A few days ago we welcomed a new addition on the farm. Relampaga (the brown and white cow in the picture) is June's (the black cow) first female calf. She is about 3 years old, and is now a first time mother. We now have three generations out in the field ♥️. She's an attentive mama, and protective of her baby.
We practice calf sharing with our cows, so mama and baby will not be separated for at least the first two weeks as we ease both of them into the milking routine. For now, every day I go out I check on mama, go through the motions of milking and make sure no mastitis sets in. She's going to be a very productive cow!
Once the calf is eating grass, and showing herself to be strong and healthy, we'll start separating her from her mama for about 10 to 12 hour overnight stretches. This will allow a nice bit of milk to build up that we will then take for ourselves before turning baby loose to freely nurse for the remainder of the day.
Now that I have two cows to milk, I'm going to have to get creative with so much milk. I just borrowed the neighbors cheese press, but I think I might also need to sew a strainer bag for making greek yogurt. I'm most excited about the possibility of building up a store of butter. 🤤
I've had cows fairly continuously for the last 11 years, and cannot imagine my life without one.
