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Rosie’s calf, otherwise known as Herman Beefsteak, is growing bigger and meatier all the time. He’s also getting more and more cheeky and unruly as time passes. Fortunately, his respect for electric fences is increasing as he grows in size and becomes more likely to hit the live wires as he dashes underneath. Still, at times we look outside and find that he has managed to become separated into a different paddock from his mother, who bellows at him in annoyance.

Cheeky beast

A couple of evenings ago, Kevin and I wandered down to the cow paddock to milk Coco. Kevin had separated Coco from her calf in the morning, and we were eagerly anticipating all the creamy milk that would be saved up for us. When we reached Coco’s paddock, there was Herman Beefsteak, licking Auntie Coco’s neck and looking very pleased with himself. We were soon to find out why. Once Kevin started trying to milk Coco, he found that her udder was almost completely empty. Little more than a few miserable squirts of milk could be coaxed into the bucket. That cheeky little devil Herman Beefsteak had managed to feed off Coco and had drunk all the milk.

Soooo cheeky!!!

Poor Rosie was very disgruntled and eager to be reunited with Herman. Her udder was full of milk, but Herman Beefsteak showed no interest in feeding off his mother. His belly was full. Henrietta Hamburger, on the other hand, was ravenously hungry after having been separated from Coco for the day, but she had to be satisfied with the little bit of milk left in Coco’s udder by Herman. Coco was getting fed up with people and calf messing with her empty udder. Kevin then suggested that we try to milk Rosie. Problem: Rosie has not yet been trained to go into the bale, and was very distracted by all the goings on with Coco and the calves. We tried to coax her into the bale. Alas, she seemed to suspect that we were luring her into some kind of vile trap and would have none of it. As we trudged back to the house with our almost-empty milk bucket, Kevin declared that as far as he was concerned the cows, calves and milk could all go to the devil. None of it was worth the bother. Indeed, it had been a very frustrating evening in the cow paddock (for all but Herman Beefsteak).

The next time we separated Coco for milking, Kevin took extra care to shore up the electric fence around the gate. We needed to be doubly sure that Herman would stay in his own paddock. Kevin’s efforts were rewarded with an abundant haul of milk from Coco. Things were back to normal, and we walked back to the house feeling blessed to have such lovely cows and delicious milk. . . not to mention two healthy calves fattening for the freezer.

Dear Coco was very sad to have lost her own calf, and wasn’t at all impressed with the substitute calf that we offered. As noted in a previous post, we had to separate the two from the other cows and calves, so that they could be alone to work on their relationship.

Feedies

Kevin and I have also been going down to the cow paddock to make sure young Henrietta Hamburger was getting a feed from Coco. We hoped that as the days went by we would be able to be less and less involved in the feeding time, and that Henrietta would eventually be getting fed without any input from us. Alas, after a week or so of supervised feeding, Coco was still being very stroppy and mean to the calf, and we feared the two were going to remain dependent on our presence at feeding time. Disappointing, but we wanted to keep Coco in milk, and reasoned that it was still easier for us to supervise feedings for the calf than to milk Coco out ourselves all the time. Still, even as the days went by, we never gave up hope that the pair might eventually manage to bond.

Life is good when “Mummy” doesn’t kick me in the head

Finally, yesterday evening, Kevin noticed that Coco’s teats didn’t look muddy as they usually do. Hmm. . . Henrietta Hamburger was lying in the grass down by the fence, looking well-fed and satisfied. Were we imagining things? Kevin went and brought the calf over to Coco for feeding. Surely, if she were hungry, the calf would have come over on her own?? We watched as the calf approached Coco. Rather than doing her usual desperate dive for the udder, she wandered up and stood casually by Coco’s head. We waited for Coco to commence her usual calf-bullying behaviour — head-butting the calf into the fence and suchlike. Instead, the calf received a gentle motherly lick and a friendly nuzzle.

You can imagine how delighted we felt as we returned from the cow paddock. That evening marked a real turning point. We are still keeping a close eye on the situation, but it now seems that the calf is able to feed off Coco without our presence. The only drawback: We will now have to separate the calf from Coco when we want to milk her for ourselves. Not such a big deal compared to supervising all the feedings!

On the milk front, we are happy to report that all is well. Coco’s mastitis seemed to clear up immediately, and we have seen no more signs of trouble. Still, we do not use the milk from the quarter that was infected, and will not do so for a good while. Coco is becoming very accustomed to going into the stall to be milked, and Kevin is becoming an increasingly proficient milker. We are enjoying lots of creamy Jersey milk. It’s wonderful to be able to use Coco’s milk to make Caspian Sea Yoghurt, kefir and other treats. So far, we have not made any butter (we’ll get to that next), but we have used some of the cream to make a delicious dessert treat of “panna cruda” — a cold dessert of lightly sweetened raw cream set with a little gelatine. Yum!

Less than two days after we pinned up the ad for Esmerelda at the local store, the phone rang. Someone wanted to buy her! Of course, we thought she looked gorgeous in that photo on the flier. It was gratifying to know that someone else’s head had been turned by this glowing example of bovine beauty.

After a short phone conversation, the purchaser was keen enough to offer to buy Esmerelda right away, without even seeing her. She would fit in perfectly with the small herd of Friesian cows that they are grazing just down the road from here. Esmerelda’s new owners rushed over with the cash the very next morning, and had the chance to meet the latest addition to their herd. They looked very pleased with her.

Esmerelda in her new paddock

We felt happy to have found a good home for Ezzie so easily. She would be going to a small nearby farm, with kind owners who treat their animals well. Like us, they wouldn’t want any of their diary cows to end up at the meat works or in a big commercial dairy herd. Still, both Kevin and I were reeling a bit with the suddenness of it all. We had hardly had time to get used to the idea of selling Esmerelda, and it had happened already! I looked up the hill from the garden the afternoon after the sale, and saw Kevin spending some quality time with his beloved pet. We were really going to miss that big, bossy cow!

The next evening, Ezzie’s new owners came to move her and the calf along the road to join the rest of their herd. Herman Beefsteak was determined to go with them. It took quite some work to shoo him back up the hill to Rosie, who was bellowing at him in annoyance. Luckily Ezzie is a real bucket-brain, and willingly followed Kevin along the road, hoping for the treat he was carrying in the blue bucket. Her calf followed behind. It was a fine evening, and the move was uneventful.

Our destination was a paddock so lush and green that Esmerelda hardly knew where to put her eager muzzle — into the grass or into the treat bucket that she’d been salivating for all the way down the road. Of course, it was a bit sad for us to say goodbye to her, but we felt good to be leaving her on such a juicy pasture. As for Esmerelda, she was so transfixed by the green grass that she didn’t even turn to glance at us as we walked away.

Not long ago, Kevin and I came to a decision: We ought to sell Esmerelda and her calf. Esmerelda is our dear pet, and a fabulous beast, so this was not an easy decision to make. We love Esmerelda, and will really miss having her around, even though she’s a bit big and stroppy!

This is the picture we used on the FOR SALE flyer

Why would we sell Esmerelda?

* The size of the Farmlet means that we are not really big enough to run three dairy cows, especially if we also want to keep some of their offspring to raise for meat. (We were really only looking for one more cow when we found Rosie and Coco, but they were only for sale as a pair. That’s how we ended up with three cows.)

* Esmerelda is a big cow. She eats a lot more grass than the Jerseys. Her larger size also makes her less than ideal for the steep terrain on our land, especially when it gets muddy. Her hooves make a real mess!

* For our own consumption, we prefer Jersey milk over Friesian milk.

* It doesn’t seem right to separate Rosie and Coco, who have been together since birth, so Ezzie is the most obvious candidate for a new home.

Since we are so fond of Esmerelda, we wouldn’t like to sell her to a commercial dairy herd. We’d rather she went to a small farm, where she can still be Queen of the Paddock and get treats from a bucket! It’s very important to us to find a good home for her. Two days ago, we designed a fabulous flier to put up at our local store, the “Bush Fairy Dairy.” I also prepared an ad. for the “pets and livestock” section of the local newspaper. At $600, including calf, we think she’s a great buy. (I called a local stock agent, and he advised us as to a fair price to ask for her.) She’s got lots of milk and would be a good house cow and/or nurse cow. She’s friendly, and can be moved around and managed without a dog (All it takes is a plastic bucket with a treat in it.) We hope that the right kind of person is looking for a cow just like Ezzie.