Humbly! Our Jersey cow and her baby....who shall remain nameless because of his future of being.... uh dinner. Boo!! I know. Throw the rotten veggies at us.
It's so cool to finally be at this point in our journey of becoming more self-sufficient. For years, we've been buying from local farms in the way of milk and beef and we're now at the place where we can raise it ourselves. Knowing how the animals have been raised and treated is a huge part of the nutrition aspect of food. While not everyone can do this, thankfulness does go beyond appreciative for every good farm who provides for the public. Their goals for sustainable farming practices and healthy food are who have helped motivate us in this venture as well. They redefine the farming paradigm from the conventional, GMO, chemical dependent, government sponsored methods to the holistic, natural, personal and more connected way of life.
Sweet Humbly is about three years old and is also expecting another calf...hopefully, around March. We'd love to have a heifer, but a bull would be great too. We hope to add a couple of other "beefs" to the field once they are of weaning age.
So, yes we will be milking daily. We're starting off hand milking and if we get another heifer then we may add an electric milker, but with only one when you consider the time for clean-up you really don't save any time from start to finish. Course it is a lot more physical work to hand milk...so we'll see. For now Joe and I see it as upper body exercise...soon able to crack nuts in our palms with a simple squeeze! Like I need bigger fore arms.
She'll be dried off during the fall in preparation for calving, so we'll have a winter break too. Thankfully, we have our other farm source for fresh milk so the break will be a nice welcome.
Humbly is acclimating well, but since cows are creatures of habit the change has been well....change. New environment, new milkers, etc. The first milking was going great until she got spooked somehow. Kids came in the barn, Joe's uncle was on "Gertie" and drove by the barn, so all the factors at once caused her to balk. We could never get her back into the barn. Joe tried milking outside but she would move and kick over the bucket. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get her to stand still we finally let her go and let the calf have his fill. The next day was a bit more successful and we managed to get 1/2 gallon and her IN the barn.
We are now averaging a gallon a day, the perfect mount of not too much or too little. This spring after she calves she should be up to three gallons a day. Leaving plenty for making ice cream, butter, and cheese regularly.
We are continuing to alternate milkers so she can be used to Joe and I. We'll also be training up Noah who does great with having smaller hands, but so far his official position is herdsman extraordinaire. Humbly is really a good demeanored cow and thankfully tolerates her less than perfect milkers. Not all milk cows are this easy and generally have to be broken to milk. We bought her already used to both hand and machine milking so it's been more of the learning curve on OUR part.
The key to nutritious fresh milk is the condition of the cow and practicing good hygiene. We use glass half gallon jars, stainless steel bucket and filters. We are also careful to wash her udder and teets thoroughly before milking. Milk must be refrigerated quickly and clean up done scrupulously. You don't want milk residue left on any of the dishware as it can cause the milk to turn sour quicker. However, souring in raw milk is not a bad thing. It's how butter milk and sour cream are made. Pasteurized milk when it's left out will turn rancid and not sour. You can drink the soured milk but not rancid. Big difference!
So far having the cows around has been nothing but positive. It's wonderful to look outside and see them peacefully grazing on the plethora of FREE grass and knowing that they are efficiently converting all of it to something delicious and nutritious for us. God is truly amazing in his design!
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