Here’s our new milk cow, Lolly. She’s been at my in-laws with the steers we’re raising. However, on Friday look who joined the world a whole month earlier than we were expecting.
At first the chidren wanted to name him Pop as the other half of Lolly’s name. Then they decided on Blackie, but that’s before all the siblings and cousins had seen him. I’m sure today the conversation will all be abuzz with what to name him. Since we thought this calf was arriving in September, there was a little bit of preparation work to be done on Saturday.
First Nate had to add two more walls to the barn to make a calf pen. We took the last one out to make room for more hay storage last winter on the other side of the barn.
We had to replace this hydrant so we can fill Lolly’s water trough.
Milk Lolly for the first time ever. This is her first calf, so she’s never been milked and doesn’t yet stand still for it. Her head is locked into a stanchion but she tries to walk the entire time she’s being milked.
So it’s a little messy for the milker besides just being plain annoying. Nate has colostrum splashed all over him from Lolly walking into and kicking the milk bucket. Now it’s time to feed the calf.
He will die without his mama’s colostrum.
Any milk the calf doesn’t drink is given to the pigs. They are pretty excited about this treat twice a day. Lolly’s milk will freshen in the next few weeks and we won’t have to remember to buy milk anymore!
Nate also stacked the barn with hay for Lolly straight from the field he spent half the night baling.
A friend my husband works with gave us four more layers this weekend. I can’t wait for fresh eggs. And that’s it for new arrivals this weekend: a milk cow, calf. and four laying hens. Now I’ve got to go pick green beans.
