I really wanted a Jersey milk cow to learn how to make cheese, butter and fermented milk products, but I am having the hardest time with Elsie. I visited my friend the other day and his cow was clean, not a speck of poop on her, not even her feet. Maybe it is how Elsie is fed? So I am changing that a bit too. I plan to plunk a bale in the fence corner and use the headboard and foot board of an old metal framed bed as the feeder panels. Then I will see if she will still lay in her poop.
She has a nice shelter with fresh straw in it. Freddy lays in the hay surrounding where they feed, not in the poop, but Elsie just plunks her big butt down wherever and ends up with her side and udder covered in shit. Gross!
It is awful to clean her. But now that winter is here, how am I going to clean her? I have a rubber brush and a bristle brush to first get most of the manure off her, IF it is dry. But when it is wet, that is not so easy and in winter, when the water will freeze right to her hair, what do I do then?
The other problem is that she had mastitis and one of her teats is not funcitoning anymore. It is cold and the other three are warm. I don't know what will happen in winter. I am thinking it might freeze. Maybe I should make a bra for her.
Freddy is going to be weaned at the end of December and sold, if I can sell him. Then I will be forced to get up and out and milk Elsie twice a day. I think I will milk her at ten in the morning and around eight at night or possibly a little later. The problem is if there are guests at the Inn, check out time is 11 am, so I may have to wait until then to milk her and if I am serving dinner for guests in the evening, dinner is at seven and I may have to not finish the clean up to be able to milk her at 9 or 10. I also do not have a light where she is being kept, so will have to milk by flashlight.
Because she is a poopy girl, she poops when she is being milked and pees too. I have to be ultra quick to get the pail out of the way when she puffs out those big sides. I tell her not to, but she does anyhow. And when she is in the shelter being milked, then I will also have to clean up the mess immediately following milking and get her out of the little barn. She has a good three sided shelter, so she does not need to be in the barn. The barn is actually just an old granary that needs a new roof very badly. I can see daylight through the top!
Anyhow, I will really try with Elsie, try to milk her on time and try to get by the poop. I really do not like that part. My head is right beside that shitty flank and to me it is absolutely gross. Not all cows are that way, apparently, so if this does not work for me, I will sell my dear sweet Elsie and find a new girl who is not so messy. I would not sell Elsie until the new cow I got proved to be better than Elsie with her toiletry habits. Except for this problem, Elsie is a great little cow, easy to milk, easy to catch and halter and sweet natured. I think she would be even better without Freddy, becasue she is quite protective of her adopted son, as she should be.
The cows that are boarded here should go home. I feel sorry for them. They watch Elsie and Freddy eating hay and they don't have any. I am surprised they have not busted through the three strand barb wire fence to chomp on some of that good hay. I sure hope the man pays me, because the fellow last year did not. He was supposed to give me a heifer calf in exchange for pasture, but I have never heard from him since he took his cows away. Not nice.
Come on Elsie. You need to quit lying in the shit!
She has a nice shelter with fresh straw in it. Freddy lays in the hay surrounding where they feed, not in the poop, but Elsie just plunks her big butt down wherever and ends up with her side and udder covered in shit. Gross!
It is awful to clean her. But now that winter is here, how am I going to clean her? I have a rubber brush and a bristle brush to first get most of the manure off her, IF it is dry. But when it is wet, that is not so easy and in winter, when the water will freeze right to her hair, what do I do then?
The other problem is that she had mastitis and one of her teats is not funcitoning anymore. It is cold and the other three are warm. I don't know what will happen in winter. I am thinking it might freeze. Maybe I should make a bra for her.
Freddy is going to be weaned at the end of December and sold, if I can sell him. Then I will be forced to get up and out and milk Elsie twice a day. I think I will milk her at ten in the morning and around eight at night or possibly a little later. The problem is if there are guests at the Inn, check out time is 11 am, so I may have to wait until then to milk her and if I am serving dinner for guests in the evening, dinner is at seven and I may have to not finish the clean up to be able to milk her at 9 or 10. I also do not have a light where she is being kept, so will have to milk by flashlight.
Because she is a poopy girl, she poops when she is being milked and pees too. I have to be ultra quick to get the pail out of the way when she puffs out those big sides. I tell her not to, but she does anyhow. And when she is in the shelter being milked, then I will also have to clean up the mess immediately following milking and get her out of the little barn. She has a good three sided shelter, so she does not need to be in the barn. The barn is actually just an old granary that needs a new roof very badly. I can see daylight through the top!
Anyhow, I will really try with Elsie, try to milk her on time and try to get by the poop. I really do not like that part. My head is right beside that shitty flank and to me it is absolutely gross. Not all cows are that way, apparently, so if this does not work for me, I will sell my dear sweet Elsie and find a new girl who is not so messy. I would not sell Elsie until the new cow I got proved to be better than Elsie with her toiletry habits. Except for this problem, Elsie is a great little cow, easy to milk, easy to catch and halter and sweet natured. I think she would be even better without Freddy, becasue she is quite protective of her adopted son, as she should be.
The cows that are boarded here should go home. I feel sorry for them. They watch Elsie and Freddy eating hay and they don't have any. I am surprised they have not busted through the three strand barb wire fence to chomp on some of that good hay. I sure hope the man pays me, because the fellow last year did not. He was supposed to give me a heifer calf in exchange for pasture, but I have never heard from him since he took his cows away. Not nice.
Come on Elsie. You need to quit lying in the shit!
Elsie lies in her poop. Her udder is caked, her tail is too and so is her flank. How on Earth am I supposed to get that off in the dead of winter?
But Freddy is clean. He is careful where he lies down. Elsie has some nice clean straw to lie in too, but she just plunks her big ol' self down where she feels like it.
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