing on her....is that the reason you aren't milking her today?

 

[Lothiriel]

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She's 2, and I believe this is her second calf (? we don't know for sure, but it's most likely). She was $900.

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So is the bull calf you got with her, her calf? Is he still nursing on her....is that the reason you aren't milking her today?

Yes, he's her calf. He was born in April, so he's still nursing. Actually, the reason we didn't milk her today is because she is totally new to us, and we just needed to let her get used to us and not nervous or anything. (No problem - she's extremely friendly!) So my sister and I are going to milk her for the first time in the morning. She should be good with it, as she has been hand milked before.

 

[Amanda0609]

she is so cute. I'm jealous. I live in the city and can't have a cow. My 4 year old knows I want one and told me he would empty his bank and buy me one for my birthday.

 

[MagsC]

How beautiful!! I love Jerseys...

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Nice look'in cow ya ave' there!

We also have a Jersey! She is alittle lighter in color than yours, though. She has two calves on her right now. She did have 4 calves on her, but we got rid of two of'em.

 

[Mountainlaurel]

You will love the milk. We have 3 Jersey girls, Marigold, Jezibelle and Sheba. The milk is delicious and makes so much cream. I make butter, yogurt, ice cream and we use the milk in lots of recipes. I make some cheese with it to when I have the time. Also Jersey milk soap which is so rich and creamy.

We milk once a day and feed the calf the other time. We also feed our pigs that we raise for market the milk. However, we don't hand milk but we have a bucket milker. Makes it easier

Congratulations, Jerseys are wonderful ladies to have around

 

[Lothiriel]

My sister and I milked her this morning, and actually got 1 1/2 quarts!! Pretty good for our first time milking a cow, I'd say.

We're hand milking. No cream today...

We're not good enough yet, but we'll get there. lol I did get a nice head of foam though!

Daisy was very good about it. She's such a darling cow...

And her milk is so delicious too - can't wait till we get the cream!

Her calf (I called him Sunny D, because he likes to lay in the sunshine and he's likely to end up as dinner, and it's nicer than just plain "Dinner"...

) or the other calf that was on her - she was a nurse cow - has bitten one of her teats, so we're going to have to keep him off that teat and possibly bottle feed him. Her teat doesn't look nice - it's hard and feels a little swollen. We've gotten help from another forum dedicated to family cows, so we're going to get some stuff to take care of it in the morning.

Oh... I'm lovin' life with a cow...

 

[Katy]

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Make sure you milk her completely out when you milk her, or her milk supply will dwindle down. I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say you didn't get any cream.....the cream will come to the top of the milk when its sets.

 

[texasshell]

Congratulations

Katy is correct, the cream will separate and rise to the top after sitting a bit. I had a cow many many years ago, when it was not so common to have a family cow. I sure do miss it and have been considering getting a couple of goats. It takes a lot of dedication but it is so worth it to me.

 

[Lothiriel]

Sorry, I didn't say it correctly.

We did get cream, but it wasn't much since we didn't get much milk. We did get more this morning, though. (It took us an hour...) We're probably going to up it to twice a day milking, mainly because we have to try bottle feeding the calf so he doesn't keep making the cuts on her teat open up. It really looks painful... I feel really bad for her when he's nursing.

We put bacitracin cream on it earlier.

We're all pretty tuckered out actually. We've had almost constant stress for about 2 weeks, and now that the animals are here I (at least) feel pretty dead. x_x Mom just told me that we should all take a nap... Sounds really good to me........