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!
