Friday, November 23, 2012

Cows and Raw Milk

This morning while most people are out shopping and trying to get that deal, I will be milking our cow.

The Farmer grew up with a family milk cow.  For months now we have thought about and discussed purchasing our own jersey cow.  A milk cow changes your life!  There is no 'waiting' to milk.  It's once in the morning and once in the evening.  Best if twelve hours apart.  No days off.  It isn't for everyone.  The Farmer knew this, I hadn't lived the experience.

We researched and decided IF we obtained a milk cow, we wanted a mini jersey.  Why a mini?  First reason is less feed.  A cow eats between 2 and 4% of their body weight.  Smaller cow, smaller pasture needed.  Less hay required.  The other main reason for a mini is milk production.  A full size Jersey cow usually produces between 4-6 gallons of milk per DAY.  A mini usually gives about half of that per day. Seriously a family of four can't really drink two gallons of milk a day! Can they?  

Well two weeks ago the Farmer saw an ad for a jersey and her calf.  After phone calls and a road trip, we became owners of Rose Bud, aka Rosie, and her heifer calf pictured above.  My daughter named the calf, AnnaBelle.   Rosie is a registered mid-mini jersey and is 6 years old.  Little 'Belle' is her third calf.  The lady we purchased them from stated that Belle was two weeks old at the time.  We feel she might have been a little bit over that.
Jersey cows are known to be a tad temperamental.  So after the almost two hour road trip and new surroundings, we milked Rosie for the first time by hand.  Now the Farmer has done this.  It was my very first time.  Although, I'm quite proud to say, I caught on real quick!   When cows are nervous or not really settled, this will cause the amount of milk produced to decrease.  Not to mention when the humans are a bit nervous!   All went well and we've got milk.
Most milk cows prefer one side to milk from, lucky for us, Rosie doesn't care which side or both at the same time.  The first few days we hand milked.  Which is an adventure for this "city" girl.  Then the Farmer surprised me with a new farm 'toy' (which is what I call all the equipment around here).  A milker.
We are currently milking 3 teats and leaving one for the calf.  Easier than bottle feeding the calf for us.  The milker doesn't really cut down on the time because you have to clean all the equipment after each use.  But it sure saves hands and old knees!  
Little Belle wasn't handled much prior to her arrival on the Farm.  However, she is becoming friendlier every day and growing like a weed.  Rosie seems to have settled in to her new home, enjoying the pasture during the day.  She is producing an average of one gallon per milking.  Two gallons a day!  We are enjoying fresh milk and I want to try my hand at making butter.   Yes, we are drinking 'raw milk', straight from the cow to the frig.  If you would like to know more about the benefits of raw milk, here is a website with tons of information: Raw Milk Truth.

I can honestly say it makes the richest best Chocolate milk I have ever tasted!  Yum Yum GOOD.
Have you ever tried raw milk or would you?

14 comments:

  1. I have never milked a cow nor drank raw milk or made butter, but this all sounds so fun! Next, ya'll will be making cheese too. That would be alot of milk for us. Could you sell some of it? Carol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In Georgia, you can only sell it as 'pet milk'. However, we have several family and friends that are enjoying it! I am SURE they are feeding it to their cats. ;-)

      Delete
  2. I found you through your comment at Hickory Holler. We've had Jerseys for several years and love ours. Yes we do drink raw milk. And make butter. We also make a quick cheese with vinegar or lemon juice. Our extra milk goes to our pigs, dogs and cats. If I had enough I'd also give it to the chickens. Anything I can feed them that we produce saves on what we have to buy! Looking forward to checking out your blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Missy, I would have NEVER believed a chicken would drink milk til I saw it the other night after putting some in a bowl for the barn kitty. Our cats and dogs love any extra we have too. Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  3. Giving a little visit from Hickery Holler. I was raised on raw milk, homemade butter and that thick rich sweet cream from a Jersey cow. My mama always had a "little jersey" in the barn. Raised 5 big healthy kids on that fresh cows milk. I am definitely glad you visited the farm and come back soon!

    Canned Quilter...Hickery Holler Farm

    ReplyDelete
  4. Growing up, we always had a milk cow. All we ever had was raw milk, and it was great. My mother churned the milk for butter, and butter milk. She made the best butter in little wooden butter molds with a floral motif. It sure tasted good in her homemade buttermilk biscuits! Nothing better. What a great life you are providing your little one!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I wish we could get raw milk! Lots of good nutrition in that precious white liquid. Someday I hope we can get a jersey. I just recently heard about the mini's.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mini's are a tad higher (we have found) than most regular size jerseys. And either one are hard to find in Georgia. We were lucky! Even though it's 'work' I am loving it.

      Delete
  6. Great post! I would love to get a cow but we aren't quite there yet, I think we'll stick with chickens for now.
    See what I'm up to at: http://kshippee.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kai, congrats on your little one! I love fresh eggs too and am so glad we have our chickens.

      Delete
  7. What cute cows! I have tried raw milk in the past. I used to get it from a local farmer once a week, but we moved too far away. I really enjoyed it, though!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi, I’m Anne from Life on the Funny Farm (http://annesfunnyfarm.blogspot.com), and I’m visiting from the Barn Hop.

    We are raw milk drinkers! But we don't have a family cow, we buy ours from an Amish farm. I like the idea of milking our own cow, but with six kids to take care of, I just don't think I could add in the time to milk and to handle all the milk products (ie making cheese, butter, etc with all the milk we don't drink). Glad you're enjoying it! added myself as a follower.

    Anyway, thanks for posting this. If you’ve never visited yet, I hope you can pop by my blog sometime to say hi…

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for visiting my blog. Your cows are beautiful! Could you tell me where and how much you paid for your milker? We have been thinking about getting one ourselves since Hubby and I have issues with carpal tunnel. It makes milking very hard at times.

    Thank you so much!

    Amanda
    Matthew 6:33

    ReplyDelete
  10. That's so exciting. As a child we had milk cows on the ranch and drank raw milk. We thought nothing of it then. I really liked it when the cream was taken from the top of the pan of milk so that we could put it on our cream of wheat or oatmeal cereal. Those were the days. Nothing today tastes like that. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete