The new mistake about to happen . . .

Dolly and Smarty Pants

When Ancel Keys (wrongly, history has proven) stated that fat was our major dietary health problem, the world listened and changed the way they ate.  Alas, it led to MORE disease, not less.  It is very sad that his very own data disproved his hypothesis and yet his conclusion was to eat less fat, especially saturated fat.  And so we got Snackwell cookies and the like, products that touted "heart health" by replacing fat with sugar.  Let's look at Keys's own data.  First, be aware that he started with 22 countries, and simply tossed out the data from any country that messed up his trend line.  (Browse "Seven Country Study" and check it out.) So by "scientific" chicanery, he used data from only six countries that fit his neat little line.  Still he ignored the data surrounding those remaining six data points!  Japan, Italy, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and the US were the remaining six countries.  Of those six countries, some of them showed improved heart health as they ate MORE fat.  The US of course wasn't one of them.  Since the only food that correlated neatly with chronic heart disease (CHD) was SUGAR across all 22 countries, perhaps it was the fact that in the US, the population was getting much of their fat in sweets.  You don't see Finland or France on that list.  They eat their fat on their meat and fish, and had their data been included, they would have produced embarrassing outliers!

So we are living with the results of that flawed study, but the trend does seem to be shifting away from low fat, and definitely encouraging fewer carbohydrates.  Mainstream medicine acknowledges that insulin resistance underlies almost all of our Western diseases.  Sugar / carbohydrates contribute to insulin resistance and in fact saturated fat's bad rap is diminishing, although I still cringe when I hear of a recipe re-do that removes the fat to make it "healthier."  Bottom line is that the very information we were following for so many decades was actually harming us, not helping us.

There seems to be a new trend towards vegetarian diets.  Such a diet may work for some, but not for all.  In fact, the majority of people will do better with at least some meat in their diets, and people with neurological disorders such as clinical depression, autism, anxiety, mood swings, diabetic neuropathy and epilepsy would do well to consider a ketogenic diet, or at least one leaning that way.  A ketogenic diet is very high in fat, very low in carbohydrates, and includes meat.  Follow this link for more on that.  Use of ketogenic diets in treatment of neurological diseases.

I was a vegetarian for around 15 years.  My health suffered.  When I lost my second tooth, I started reading something besides The Vegetarian Times.  I read Life without bread on a trip to England, was pretty sure I had discovered my problem - a vegetarian diet is pretty carbohydrate loaded - got off the plane and had bacon and eggs (no toast) for breakfast and never looked back.  No more dental problems, mood swings tempered, weight lost, blood pressure reduced.

Well, the latest guilt trip being laid on us omnivores is that we are contributing to global warming by eating meat.  It is time to rethink the problem before we make another mistake with even more consequences on our health and our planet.  While I commend people for searching for healthier lifestyles, if you don't want to be a vegetarian to save the planet, you don't have to. Eat meat without guilt, but not factory farmed meat. That goes for the vegetables too. Support small local farmers who use mulch instead of the plow, use animal manure instead of chemical fertilizers and don't plow up thousands of acres for GMO soy and corn.  The vegetarian who is pointing her finger at me because I kill animals to live is more than likely eating vegetables and grain from factory farms.  Factory farm wheat and spinach and tomatoes should not go unnoticed.  Three of her four fingers are pointing back at her. 

I am very, very tired indeed of listening to people 1) rail against cow farts, 2) claim that animals drink so much water that would better go to thirsty humans, and 3) suggest something so extreme as eating up the existing animals since they are already here, and then NO MORE ANIMALS.  Do not allow them to breed, make them go extinct, they have nothing to offer!  Oh, my, Dorothy, we aren't in Kansas anymore!!!

Let me address these three points here.

1.  Cow farts.  First, grass-fed cows offset their flatulence by increasing carbon sequestration through plowing up the soil with their hooves, urinating and defecating.  In fact, it is a net gain.  Factory farm animals don't even get the chance to go outside and do what should come naturally to them.  Second, plowing ground for the vegetarian's beloved bread, tofu and spinach produces more CO₂ than cow farts.  I don't hear anyone screaming that we should quit plowing, the first step in raising wheat and corn and soy beans.  Or maybe we should fill in all of our wetlands, which produce plenty of CO₂.  Read this for more on that:  It's about halfway down the article.  Flatulent cows vs. plowed fields

2.  Yes, animals drink water.  I have seen figures on how many tons of water a cow drinks before it is butchered for meat.  Have you seen any of these massive several-ton cows?  I haven't either.  They urinate! What goes in is water, what comes out is fertilizer.  Same with the grass and hay.  A pastured cow requires one acre to live and produces enough fertilizer for three acres.  Such a deal! 

3.  I am sad to hear when an animal goes extinct.  Most thoughtful people would agree with me.  And yet I hear from well-meaning people that we should EXTINGUISH meat animals!  Just get rid of them because they are destroying the earth.  I am not even going to write the obvious next step. 

Here we are on the cusp of making another serious mistake.  Instead of pointing the finger at the omnivores, examine the reason you don't like it.  If I have it right, it is because you believe that eating meat contributes to CO₂ in the atmosphere, which in turn leads to global warming, and therefore people of good conscience should give up meat.  Just like Ancel Keys believed the problem with heart health was saturated fat, he couldn't give up that hypothesis even when his own data did not support it.  And now, those who believe that eating meat is wrong need to go back a step and remember why, to check out their hypothesis, which I understand to be that if we remove animals from our food chain the earth will limp along fit for human life a bit longer.

Factory farming of spinach, corn, beans and tomatoes is just as pernicious as factory farming of animals.  We must stay focused on the real problem - the mass production of food at any cost and our reluctance in the US to pay a fair price for good food that pays a living wage to the farmers and those who work the land.

I am glad for the rain, but . . .

We need to put in some new corner posts in the dairy cow pastures.  We had to special order them because they cannot be made of treated wood on our organic farm.  But the rain has softened the earth, and we are looking for some dryer weather to get them installed.

In addition, the deer did their usual number on the fencing over the winter months. Now begins the tedious job of replacing broken or missing insulators and repairing wire that was snapped by deer who didn't leap quite high enough.  Okay, I'll admit it, the cows can do a number on the wires too.

We are staying on top of planting by the biodynamic calendar (Stella Natura is our guide), both in the greenhouse and the garden.  Last year was a disaster, everything late and not because of the weather.  This is as much as I want to say about that. 

In addition, the rain is making the grass grow, and in spite of the cool and rather sunless spring, soon the cows will be milking even better once they are on their diet of 100% fresh, green spring grass.  I am swimming in milk, making a three to four pound wheel of hard cheese once or twice a week.  I've been making a lot of Cheddar, but made Caerphilly, a Welsh cheese, the last two times.  Today it is Colby.  Maybe then I will go back to Cheddar, since it is pretty awesome.  I broke open a wheel that went into the cheese cave on August 2, 2013, and it is very nice, very nice indeed!

Well, back to work schedule for next week.  Never a dull moment on a farm in the spring.

Kim and I just finished planting our first seeds of the season - about 760 seeds give or take a few.  Hot peppers and sweet peppers.  We plant by the biodynamic calendar (see more here), peppers are "fruit," next fruit day will be the 23rd, when we will get first planting of tomato seeds done.  It is always fun to work out there, but it is brutally cold! 

I wonder how many records we have broken this year.  It isn't just the cold, it is the INCESSANT cold that is getting to me.  Our first calf is living in the barn.  We never keep the calves in when they are born.  It is healthier for them to be outside.  But not this year.  We are expecting two more calves this week, a beef calf and a dairy calf.  Where will be put them all?  Their little lean-to in the calf pen is just not enough for them.

Looking at the 10 day forecast, there are only three days when the temperature does not dip below zero in the nighttime.  This is just not right!

We have to crank the greenhouse temp up now that the seeds are in.  They are in seedling trays on a heat mat, but the 35º temperature that we maintain for the winter greens out there is just not good enough any longer.  Thermostat has been moved up to 55º, and furnace is running pretty often to maintain that.  Ca-ching, ca-ching. $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Well, spring officially begins on Thursday.  Perhaps things will get better in a week or two.  Or not.  Sigh . . .

I am really sick of winter!

January blizzard - you can see some wisps of grass, but not any more!

The lane to the river - January blizzard

View to the greenhouse & dairy barn, January blizzard

Sleeping garden

February 9, 5" of new snow followed by the sun

February 9, new snow on garden and lane to river

What a year!  It is beautiful out, I will say that.  Every time the snow gets a little gray, Mother Nature dumps another few inches on us.  That is about its only redeeming quality.

It isn't so much that it is cold - it has actually been colder here one winter, with my trusty little weather station's screen going blank.  When I went to the manual to do some troubleshooting, I found that it quits at -22º.  Oh, my!  My neighbor claimed that our low was -26º on his old-fashioned nailed-to-the-barn-wall thermometer.  Now that's cold!  But we suffered for two days and then it was gone.  What is so bad is that there doesn't seem to be any end to it this winter.

On a Monday a few weeks ago, my low was -18.3º F.  And the high that day was -11.1º.  Yup, that was the HIGH!  And this time, while we did have one day in the following week that hit around 40º, it dived again, and two weeks later I had -18.8º F. on my weather station.  However, we did reach the balmy temperature of 2º that day.

Has that been the end of it?  No, indeed!  I had -7.7º the other day, and I am starting to look at a day when we don't dip below zero as tolerably pleasant.

The Farmers Market just seems to get colder and colder, as if the cold weather has soaked into its very bones, and there is no heating it up to a decent temperature no matter how hard the overhead heaters are churning.  No insulation in the walls, and people going in and out the doors continually.  My fingers and toes are numb by the time I leave each day.

But let's get back to the snow.  I have lived on this farm for nearly 12 years now.  In that period of time, I have been snowed in exactly twice and had to hire a snow plow to get down my half mile lane.  Being east of Lake Michigan, most of our snow here is lake effect snow.  I can plow through that stuff even when it is pretty deep with my little Prius.  (Gotta love my Prius -- it's a truck in greenhouse season and a snow plow in winter!)  So snow for the most part has not been an issue.  Then there is THIS winter, with its wet heavy snow measured in feet, not inches.  I have had to have the snow plow here four times in as many weeks!  Thank goodness the new 5" of snow I got last night is light and fluffy, or I would have to be calling for help again!

We haven't even played cards for three weeks, because Richard's lane is still packed full of snow.  The best I can hope for right now is that I will get to see my card playing friends tonight, and that the Weather Underground  is correct.  It does not have even one minus sign in front of the predicted highs and lows for the 10-day forecast.  We can only hope.

What's happening on the farm . . .

My son Jim is going in on the beef cattle.  He has come up twice now to help with the operation.  Today they pulled wire for the first of four paddocks for the whole herd.  There is still a lot of work to be done, but at least we can get them off of the dairy cows' paddocks.  We need every paddock for the dairy herd, because we are about out of hay, and the pastures are nearly a month behind schedule.  At last, they are greening up, but the grass is still short.  When the grass is short, the cows get a smaller mouthful of grass with every bite.  Diary cows need good feed pretty much continuously to provide milk.

We need a few days in a row of sunshine and some warm weather.  I hope the forecast is correct - we have two days of 80º weather coming this week according to Weather Underground.

Did you know that if every farmer farmed the way we do, they would stop global warming?   Being raised outside on grass, not grain means that the animals are sequestering carbon all of the time.  Their hooves tear up the land (no tilling necessary) and of course they are dropping loads of manure and urine on the soil.  This means that they help to recover marginal land, such as the sandy soil I have here on my farm.  There are a couple of books out there now on the subject.  More and more farmers are starting to use rotational grazing.  It is cheaper, too.  And the meat is healthier for us.  Is there a down side?  I suppose, because it uses a lot of land, but if you put them on marginal land that wasn't good for raising any crops without using massive amounts of chemical fertilizers and weed killers (poor soil grows a lot of weeds), then I don't even see that as a downside.

The farmer who sold us the Highland cattle said they are very good foragers, and they will love all of the little small trees that are dotting the east side of my farm.  That land has just been sitting there unused and ungrazed since 2001.  This is what the paddock looks like today.  I am hoping to see lush green grass free of trees in a month!

Pasture today - lots of small trees for fodder!

Jim and Steve adding insulators to the T-posts

Jim and Steve got three strands of wire strung, and all of the insulators put on the posts.  The Highlands are not quite as docile as the dairy cattle, and so they need stronger containment.

Steve cut trees to make our corner posts.

Jim, Steve and Tashi surveying the job.

They strung the three rolls of wire on a spindle.  Clever!

Getting started with the insulators.

Steve explaining best practices to Jim.

Jim setting off to begin the job.

He's getting the hang of it.

The finished product.  Job well done!

Cow play

Diana, one of our shareholder/milkers, took a couple of pictures tonight.  The cows always get a little frisky when the weather begins to cool down, and two of the girls were having fun today "fighting," then licking one another.

Diana writes:  "I took a few pictures of Delaney and Lucky with my cell phone tonight while I was milking. . . . I thought you might enjoy them.  While waiting for the other cows to catch up, Lucky went up to Delaney, and Delaney started licking Lucky's face.  Lucky tolerated this for a while, then wanted to butt heads and chased Delaney around.  They alternated grooming with "fighting" several times.  They were pretty funny to watch..."

Delaney and Lucky

Delaney and Lucky

Little lost Beau

This morning Buttercup was standing in a walkway crying.  I looked for her calf and knew immediately what the problem was.  Beau had disappeared.  About the time I went out to let her loose to look for the calf, Luis showed up to milk.  Since I am not supposed to be walking in the pastures with my new knee, I let him open the gates so that she could tell us where the calf was. 

In short order, mom and son were reunited.  Here are some pics of them rejoining the herd. 

It's another boy!

Buttercup freshened the end of June last year, and I was hoping she would wait at least that long, since we have so much milk!  And people are going on vacation now, offering up their milk to the other shareholders while they are gone.  I am making cheese twice a week now, getting a bit weary of it.

But I digress.  Buttercup and her calf are the centerpiece of this post.  It is another boy.  So we are raising three bull calves and a heifer calf.  We are keeping them on their mothers - makes life easier for the milkers if they don't have to feed calves!  And we have so much milk that what better use to put it to than to help us raise four fine head of dairy cattle?

Here are the pics of new calf (Beau) and Mama Buttercup.

Have we got milk!

After providing just barely enough milk to meet what we felt would be our average production per share for the first three years, our herd was beset by a problem caused by eating moldy hay.  My complaints to the provider fell on deaf ears, and he insisted his own animals were eating the same hay with no problems.  We had MANY problems, not the least of which was a drop by two-thirds in production.  Thank goodness for loyal shareholders who knew that there were good years to go with the bad.  They stuck with us.

This is a good year.  Our production is so good that we are leaving the calves with their mothers, letting them drink as much as they like.  No measured out gallon feedings morning and night.  Have at it, little ones!  We have more milk than we know what to do with.  In fact, we have been approved for a pet food license, and so some of the excess milk is being packaged for customers who want pet food - certified organic milk from grass fed cows, in glass jars, clearly labeled "NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION."  Whatever.

So anyway, if we have milk, we obviously have calves.  No calves, no milk.  We sold the first two, then our two heifers both lost huge bull calves that they just couldn't give birth to without help.  The vet didn't get here in time to save the calves, but both moms are doing fine.

We kept two bull calves.  One will replace Romeo as soon as he is done breeding this year's cows.  He is getting a bit cantankerous, and at a very young age.  I think Earl will be a great replacement, but we will make sure that he has viable sperm before we make our choice.  If it isn't Earl, then it will be Larry.

Essie Mae and Earl - Essie Mae is out of Quattro

Lucky and Larry - Lucky is out of Rosie

 Last week, Blackie gave birth to the most magnificent heifer calf I have ever seen!  She doesn't have a white hair on her body - sleek, black and playful.  She got lost on her first day in the big pasture.  I was frantic, looked everywhere for her.  The next morning, she was still not home.  When Luis, our morning milker, got here, he said he would start at the barn, I would go back out to the pasture from which she had disappeared, and we would work our way to the middle.  He called me on his cell phone, laughing.  She was in the barnyard, behind the old barn!  She must have been making her way back to the nursing pen.

Ebony, just born to Blackie

Ebony and Blackie in the pasture

These are such magnificent animals.  I love them all.

Sad news

Sugar Pie, who is out of Smarty Pants and was born two years ago on the farm, gave birth to her first calf last night.  It was a hard birth.  I called five vets before I could get some help out here.  Mike, his son Thomas (they are milkers), and two neighbors, Eric and Ted, did their best to get the calf out, but it took until the vet got here to turn the calf's head to remove her.

Vet said it might not have made any difference, but perhaps he could have saved the calf if he had gotten here sooner.  The calf did not make it, but Sugar Pie is doing well.

I really liked this vet.  We do need a better backup vet, and I now have him on my list.  Wish I had known about this vet earlier.  Maybe we could have saved the calf, and I know it would have been a lot easier on Sugar Pie if the vet had been here sooner.

Quattro's calf is already sold!

How quickly they go.  Quattro's calf went to a buyer who has been on the wait list for a heifer for two years.  He picked her up last Friday.  I am happy to report that they want her for milk, so she will have a long and happy life.  They have a hobby farm and have goat milk, but wanted to enjoy cow's milk.  In two years, they will have it.  He has a fine calf.  She is so long legged!  All I could think is how easy she will be to milk, with those long legs.  No udder hanging nearly to the ground as she gets older.

I named her Quill.  Have a happy life at your new home, Quill.

It's a good day

Lucy was quite a bit of trouble after freshening.  She couldn't nurse her calf because her udder hung too low for the calf to get to a teat.  So it meant bringing her into the barn to milk her and then taking the milk back out to the calf in a nipple pail.  Of course, Lucy was frantic the whole time she was being milked, not understanding that she would get to be back with her calf in a few minutes.  I had to milk her with the water hose in hand, because nervous cows make lots of manure.

I got splattered with manure more than once, including in the face.  One always nose breathes when milking newly fresh cows!

After the first week, the calf caught on, but she was not drinking from two of the quarters, so I still had to bring Lucy in every day or so to get her milked out.  Leaving milk sit in the udder is a good way to get mastitis, so we didn't want to go there.

Mike realized that Lucy would behave better with other cows in the barn.  Rosie was always so good about going in the barn, and so we brought her in.  But then Rosie left us.  In anticipation of her departure, I had starting bringing in her daughter Lucky (now Lucky Rose) every two or three milkings.  Of course, that was a change, and cows don't like change.  So Lucy bolted a few times, broke down some fencing, and took to pooping in the barn again.

Things seem to be under control again.  Androo did a great job of repairing the fencing that Lucy had destroyed.  He also put up a bit of fence to keep Lucky Rose from jumping over the machinery to get to the clover hay bales on the other side.  BIG help.

The cows seem to have adjusted to losing Rosie, and I don't have to wander all over the paddock to find Lucy and Lucky Rose at milking time.  They came in docilely this morning, and nobody bolted or leaped over machinery or broke anything.  I came in from milking unscathed, and not needing a shower.  And Lucy milked so well!  Best milking ever.  With only one cow milking, the shareholders are not getting much, but everyone is so thankful that we have milk again, after the herd went dry in late October.

So the cow situation couldn't be better.  I think about finding them a new home, and then a morning like this one makes me want to hold on to them until I absolutely can no longer physically take care of them.  Bovines are beautiful animals.  I am bonded to them, and can't imagine this farm without them.

Happy New Year!

Well, life goes on without Rosie.  It has been a real challenge to get Lucy in the barn without Rosie leading the way.  Lucky, Rosie's daughter, is not always as cooperative as her mother was, and she totally refused to go in the barn yesterday morning.  So I took in Blackie.

Blackie believes I have indoor plumbing, I think.  Every milker who reads this will know what I mean.  Even if I dawdle getting her in, even if I watch her pee and poop copiously on the way to the barn, she always saves some for indoors. So Blackie obliged by going to the bar in front of Lucy, Lucy then went in docilely to be milked - and Blackie pooped not once, but three times IN THE BARN.  Argh!!!!

Last night, I got Lucky in first, at which time she jumped over some equipment and got to the hay.  I had to chase her out of the barn and start over.  Double Argh!!!!!!!!!  Rosie, I miss you!

Everyone in the pasture was acting silly.  It was the snow.  They had a snow day, and there was much cavorting around, fake fighting, kicking up of heels.  Separating Lucky from the fun was a challenge - she is young and was in the thick of it.  And then when I finally got both Lucky and Lucy settled down and got the milker on Lucy, I heard a banging on the barn door.  It was Sam, trying to get in the barn.  He had managed to open the gate into the holding pen and was in there looking for Rosie, I am sure.  He is puzzled, to say the least.

It will take a while, but they will all adjust over time.  Lucy has quit crying for her calf.  Sam will find another "best friend."  Lucky will come into the barn without incident and stand quietly while I milk Lucy.

Life goes on.  Enjoy it.  And have a Happy New Year!

Love and good living to you all, from down here on the farm.

Susan, the Accidental Farmer.

A tribute to Rosie

I got this poem from Lynn Patrick, one of the founding members of our dairy herd association, and a milker during the first year of our existence.  I asked her if I could pass it on, and she agreed.  Here it is.

Ode to Rosie

Hail Rosie! 

Righteous bovine.

First of our Herd.

Independently - minded.

She would go where she would go,

And I would chase her through the pasture,

While Baby Doll, ever obedient, followed Rosie's every step.

Now, Rosie is following Baby Doll

Into the great hereafter.

I pray for green grass, pure water, gentle rains.

The great herdsman is there - and there is no sorrow;

And all calves survive.

So may our herds increase.

For we must have cream in our coffee in heaven!

And it couldn't be heaven without our sweet cows,

Our dogs, our cats, all our animal friends.

I will then honor her and all the others with my tears.

Until we meet again.

Lacey, so beautiful!

This afternoon, I caught Lacey running in circles, like a merry-go-round horse gone wild.  It is pure joy to watch, and you just know there is pure joy in her heart. 

She is so smart!  I guess I keep saying that.  But she is already grazing, was nibbling on hay within 24 hours of her birth, and has finally managed to start nursing from her mom.  Sure makes my life easier!  I didn't milk at all today.  Last night Lucy's udder was quite loose, except for one quarter, and I checked that one this afternoon.  Not at all tight.  Lacey has found them all!

Lacey's new owner will be picking her up next Sunday.  I will miss her.

Lucy, Lacey and winter wonderland

Winter is definitely here!  We've gotten about five inches of snow so far, and it is still coming down.  Even the Campine chickens are staying in the Moop.  They are the hearty breed that are usually out scratching in the snow, but not today.  I set up the heat lamp for them, and the water heater has been under their big metal waterer for a couple of weeks now.

I also set up a heat lamp for Lucy and Lacey, but typical of our hearty Heritage mixed breed cows, they are out in the snow.  It doesn't seem to affect them at all.  I think the cold is contributing to Lacey's voracious appetite!  We still do not have enough milk to distribute any to the patient shareholders.  Lacey won't be leaving for another week, and that is probably a good thing.  A December birth is not the best, so having mom's milk for an extra week should give her a boost.  She is so smart, and so sweet!  As soon as I go into the pen, she runs up to me and lets me scratch her head.  I will miss her when she is gone.

This morning Androo and I put some tarps over the big round hay bales we got from a new supplier.  The jury is still out on whether we will get our final load of hay from him.  We have another option, and those hay bales are a little easier to handle, but this last hay we got is nicer, I think.  We will make our decision once we have gotten through the first one-ton bale.  Here is a picture of the newly draped bales, sitting in the pasture waiting to be fed to the cows and bulls.

Well, I just went to take a picture of the bales, and look what I found - the cows have escaped their paddock and are helping themselves.  I have no idea how I am going to cope with this.  What I would like to do is just go to bed with a book and not have to worry about it.  Sigh . . .

It's a new calf - first pictures

I usually don't name the little ones that are going to leave the farm, but the name Lacey just popped in my mind, so Lacey she is until Dan and his dad give her the name they choose for her.

I was a little worried that Lacey might be in a weakened state if she still hadn't eaten, but she was fine when I went out about 7:00 a.m.  By then she was about 15 hours old.  In fact, she was so feisty that I was sure she had eaten, in spite of Lucy's huge and low hanging udder.

I had taken out six pounds of warmed colostrum, which we froze when Quattro had her calf last spring.  Lucy wouldn't let me near her with the bucket of warm colostrum.  I had to separate them.

I took Lucy into the barn to milk her.  Whether or not she had fed her calf, that udder needed some relief!  Once she was secured in the barn, I went back outside to deal with the calf.  It took a little doing to get her trained to take the nipple, but finally she got the hang of it.  After a few false starts, she latched onto that nipple and drank the bucket dry!  So I went back to the barn for the other three pounds of warm colostrum and took at back out to her.  I didn't even have to straddle her to get her to drink it.  She found the nipple and took it all down.  She did slow down a bit for the last cup or two, but she was obviously hungry.  I don't think Lucy is going to be able to feed her.  So for the next week, until her new owner picks her up, I will get to hand feed Lacey.  She is already following me around.  So sweet!

Here are pictures.  I wish I had gotten a few while I was getting her from Paddock 2 to the nursing pen, but I had too much on my mind at the time.

Learning her way around.

Yup, it's a girl.  Peeing from the right spot.

So nosy!  She was already trying to strip bark from small trees.

That udder is just too close to the ground!

Can you see Dad in the background?

Lucy and Lacey - Lacey's first day.

It's a new calf!

One of our cows aborted her calf midway through her gestation.  I wasn't aware of it.  One of the milkers told me that Lucy was in heat, and I pooh-poohed it, saying that it had to be a false heat, since she was settled (that means pregnant).

In June, no calf, nor July, nor August, nor September.  In October, I called the vet to check her, and he thought she was due in January, maybe as late as February.  So it wasn't a false heat the milker saw.  I was very disappointed, but at least she was definitely pregnant.

About two weeks ago, I saw her udder begin to fill, and I knew she was not going to make it to January.  I called it for the second week of December, and definitely there would be a calf here by Christmas.

Yesterday afternoon, I looked out the window and saw a little one, still wet and wobbly, following Lucy around.  Of course, she was easy to spot because Sam has made his mark yet again!  We will have a whole herd of cows that look like full blooded Guernseys before long - a lovely caramel tan with big blotches of stark white.  She is beautiful, just beautiful.  The calf is already sold, to one of our shareholders.  She will leave us in a week. 

In the meantime, I am going to have to milk Lucy out, because her udder is so huge!  And I’m not sure the calf can even suckle - might have to milk her, then turn around and fill a nipple pail and feed the calf that way.   I am leaving mother and child together even if I hand feed.  Right now I am heating some frozen colostrum that we saved last spring, just in case the calf was not able to nurse.  Just waiting for daylight to go out there with it.  Calves can go about 24 hours before they have to eat, so we still have some time.

Yesterday, I moved the cows to Paddocks 2 & 3 because the weather was warm and the grass was okay in there - I wanted to give them just a little treat before the winter weather hits this week.  It entered my mind that I should put Lucy in the nursing pen, but I thought she would enjoy that good grass - and surely the calf wouldn't come today!  I was wrong, hey?

That meant I had to get the calf away from Lucy, into the wagon and then take her up the lane to the nursing pen.  Lucy is a very protective mother.  Well, they all are, but she is more than most.  I was surprised that I got the calf away from her without too much trouble - so glad my wagon tilts so I didn't have to lift her far.  Lucy was bellowing but she didn't come at me, thank goodness.   About halfway there, the calf jumped out of the wagon.  I wrestled her back in, got up to the nursing pen and then got her out of the wagon.  Taking a few steps at a time, I got her into the nursing pen.  Of course, Lucy followed her right in.   She didn't butt me once.  I am surprised.  It has been an issue in the past.  But maybe it was because it was just me handling her.  She doesn't like strangers, so when I brought in help, it might have disturbed her more.  Or maybe she is just getting less aggressive as she gets older.

All of the cows and the two bulls were very interested.  They are such sociable animals.  They ran along the path while I drove the calf up to the pen, a few of them bellowing in concert with Lucy.  They stood by the fence looking over at the nursing pen instead of eating their hay.

I was just telling someone that this is my slow time of the year.  The vet predicted Lucy would freshen January or February.  So I was even hoping she would wait until February so I could enjoy my slow time to the fullest, but getting fresh raw milk again is worth giving it up. 

Well, I am heading out to the barn to feed the calf and milk Lucy.

New life!

Last night, Rosie, who is going on 12 years old, gave birth to a bull calf.  He is quite the stinker!  This morning he escaped and was two paddocks from mom.  I got them back together, then called Justin and Leifschon to see if they could come over and help me get him and mom to the nursing pen.

When they got here, they asked, "Where is the calf?"  Gone again!  Justin, Leifschon, their two kids Owen and Olivia and I all spent about a half hour looking for him.

I figured he would come back when he was hungry, but when Kayla got here at 1:00 and there was still no calf, I was getting worried enough to send her out to help me look.  I'm also making cheese and awaiting the delivery of a new piece of equipment (my birthday present from me to me, but that's for another blog), so between timers going off, I went down by the creek to look.

I called my friend Eric and asked if they could die from getting lost.  He said not likely, but it could happen.  He said not to worry for at least a couple of days.  I was just going back to tell Kayla to forget the calf and take care of some gardening business when she called out, "I found him!"  He was in a paddock that every one of us had walked through earlier this morning, tucked into some weeds.

Kayla and I got him in the golf cart and brought him to the nursing pen.  It felt so good to pet him, to kiss him.  He looks just like Lucky!  Life goes on . . .

Lucky is not doing well . . .

This morning, I gave up Lucky for dead.  He was on his side, neck stretched out, no longer eating, although he did drink a little fluid.  I thought, "I am not going to try to prolong his life like we did Quincy.  All it means is a longer time to suffer.  I will just let him go."  I walked towards the house but didn't even get to the door before I turned around and went back out to the barn.  I gave him a penicillin shot.  That shot means he is no longer organic, but who cares?  I just wanted to give him one more shot at life.  I also mixed some more electrolyte powder into some water, and he took a bit of it.

When I went out an hour later, he was still laid out flat, and I am not strong enough to get him in a sitting position by myself.  But I stacked some straw under his head, and he drank copious amounts of water.  I had put a small handful of hay by his head when I left him earlier and it was gone, so he was eating again.  So I got more hay, and he began eating pretty steadily. 

I checked on him every half hour or so.  He took in a full gallon of electrolyte water, and I did another subcutaneous iv, which delivered 500 ml of electrolytes in solution, along with some glucose.  He also drank at least a gallon of plain water.   I noticed that he was belching and passing gas, a good thing.  Don't need bloat on top of everything else.

A little after noon, Kayla and Jack showed up.  They were able to lift Lucky and while he was up, I moved out the soiled straw from around him.  He definitely was too weak to stand.  They got him sitting up and he stayed up without falling over!  Kayla massaged him well, all over his body.  He ate and drank some more.  Kayla suggested minerals.  He went right for the sulfur, ignoring everything else.  He also took in more water, and we saw him urinating.  This is all goodness.

I do believe that the change was from the penicillin hitting his system.  I couldn't reach the vet - he has his kids and their animals at the 4-H fair - so I googled "maximum dosage of penicillin for a 300 pound calf."   I had given him 10 cc's early that morning, and the article said they could have 20 cc's twice a day, so I gave him 12 more, and plan to do another 12 at bedtime, when I give him the last half of his iv - another 500 ml of glucose and electrolytes in solution. 

Austin, one of the dairy herd association's milkers, arrived around 1:30 or 2:00 pm.  Lucky was very alert and still in sitting position, had not fallen over like he was doing earlier in the day and last night.  Austin took Lucky through range-of-motion exercises on all four legs.  He showed me how to do it, and I think I will be able to do it on my own.

Tina did Reiki on Lucky, and stayed with him encouraging him to eat more minerals.  He seemed to eat everything better when Tina was fussing over him.  If he makes it through this, I think we will have created a spoiled little bull!

No matter what happens, I am glad I did not give up on him this morning.