Diary

June 2015RSS feed

The Milk Project Part 3

Monday 8 June, 2015

by Rosemary Champion at 9:22am in Cattle Comments closed

So the last not-so-daily blog was on 25th May and things have moved on a bit since then, in a mainly positive way.

One of the problems I had was getting Annie and her calf out of the field without being mugged by the others.

So w/c 25th May, I decided to split the “milking cows”, i.e. those with a likely capacity to milk, from the non-milkers. I had decided to try again with Blizzard, although she’s a fourth calver that hasn’t been milked before. Rosie, who’s a year old and will calve (and therefore milk) for the first time next year and is Annie’s daughter WILL be a milker. So I moved Blizz, Annie, Rosie and Blizz and Annie’s calves into one field – you will recall that these are one “family” with Annie being Blizzard’s daughter. Basically, this means that I now bring the whole herd in every day.

The Milk Project Part 4

Sunday 21 June, 2015

by Rosemary Champion at 9:42am in Cattle 3 comments Comments closed

OK, so following hard on the heels of Part 3, which was written two weeks ago, here's Part 4.

About ten days ago, we decided to start bringing the cows and calves in at night and milking in the morning. We brought them in at 10pm and milked at 6am. This routine was killing us - not getting to bed until 11pm and up at 6am just wasn't getting us enough sleep. Last night, I went to let the ponies out at 8pm and the cows were standing at the gate, bawling, so I let them in. More milk this morning and they all seemed quite content. And we'll get an extra couple of hours sleep. So result all round.

The Milk Project Part 5

Monday 22 June, 2015

by Rosemary Champion at 9:31pm in Cattle Comments closed

Following from Sally's comment on Part 4, we've put the cows back out tonight after penning the calves. It's a bit noisy just now - well, we can't hear it but I bet all the folk in Ravensby Road can :-( . The grass is coming in now and the cows are in a fresh field so hopefully they'll settle down and get munching.

It was a bit of a rammy tonight as Blizz is coming into season, Annie is trying to mount her and Rosie and the calves were all over excited. I was glad Dan was there to help.

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS