It Seems Like Just Yesterday

The time sure does fly when you're busy trying to figure out how to raise healthy, happy cattle. 

We started on March 25, 2010 when we purchased some Jersey's at an auction. Jeremy had experience with cows as a child and even worked on a diary farm for a little while. I lived next door to a cow pasture for awhile and had even seen a few cows up close at the fair. Experts we were not.

 At the time I was pretty sure they were the cutest baby animals ever. I've revised that statement just about ever time I see a new baby animal. But they sure are cute. 

Although this picture is super cute it is also NOT the best way to bottle feed a calf unless you want to keep running across the room to fetch the bottle. Most calves will keep slamming their snouts into the bottle with an exceptional amount of force. That's what they do to their poor mother to make the milk flow better (at least that is what I've heard). Also don't hold the bottle braced against your stomach. If you do you'll find out first hand what I mean by exceptional force.

The feeding wasn't really bad looking back at it now. I have a somewhat anxious personality so I spent most of the time saying "oh no!", "what do we do?", "this cannot be normal" and "is it supposed to smell that bad?".

Ginger a couple weeks old.

Cremy just a little over a year old.

We choose Jersey cattle as our starter cow for a couple reasons. First, Jersey's are typically milking cows so the males of the breed are not as expensive as the other beef cattle breeds. Second, they are a smaller breed, less intimidating for an easily intimidated gal. Third, they were the most readily available in our area at the time we were ready to purchase.

Jersey's are a pretty relaxed cow.

Over the last year and a half we have done a number of things wrong. We laughed, we cried. We learned a lot. And we are still no where near being experts.