Lady Astor has begun a very naughty habit while she is milking – she lifts her tail and PEES – Gallons – all over the clean milking shed floor. So to adjust this unacceptable behaviour I have to train her to pee BEFORE she comes into the milking shed.
Up until recently I have had to go down to the fields to bring them in for milking and they pee and poo on the walk up through the fields but now they are feeling the routine and are standing at the barn door ready to come in at milking time so we have skipped a step.
So we are undergoing a period of adjustment: after I have milked Aunty Del (who has never made a mess during milking) and fed the calf I go through to the waiting room and (if there has been no waterfall sound effects from over that side) I brush Lady until she finally pees, then as a reward I immediately open the milking shed door and let her in to have her treats while I milk her. For a while this took a very long time, both she and I are pretty pig headed but in the end I win because I am the human and she is the cow. And now she is getting the idea. Thank goodness. Cows pee GALLONS at a time. The problem is that with some cows when their milk comes in so does the need to defecate or urinate or both. So the milkmaid needs to train the cow.
It is like training a puppy – all about the reward.
Especially with a cow like Lady A – she wants to be good. This Friday she is due to come back into heat – that will be interesting. With the little bull in the field with her we will know for sure if she is in heat or not. 
Isn’t farming so – um – Earthy.
I don’t want to raise anyone’s hopes, especially my own but Tima is looking suspiciously large in the belly, but then she always has so I don’t know. I have not seen her come into heat for a while either but I stopped logging her changes preferring to let her be. So this time I am not changing anything – not taking Tane out, not putting her in the barn, no changes. Every time I changed things in the past, anticipating babies, she lost them. She may be pregnant or she may just be fat but she has been on grass alone for a while now. If she is pregnant and she is coming to term she can have a natural child birth. But I hold little hope. I can feel no movement in there. We have been here before. I think I will say nothing of this again. Not to jinx it.
I hope you have a good day.
I have a busy day with international family visitors arriving tomorrow.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
37 responses to “Adjustments”
“Earthy,” yes Miss C, that’s a good word for why, from my air conditioned city house, i look for your daily posts. I fear losing touch. You keep many of us grounded. And smiling.
Yassum! It is so wonderful to read about you and your farmy. I am so addicted and pleased to be a part of the Fellowship! I appreciate so much your efforts at including us in your days and I thank you from my bottom to my heart, and that covers a lot of territory! Much love, Your Gayle, and In spite of my great love for you, or more likely just because of it, I will send you no hugs, understanding your feelings about them…and restraint is not my strong suit, so please appreciate it. Heheh.
who would have thought that you would have to train a cow to pee before being milked! You are amazing! Cheers!
I’m sure you’ll enjoy your international visitors. It’s a positive thing Lady A wants to be good, having that kind of mess on a regular basis would be miserable. Tima and Tane look so comfortable together there in the wallow, they remind me of a long married couple, quite content to simply be together.
Oh yes, the true sign of a good marriage: Happy to have someone to do nothing with.
Yes farming is so earthy!
Linda
It is so wonderful to follow your lovely farm life. At times, it makes me feel as if I am there. I wish you many blessings!
O I am glad – have a lovely day.. c
I’ve given up on my fat pig. I don’t know if she’s pregnant or not. I haven’t detected a heat cycle, but who knows? LOL
I know the feeling – I had this with Poppy . Keep her feed lean and cross your fingers. . It is hard when you don’t have a date isn’t it?
I always learn so much from reading your blog. The city girl in me never knew that about milking cows, perhaps that’s a job I should likely avoid. 🙂
It can be a lot worse too.. I son’t go into it for you! c
We learn so much from you, and who would have known you can train a cow to pee…marvellous!
Love your pictures of the animals they always look so happy.
The things we never think about when we are pouring milk into our first cup of coffee, or over our steel cut oats in the morning–cow pee!!! xx
I remember standing in the [literally] wee small hours of the morning in the yard with my very aged dog who wanted out, got distracted… twinkle for goodness sake twinkle ⛆
Saw this and thought of you.
July 26, 2016
Walk On, Walk Away
by Afaa Michael Weaver k
Can we just stay here in the space where our loud laughin
won’t disturb the mausoleum of St. Peter, three times denying
the purple iris, can we hobble the horses to the hitching post
in front of the post office and let everything fall out of where
we put it to be delivered, can we call the night choir of crickets
down here to make the road home sing while the lightning bugs
show us the way to a happy wages of sin so then we will not dare
cry when the trumpet hits the high note of getting up in the morning,
going back to be counted by the straw bosses, and to count them,
making note of how sure this Earth is, this world of work we define
ourselves, as long as we know it will need us, as long as guarantees
paint themselves against the invisible ley lines pulling mountains
together, summoning snow caps in California over the broad brown
hills laying up to hear God’s whims like fallen but contented angels.
Hope posting this is within the bounds of propriety.
Love, Your Gayle
Copyright © 2016 Afaa Michael Weaver. Used with permission of the author.