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”
I can imagine that peeing while milking is a real PITA.
Great pig pictures 🙂
Now those Red angers grew really fast in two days 🙂 So pleased to see Sheila and Tima and Tane too. You must be so excited about arrival of Kiwi visitors. Laura
Haha Celia, si sorry I know I should not love, but your pee story brought back a long long forgotten (or so I thought) childhood memory. At one stage Grandpa thought I was old enough to learn how to milk , so far so good but the cow knew I was not too keen on this and so, to make matters worse, she peed right over me. Needless to say nobody was able to find me afterwards for some time when milkingtime came, little clever me hid in my tree house !!! Grandpa did a far better job than I ever would have done😁😁, so cow happy, grandpa relaxed and I? Just relieved😉
Now I just have to learn to type a reply on my ‘phone without any mistakes😉😉
Why do they call it pig-headed, when cow-headed would be much more apt! Still, she’s got the idea now, and I think she *wants* to be good, so hopefully it’ll stick. I’d pay good money to see Carlos the Tiny have a go at Lady A. Can we find him a box to stand on…?
We already did see it – remember?- almost three weeks ago – maybe you were in the hospital – anyway this cycle will be a telling one.. c
I remember an attempt… and you saying that if she came into heat he hadn’t made it. Fingers crossed he gets a good run up this time 🙂
He is pretty short.. but wouldn’t it be sweet.. c
How in the world do you clean gallons of pee up? Where I milk my goats, it is recessed. No way to scrub down floor and spray it down, at least not without knocking out a large amount of concrete. Milking as I read this and just trying to comprehend cleaning that up. Good thing about goats…..Only twice in 7 years of milking has a goat pooped, never peed and poop is like rabbit poop. Not enjoyable but pretty pleasant compared to a cow. Still kinda processing gallons of pee. Oh man.
My milking shed is the same no way to hose it out easily so when I wash the floor I wash it then soak the whole lot up with straw in the corner the water settles into – it is a bit of a bore!
Glad you succeeded in training her. I struggled to train my beagle to do anything so I really admire you.
After loving and raising 5 beagles and a basset – I have learned HOUNDS are more apt to train me than them. They will do what I want as long as I have the treat in my hand at the ready. Pig Headed – Cow Headed – nothing compared to HOUND HEADED!
peeing over the Milk Maid is not very Ladylike..but perhaps she could not help it
Oh dear. Sounds challenging. I am LOUDY at training animals, and take full responsibility for my failures. Any advice on how to stop a dog from barking all the time?
On another note entirely, Tane’s front teeth are rather fetching.
Poor, precious Tima. I hope all goes well, if there is anything TO go.
It is amazing how you can train your animals. I remember our cow house. It had room for about 12 milking cows , it was attached to the barn so feeding was easy. The milking was done by hand and then by milking machines. It was a comfortable building for animals and humans. I remember the cows eating while being milked. Now it houses my nephew’s machines .
I’ll be grinning all day at Kate’s comment. Sometimes, getting ready for family is more work than farming but definitely worth it. Enjoy.
How incredibly exciting to be getting family visiting.
Happy cow training.
🙂 Mandy xo
No doubt big fun will be had by all when the international visitors arrive! So exciting!!! 🙂
I look forward to each of your posts. Enjoy getting to know all of your creatures great and small.