Aunty Del is such a good house cow that I have decided to keep her as long as I am able. She seems to have hit her stride and now she is pumping along. She swans into the milking shed without hesitation, milks eating her greens or hay though she still refuses to leave when she is done. ( She will only leave when I fill a small bowl with grain and call her out into the quad). She never makes a mess or a fuss. She milks out very fast and evenly. Her milk production is still much lower than Lady Astor but this is only her first season. Her teats are very small she would be difficult to hand milk I think. But her milk is clean and tasty.
Ayrshire milk is bright white and not as creamy. The Holstein/Dutch Belted milk is creamier looking and tasting. For a drinking milk I prefer the Ayrshire. Aunty Del is an Ayrshire. For the yogurts and cheeses Lady Astor has the best milk.
Lady Astor is Holstein/Dutch Belted. 
Until I started milking I never even thought about milk from different cows tasting different and having different characteristics other than the obvious butterfat count. But many hens lay different eggs with different sizes and colours and different yolks. So it stands to reason. Even their eating habits are very different: Aunty will milk eating hay or greens whereas Lady Astor will have a total break down if there is no grain mixed in with her hay and greens. Lady will eat zuchinni and tomatoes though and Aunty Del literally turns her nose up at them.
Lady Astor still enters the Milking shed as though she is being led to her own execution and leaves immediately she is released.
Aunty always comes to the barn first when I call them in for milking. Lady follows along behind at her own pace. (The flies are still being a nuisance though we have a few cool days ahead of us which will give us a break).
They are so different but both good cows. And not one drop of their milk is wasted. The chickens and the pigs make sure of that.
The Frenchmen have another week here and then I will be on my own for a while. Though the gardens will take a bit of keeping up with I am quite looking forward to toddling along by myself just me and the animals and some restful family visiting. We have had people in the house since April and in mid-August more woofers are booked. I will miss having someone in the kitchen – Axel has turned out to be quite the cook. (He is tall and has been known to place annoying meowing cats up into the rafters of the verandah to think about their behaviour).
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
34 responses to “Aunty Del is Pumping”
I like your writing Mam. It is homey and you take everything in stride. It seems you have no fear. The peace and strength of nature is apparent and the animal personalities…we do that too. So interesting the way it is presented.
I cracked up when I read that Axel-of-much-height put the annoying cats on the rafters. My former husband is tall and was always putting things out of reach. When I wanted to hide things from him (viz a Valentine’s Day card, etc.) I’d hide it very low. Sometimes I hid ot so well I couldn’t find it when I needed it. Asi es la vida…such is life. I’m rooting for Axel. Please tell him so. Much love, Your Gayle
She corrects typo: Sometimes I hit it so low…
FURTHER typo correction: Sometimes I hid it…She sighs audibly…
Funny that you bring up the differences in the milk — just yesterday, I was thinking about cows as I drove home from the doctor (as one does). And I was thinking it’s strange that we all know different types of apples, say, but beef at the supermarket doesn’t get labeled by breed of cow. It’s just different cuts. I’m a vegetarian, but presumably different breeds taste different — I’ve definitely heard people say that about pigs. I wonder if it’s just that most supermarket beef is all from the same breed or that people don’t want to think about it having been a cow. Is more expensive/organic/local meat at, like, co-ops labeled by breed?
I seem to remember a commercial from our local (Des Moines, Iowa) dairy, A/E (Anderson-Erickson) about Guernsey Gold milk from Guernsey cows–they were brown and white, if I remember right from my childhood. It was in a different container than ‘regular’ milk…
I’m glad you’re keeping Aunty. She’s such a beautiful girl. Your gentle rearing of her made the difference.
Oh no! Kitty time out! I think it’s kind of cute that Aunty Del is in no hurry to leave the milking parlor! What a sweet cow she has turned out to be.
I am very happy to see Aunty stay a while longer. She seems to be a gentle soul, not that Lady A is not better now, but I don’t think her childhood was a genteel. If I were to need a cow I would want one raised in a farm like yours. Where everyone is raised with gentle love and respect.