[AT] A cow and farming ramble

[toma at risingnet.net]

Quoting Len Rugen <lrugen at c-magic.com>:

> Before I was old enough to drive a tractor, I had a "guard cow".  I wasn't
> old enough to remember it, but I had fell (probably climbing over the gate,
> a big no-no) and was being "guarded" by the milk cow until someone got
> there.
>
> We always left the calf on the cow, as we wouldn't use all she produced.  We
> would pen the calf in the morning, then milk half of her in the evening,
> then turn her back to her calf.
>
> Want a week-day only cow?  Keep the calf.  Leave them together on days you
> don't want to milk.
>

Years ago I milked a cow for a time. This was a pain so I soon sold her.

We have now started to get back in the cattle business and have registered
Shorthorns. Fancy Pants, our best looking heifer did not have a calf last year,
she finally started showing signs of calving a while back. There had been so
much rain here that I was worried about her calving out on the hill. I kicked
out one of the horses and locked her in a horse stall. Well, a couple of weeks
of feeding and cleaning cowshit finally paid off. Last weekend she presented us
with a beautiful heifer calf. Fancy is from milking stock so she is giving a lot
of milk. The calf is dong a good job and working all four quarters but I thought
I would try an milk her a bit. I milked out about a cup of milk and we enjoyed
this sample a lot. It puts store bought milk to shame. I guess I am going to go
ahead and try and milk her a little more, at least there is no long term
commitment when you are sharing with the calf.