well, we did it

OK. So we have had cows since late summer 2010. We started with one bred Jersey cow. We still have her too, Maggie is her name. She will be 10 in October. WOW.
 I've learned so much about dairy cows in the last almost 7 years.
In that time the only way we have bred our cows is through AI. It's really nice, and affordable to do it too. And no worries about a bull. Seems that Jersey bulls are the ugliest, we've been told, by many other farmers. Great! But the company that we have used for AI services decided to double their charges to come to the farm starting in January this year. Ouch.  And then if they don't settle, they have to come back out. Another ouch. Well, we still need the AI tech for a little while longer, unless we don't want to breed cows....
So we decided to try raising our own bull. One that wasn't related to our girls, except his mama. So he can do his job, and no AI services needed. Hopefully we can have him for a couple years and sell him.

And here is Bouvardia "Bravo". He's a purebred, register-able Jersey.

He's only 5 days old here in this picture. He's so little and scrawny looking.  Hopefully he'll give us some nice heifers. His mom is doing really well, and is a nice first time milker.

Have a great day y'all!

ice be gone

We had this...

and this...

And now we have...

A few puddles.
This is what a couple days of 40ish degree weather and rain will do. I'm so glad the ice is gone. Now I don't have to cringe when the cows go out. Not that the pasture was full of ice, but there was some out there. Don't let the sunny looking picture fool you. The temperature dropped considerable, and the wind picked up and didn't help the temperature at all. So cold and windy. But the wind dried up a lot of what the rain brought.

As you can see the pasture is now pretty bare and the girls are all out and happily munching on hay.
Have a great day yall

lights, glorious lights

 Well I know I told you that we, and when I say we, I really mean my wonderful, talented husband, put lights in the barns this fall. I just stood there and was the silent, err not so silent chatter box,  go-for this and go-for that girl. I know nothing about electricity. Other then flipping the switch to turn it on and off. LOL. Here are the big milking girls in their barn. Yes we milk 3 by hand. And yes the barn is small. But for now it works, we and the cows are happy. And see. Lights! There are 2 lights in this barn. So here is the proof. We now have been milking in the lights! Before we used headlights. Which work great better then a flashlight on the floor. But then he decided to put in lights to make life a little brighter in the winter. Come February it's always a delight when the days get longer and brighter.

And here are is the other barn with the younger stalk and horses. There are 3 lights in this barn! And the lights were on. I'm standing in the corner of the barn by the door. They were all too busy eating to pay any attention to me.
Have a great day ya'll!

heifers

I'm still around. My computer died and we had to get another one. Then I get busy with life and forget to blog! Seems like everyday posts would be boring. So I don't tend to do that. Who wants to read the same blog post everyday?! Basically I do the same thing everyday. With exceptions of course! Then there are times when I do everything but the norm. So I'll give you a post about the farm.
But enough about that rattling along.

The other day we turned the heifers out. We decided to put them out alone. We weren't sure what they would do, and we didn't want anyone to get hurt. Well those two little buggers (Goldie and Callie) ran and ran right through the fence. Well that was fun! They decided that the fence was too hot after the second time of thinking they wanted to go through it. They learned their boundaries. They finally decided to settle down and eat some hay. But not before they goofed off in the hay I threw on the ground.
Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

The other cattle are looking on with excitement at the heifers. The two kiddos in the pasture are my youngest two.

Callie. As you can see we didn't have any snow. Now we have some. Not a lot. But enough.

Kicking up their heels a bit!!

Finally eating some hay after feeling their oats!
Have a great day ya'll!!

the blade

Well since putting in the hay bin for the cows, we have come to realize how much they poop in the same spot where they eat. I mean we knew they did, but three cows eating and pooping in the same spot while they happily munch on hay, makes for a lot of manure in one spot! Since they are in the area near the barn it needs to be cleaned out. Regularly. Like a free stall it's wet and soupy. We also realized we don't want a free stall. So my husband has been using the bucket of the tractor to clean out the manure. We don't have  cement pad in front of the barn, only a gravel pad the bucket has been digging up the gravel every time my husband scrapes it down. Or all the manure doesn't get scraped up because we need that gravel there.  And that is just a mess. Gravel isn't cheap, and it's not being delivered any more until spring time. So what to do? We've made the bucket work but we started to look around for a blade. Meanwhile I had no idea what he was talking about when he said we needed a blade. So he told me it was something that would scrape down an area and do just what it was made to do. And showed me a picture. Oh. Now I know.
 They had some at a supply store, but the quality wasn't what we were looking for. We tried the tractor store where we have bought equipment, and they didn't have any in. So online we went. He found some of the brand he was looking for. Woods is the brand he wanted. They have a good reputation and hold up.
Well he found one. About 21/2 hours away from where we live! That's a haul. So the other day, off he went to get it. I was unable to go due to a previous engagement.
Well when I got home that night he had hitched it onto the tractor, with the help from our son and used it! What a fabulous thing the blade is! Yay!

Here it is. 7 feet long! Scrapping the poop time!

Liquid manure. Before.  About 4 inches worth. Plus we've had rain. So that only adds to it...

My handsome hubby :)Ya, I think his tractors sexy ;)

Well here it is. Mmmm hope your not eating breakfast with a weak stomach ;) Haha But really this is wonderful. It's scraping the gravel pad clean and not digging it up! All the manure is being pushed away!

Here is a picture from the next morning after scraping. The girls slept in the barn due to the bad weather...See we have some snow. Yuck. I've been enjoining the mild winter and no snow to be honest. The girls are out and standing on a cleared gravel pad. Eating their hay!

 Here is another picture. Happy cows. Happy life.

Have a great day ya'll!

are the cows out???

Living on a farm makes for an interesting lifestyle. Especially when the cows go into heat with no bull around. Well, some cows are totally obnoxious and others are not so bad.
The other day we were gone, and I knew Suzie was in heat that morning by her behavior. But I had things to do. So we left. When the kiddos and I got home that night Suzie was not in her pasture with the steer we have. She was, thankfully, in with the big girls. She was hanging out with them.  Well we managed to get her in the correct pasture and I fixed the fence she took down, and plugged it back in. But she just decided she wasn't going to stay  put where she was supposed to be, but go where she wanted to go! Through the fence, again! I had my son go get the fence tester. I love that fence tester. Such a good investment. Well come to find out the fence was only a .2 charge. OK. So that was why Suzie just walked through the fence with no problems. Well after wrestling with her for a while in the dark I got my fingers in her nose to keep her head still so I could slip her rope halter on. She has a chain around her neck, which is normally fine for her, but not when she's in heat! I wanted a little more control! I got her in her barn with the other two young heifers and shut her in her stanchion for the night. Phew! That done and knowing she wasn't going anywhere I could look for the fence problem. We still had all the chores to do and my husband was working late at the mill. So the kiddos and I looked for the down fence. Well it wasn't down anywhere. I ceased my looking and started milking and while I was milking I was thinking about where the problem could be. It's great milking cows by hand. You have time to think in the quiet and enjoy the sounds of your cow munching on grain, the gurgling of her big belly when she's done, the slurping of her tongue on her water pail as she drinks, and the warmth of her body on a cold winter night. It's in that time my brain slows down and I'm just able to milk and let some of the stress of my day go.
Well as I milked I was thinking, and had my son check a few things because he was done milking by then. All was plugged in and working and the charger was ticking. I knew it had to be the fence. But where? Once I was done I was back in the house, and starting a late supper. The big girls were still in the barn. I was keeping them in until my husband got home to help fine the problem. I had noticed that the red light on the fence (which is amazing thing to have. One glance at night out the window and seeing that red pulse of light on the fence tells me the fence is on and hot)! that light was not blinking as bright as it should be, and the fact it was only .2 I knew it was close to the source of the charger. Well once my husband got home he went right to work on the problem, once I told him all I had discovered. He found it quickly and fixed it. I went out to help and asked what it was. Well the wire that was connected to the charger was all but rusted off. So he snipped it off, put new wire on and boom! Problem solved. Now the fence is a hot snapping 7.9!! Suzie will be sure to stay in now! As well as the rest of the cows.
So, before you leave make sure your fences are hot!! Haha!!
Have a great day ya'll!!!

magnolia

Maggie turned 8 this fall. The mother of our herd. She's been a great family cow for us and the beginning of our small growing herd.

"

Maggie"

She has a forever home with us.
Have a great day ya'll

part of the herd

Here are our girls. Nice looking girls I'd say!

Left to right - Dandie, the first heifer born on our farm. Daffy, the second heifer born on our farm. Maggie the mama.

Daffy and Dandie in the barn waiting to be milked!

Have a great day ya'll!

handy man

I've said it many times. My husband is very handy, and I'm so thankful for it!  He built this...

 A hay feeder for the cows! Now we can put the hay in this and not have the cows poop, and sleep all through their hay.

Side view. He saw one like it for $2500. Then decided to build his own. We love it. And I think the cows do too!
We put up our winter fence this morning. It snowed last night, the 22, as you can see. Just a dusting. Our first snow of the winter. We made the fence so that we can open it up and scrape the manure off the gravel pad, to help keep where they eat drier. Seeing how cows poop where they eat. This was just another winter project we needed to get done.
Now that is done and we can breath a little easier. Feels good to know that the cows won't waste as much hay now that it's in the feeder!

makin sweet hay

It was late in the haying season when we were finally able to get the last of the hay done. We ended up having to hire getting some of it done. We don't have a round baler or a wrapper. Two things that we have talked about needing in the future. We've come to the conclusion that we will be feeding sweet hay to the cows. So we will be getting the equipment to do that. It's hard to depend on others, their schedules,  and the weather as well. But we are thankful that we were finally able to get it done.
The day that it was baled and wrapped started out to be a nice day. Thankfully. Nice and warm and partly sunny. Because, come to find out, to make the wrap stick to itself the temperature needs to be warm. I have never wrapped hay before so I had no idea. But it makes sense. So my husband and the guy who was baling the hay were out in the field. Another guy was at the house with me to load the bale onto the wrapper, I was the wrapper. He showed me how it was done, and then got in his tractor and loaded a bale. I ended up having one of the kiddos bring out some ear plugs for me. It was kinda loud. We had the kiddos stay in the house, because we didn't want the guy driving the tractor, or me, to worry about where they were while he was moving bales around the yard.

 Well, here I am. Unloading a bale from the wrapper. As you can see by the picture I have on some layers. The weather cooled off later in the day and we even got some sprinkles of rain ... I was afraid I was gonna get soaked! But I'm pleased to say we did not get any rain! Phew. And the temperature kept warm enough to keep the wrap to stick to itself. But just standing there not moving around a whole lot I got chilly.

Here is the guy and his tractor loading up some hay. Both tractors and wrapper are his.  He wasn't too worried about it if it rained...haha
Well needless to say we got the hay home and wrapped and it's here at our farm. The cows love it, and we are pleased with the outcome.
Oh have no fear a post about the empty stanchions is coming.  :)
Have a great weekend all!

remodeling...

Well hello blogger world. Seems I post for a while then I don't for a long time. Life seems to be flying by me at a rapid pace. My weeks seem to jumble into a blurr of activity.

Thankfully our fall hasn't been too bad. The weather has been good, except for some cold snaps early on killing off all the beautiful fall foliage.  Still seems to be so much to do around the farm. I think that is the way of it though. There is always something to do! We have been getting ready for the winter. Making sure everything is "buttoned up!" Slowly but surely we are getting it done. Makes life interesting living on a farm and making sure everything is ready for snow. That and living in a New England state we are forever and always preparing for winter. From the critters, to the equipment, to the buildings! And making sure we have enough fire wood to last us through. Have no fear we are all set, just in case you were worried I might freeze ;)

Some of the work we have been up to is remodeling the horse barn.  We needed a place to keep some of the younger cattle we have. So, my husband being the amazing man that he is, remodeled it, and then put in electricity!!
SO here is the before picture. The inside of the horse barn, one side of it. Now keep in mind this part of the barn has been a hay storage,weaning stall, a stall for a cow through the winter, sheep barn, pig stall, and a birthing stall for a cow too. I think that sums it up.

 Here is the inside of the stall. Pardon the poo we've had a cow in there. I forget the size of it..see the little side door that has a board across it? That was for the sheep, and pigs to go in and out. All sealed off so no one will fall out.

 Here is to go into the barn. There are boards on the sides like a jail. My mare, Abby, is crabby and will bite anyone who is in the stall. So we blocked her from doing so.

Here is my honey cutting some lumber for the floor. See the wrapped hay? MmmHmm sweet hay for the cows. They love that stuff. The old wall for the stall was ripped out, a new floor laid down, 4 stanchions were built in. And...

Tada!! The finished product. Rubber mats, water buckets, and a place for 4 young cows. Well one of them is a steer that is a Jersey, Red Angus cross. He will be going in our freezer when he's old enough. Now about those 4 young cows. We have Suzie last years heifer, and the steer, we call him Bullseye. Now what of the other 2 stanchions that are there....you'll have to come back to find out...

Have a great day ya'll! 

year of the bull

Yup. That's right. We had our third and final bull calf born yesterday afternoon. Maggie surprised me with it. Now  knew she was due, but I really didn't think she would go yesterday. It's baby number 6 for her, but she just didn't look like she was going to go. But thinking about it I think her due date was yesterday.

My husband and son were away for the whole day, and I was home with the girls. We weeded one of the gardens and staked up tomatoes. Then I went to clean the horse barn, while the girls played in the kiddy pool. The reason I mention my husband being gone is due to Maggie's attitude when she has a calf. She is VERY protective and gets mean for about 3 days, then chills out. Throwing her head and pawing the ground. She has tossed her head at my husband and pushed him aside in a not so friendly way in the past after calving. She's a wonderful easy milker and mother. So I guess we take the good with the bad. She's just doing her job, as we have let the moms raise the calves for now.
I had come out of the horse barn and had things to put away. I looked up in the field and saw Maggie and said "son on a gun. She just had that calf!" I dropped whatever I was carrying and trotted up to where Maggie was. Sure enough there was the calf. I still have no idea what was carrying and where I dropped them. The girls called and asked if they could come up. They did.

He was almost dried off. It was such a warm beautiful day yesterday. It was also Suzie's first birthday too! (Last years calf)
We stood and watched for a while.  Then I called my husband to let him know. He said let her be for the afternoon, and milk her later in the evening. Then I called my brother and father in law and asked if they would come over after work to help me get Maggie and calf in the barn. I needed some help in case something went wrong, and I got hurt.

Well much to my surprise Maggie was totally fine. She did paw the ground when we walked up to her pen, but then she just walked nice as you please to the barn. She chowed down her grain while I milked her out. Then my BIL helped me give her some calcium to help prevent milk fever, and she never tossed her head. She just was like OK. I could hardly believe it. She was a totally different cow! I wondered when she would act out, and kept my guard up, but she was fine. I was so very thankful.  Later that evening when my husband called to see how things went I couldn't stop gushing about how good she was for us! He was pleased to hear that! Almost as pleased as I was to tell him.

Here he is this morning. See his tongue? He was a hungry little bugger. The pail that I milked in was almost full. We don't save the colostrum milk. That is why it's in the dirty plastic pail.
Well as far as the cows we currently have, we are done with our calving season. 3 bulls in one year. I'm thankful for the healthy calves and mamas. I am lookin forward to breeding them again, and hopefully getting some more heifers next spring and summer!
Have a great day ya'll!

it's a good day to be born

Well we took delivery of a bull calf today!  Dandies second calf, and her second bull calf. Although this time she is so much better off. Last year we almost lost her to Ketosis, and then milk fever. And had to pull the calf. She was due the 22 and we've been on pins and needles waiting for this calf to come. Due to all the hardship she had last year. We've been up every night multiple times checking on her. She's been bagged up and dripping a little milk and her vulva has been swollen for several days.
She labored for about 22 minutes from the time we saw the sack of front hooves come out to the time he was on the ground. We were all outside watching and I got lots of pics. So if your squeamish don't look down at the pics. I think it's an amazing event and the kiddos all watched.

I was actually heading out the drive way to go help my sister at her farm when I looked in the pasture and Dandie was standing with her head down and back arched. That looked suspicious to me and I stopped and watched. She laid down and was clearly starting to push. I ran back to the house and called to  my husband and grabbed the camera. I always grab the camera! He texted my sister to let her know I was not on my way. She understood, she had goats that recently kidded. We all sat and watched the event quietly. Even the animals were quiet while she labored. The other cows left her alone too, they must sense something is different with her and they leave her be.
Graphic birthing pictures! You've been warned!  (Smile)

 We kept a watch on the time due to the fact that she had such a time of it last year. But this time she was an old pro at it!  She did it all on her own. She was down for a while. Then she was up.

We watched her breathing when she was down. Then she got up and moved around. We just moved too. But we kept our distance to let her work. Then she laid down and just pushed.

 And here he comes out!

 My husband went out in the field to get the sack off it's nose while she stood up and then her backed off to see what she would do.

Her natural mothers instinct kicked in and she immediately came to him and licked him dry. All the while mooing softly at him and nudging him to stimulate him. It was amazing to watch her.

 Daffy (who is 7 days over due) was in the pasture with her, and she wanted to come see the new addition. Dandie didn't seem to mind showing off her prize!

Then started the trying process of standing on those long wobbly legs.

Ker-splat on his face. After some more encouraging from his mama he was up on his feet and noisily eating away!

And here they are. Dandie is a wonderful mom and she is good to her baby. So far they are both healthy and happy, napping in the pasture! Now we pray they stay that way! We are pleased and thankful for a healthy calf and mama!
Have a great Memorial Day ya'll.

a few more updates

Well yesterday was Daffodils 2end birthday! And today is her due date for her first calf. We are waiting...things are changing on her body to tell us the time is coming. I just don't think it will be today while it's nice and sunny out. Probably tomorrow when it's cold and raining she'll have it...

Daffy is the cow in the back of the photo. The one in front her mama, Maggie.

Spring is springing. It's dry here. I'm surprised with all the snow we had all winter long too. But things are blooming. It's been a cold spring too, temperature wise it feels more like April then May.

We bought a pin wheel rake this winter. Got all it's teeth it's a little rusted but works fine. Fairly simple piece of equipment, nothing fancy about it. And it's a big step up for us as far as raking goes!
We also got a hay elevator! I'm most excited about that! It's all in working order too. We got it out and put it together and greased it all up. I don't have a pic of it though. Maybe later.

One more piece of equipment we got this winter was a chicken plucker!

I think this one will defeather 5 chickens at once.  This will save so much time for us! And we have lots of broilers to be doing in a few more weeks! I'll take pics and show you. Aren't you excited?!

Well here is hoping that when I post next it will be birthing pics of Dandie or Daffy!
Have a great day ya'll!

milkin

So on this very long dreary Saturday I decided to post.  The snow is almost gone here, and the rain has been falling. I know some are getting flooding with the snow they have and then the rain. I'm glad I live in wide open spaces on a hill ;) But it is wet here. It's spring after all.

So I have been milking Maggie, and my husband has been milking Dandie. Just to get her used to it. I milked Dandie once while my husband tailed he, a few days after she had her first calf. She knocked me off the stool, into Maggie. I managed to get the pail before she spilled all the milk but landed in Maggie's stanchion. I curled up to keep from getting kicked in the head, thankfully she didn't kick me. She just scooted to the side away from me. I picked myself up and looked at my husband. He just grinned at me and said "If that happens again, hit the gutter." The gutter being where all the pee and crap lands, if you didn't know. I curled my noes up at that, and began milking Dandie again. She didn't knock me off the stool again. I have milked her since then and she's doing better.

Our son has been chomping at the bit to milk his cow. We put it off to get Dandie more used to it, and we needed a new disc for the camera. We needed a picture. So the other day he got to milk his cow, the front quarters all by himself, by hand at that.

Here is my boy milking his cow. The black thing is a cow kicker, to keep her from kicking. She hasn't kicked with it on either.

Here is the milk coming out!! We didn't have any gloves that fit him. The purple boots in the back are me! I'm watching with a great deal of pride.
My boy didn't stop smiling the whole time he milked. He kept at it and didn't complain his hands were sore at all. Now he milks all four quarters by himself sometimes. He's always quite pleased with this new chore. He loves his cow, and now that she is productive it pleases him he's big and strong enough to milk.
Have a great rest of the weekend all!

bitter sweet

Mama and son resting Saturday the 23. I took this picture and it was a bitter sweet moment for me. All of us really. We knew going into this birth, that if it was a bull calf then he would have to go. We couldn't use him for breeding, or have a "pet" and not for meat either. He was my son's calf and he decided that the sooner he went the better. My husband made calls and found someone that wanted him. So late Saturday morning he took this little charge and took him to a new farm with goats, bunnies, cows, and such.  The girls got all teary and didn't want him to go. We told them we didn't have a choice, and he had to go. Such is life on a farm and we can't keep him. My boy was gone for the day and when he got home my husband told him about it and he seemed ok with it. Dandie can have more and maybe next time she'll give us a heifer. That made him feel better.
Dandie went outside. She looked around and mooed a little. When they came back in the barn both cows mooed and looked around. I think they were a little confused. I felt bad. But all in all she seemed to take this ok too. The calf never nursed off her, so I don't know if that helped with her not being too attached to him. Not really sure. I try not to humanize it too much because it kills me. Being a mom and all I get all sad and melancholy when I think of taking the babies away.
As for the questions I got in the comments: Yes it was a bull calf.
Yes Dandie is a calm cow. She doesn't get too upset at things. Right from the get go with the calf she was calm with us being close to her, and him. We shall see how that goes with more babies as they come.
Yes Dandies tits are small. It's hard to milk her. We have to "strip" the teat rather then the regular squeeze. She prefers to have us start milking the front quarters first, then the back. Weird I know, but she stands better when we do it that way.
Have a great day ya'll!

first milking

Here is my husband milking Dandie for the first time...
I'm actually tailing her while snapping this photo. I'm super talented like that you know. For those of you who don't know what tailing is, it's when you hold the cows tail straight up in the air. It puts pressure on the spine and makes it uncomfortable for the cow to wanna kick. Yes even though Dandie has been with us for her whole life and handled daily, and touched everywhere, she still did some kicking and dancing. We hand milk still. I know way like olden days. But I actually love to milk by hand. Again, I'm weird, and when we go to milkers I will miss hand milking. But all in all Dandie didn't do too bad at all. She's a calm cow anyways and she didn't get too bothered at this milking...

Here he is the next morning 3-21-14. It's a little blurry because my camera was on the wrong setting. My bad. But still, he's super cute. Looks like his mama. Pale brown, and not real red like Daffy was.

We feel like in a way we've come full circle on the farm. The first heifer cow that was born here, has now had her first calf.