The Herd welcomes Naomi

What is the definition of a herd of cows anyway? How many does one need to have a herd?  Because yesterday Lady Astor gave birth to a lovely tiny, tiny heifer. She also has no belt at all, just a tiny bit of white on her side and her belly. But she is so delicate and so small, she weighs as much as a small goat. Her mother is not protective at all. In fact she showed such a huge lack of interest that I had to dry the baby off myself.  Lady A was much more interested in catching up on her dinner. Spraying her calf with dry alfalfa. 

Which I then had to clean off. Meet Naomi.  Naomi was named straight away. She is very sweet almost mystical.

After about Four hours the baby was still not standing well and had not had a drink so I carried her across to her mother and leaned her on my leg, guiding her head into her mothers udder and literally popping the teat into her mouth. She had a good drink while her mother ate again. Lady lifted her leg up and down a few times but let the baby feed. 

After that I felt comfortable enough to go to bed myself.  I have decided that I will bottle feed Naomi myself.  We have bonded. And every time I go near Potter her mother barks her danger, danger bark and tries to get rid of me.  Getting close enough to this cow to train her to feed a precious tiny calf seems like a mad idea at this point.

Lady A on the other hand does not  mind me sitting with her calf and did not even mind when Aunty Del reached over the divide trying to see who had arrived.

Soon I will go out and milk Lady Astor. There will be some resistance but I really don’t expect it to be as bad as Elsie.  The calf will come into the milking shed too. So it will be a bit chaotic. But it is the best way to train the cow to let her milk down for me.

Yesterday I opened up the calf creep (a small pen off the big cow pen designed just for calves) and Potter has immediately decided that this is her perfect sleeping space. No big cows can fit through the door – it is the calf safe space, and a celi safe space, with deep straw bedding,  no enormous cow pats and later this is where the calves will  find their grain.  I was able to go in there with Potter a number of times yesterday and play with her and speak to her.   It works very well.

Good morning. Life just got very interesting.   Two new heifers. Goodness.  No beef.  So I will be buying two beef calves this summer, probably weanlings.  I will start to call around tomorrow.  My job is to feed the families remember. This is not a petting zoo though there is lots of petting. I grow food the old fashioned way.

Join Us, the page above,  is making for some great reading. I love this page and wander through often to remind myself of the power of the Fellowship. (That is you by the way, whether you are a reader or a reader who comments, you are a member of the Fellowship of the Farmy). So if you are new to the Kitchens Garden don’t forget to pop in and introduce yourself.

Which reminds me. I have to do some work on The Cast page. But not ’til after the milking and the chores and visiting the Old Codger who is back from wintering in California.

I hope you have a lovely day.

Your friend on the farm,

celi