After what seemed like forever waiting to find one, we went and picked up our new house cow. She is purebred Jersey, will be four years old in October and has a five month old steer calf at foot – he has tentatively been named “Bangers” as in ‘bangers and mash’ to go with the food name theme for the boys, but she doesn’t have a name yet. I want a name that is sweet and gentle, so something along the lines of Rosie, Annie, Abbey, Bonnie, Violet, Blossom or similar.
She has lost a huge amount of condition since we first saw her ten days ago – I know she is a dairy cow and they are definitely way more boney than beef breeds, but can see all her ribs and vertebrae 🙁 It is possibly because of her having the squirts from the huge quantity of green grass that has sprung up where she was after the opening rains we have had, plus her beef cross calf is a big boy, so I will be pumping the hay and good groceries into her to get her back to a bit better condition asap, especially as she may be in calf.
She was running with a Murray Grey bull and would be due to calf in September, so I will do a blood draw and have her preg tested at the end of next month so I can wean Bangers and dry her off before she freshens.
I’ve got him separated in the yard tonight and plan to attempt milking her for the first time in the morning. She was only milked very briefly in her first lactation, so I am fully expecting a rodeo for the first month or two until she settles down and learns to trust me, but I figure nothing can be as bad as hand milking Charlotte aka devil-cow!
I can’t wait to have beautiful creamy jersey milk again!
