June is Dairy Month

Mark laughed outloud when he read the headline in one of our local agricultural papers that said, "June is dairy month."  "What have YOU done for dairy month?" he asked with a sarcastic laugh, "Because we got a COW!"  What a proud dairyman he is all of a sudden!
Mark picked her up on Friday morning and she's been settling in ever since.  A friendly beast, she's not a big fan of our farm dog, Rinnie, but is otherwise very calm and loves attention.
She came with the name Buttercup, which I thought was a suitable jersey cow name, but Mark's eyes said that he wasn't about to go about calling 'Buttercup'.  So we went with Daisy (another wild flower and very acceptable milk cow name I thought), until we remembered that our good friends, the Vandermaars, cow is named Daisy, Mark's sister's horses name is Daisy and I kept saying "Rosie" whenever I called her.  Mark wanted to go with Charlie (don't ask me), but I think we've stuck with "Rosie" now, although Lucy repeatedly informs me that "Rosie lives in West Branches!" (My parent's dog is called Rosie as well).

So you can see we're serious farmers when we spent more time deciding on a name than worrying about the condition of the cow!!! haha.

She actually looks ok for a Jersey, but we'd like to give her condition a little bump in the right direction. The farm where she's been is entirely grass fed and according to them she 'should be bred' to an angus, although they have no time line on that.  SO, we have a cow, who could use a bit of grain as far as I'm concerned, may or may not be pregnant and is fairly friendly, but gave me an overly friendly nudge with her poll last night which has left a pretty purple bruise on my ample thigh this morning.  I have forgotten how much bigger cows are than sheep and will have to take more care with the kids around her until we know her better.

My books all repeat the importance of testing for TB and brucellosis which, because I've never heard any talk of between dairy farmers before, I chalked up to the age of the books and the fact that those sort of things are probably taken care of as a standard procedure now.  After reading a bit more however, it seems that brucellosis can cause abortions, which has happened with Rosie before, so we're contemplating having the vet come out, do a test for that and a preg check.  At least that way, we'll know whether we're going to have milk anytime soon or whether we need to look at breeding her.  Figuring out when she's in heat will be a whole new session of reading!!! haha.

Ah well, off to the feed store to get a proper cattle salt block and then to the market to get my Pleasant Pork pepperoni so we can have pizza this week!    Mark is doing a Habitat for Humanity build with the church this morning so we might stop by and check out men at work since we'll be in town.  

Hope this finds you enjoying the brief moments of sun we've been getting between rain drops!!

-Sally

PS. Dearest brothers: 

Bruce-no need for the Quik just yet, she's dry, but I'm sure it'll be a must have at the table as I remember.  :)  

Mark- no need for a calf just yet either, she's dry, but we're certainly make use of the one she has whenever that happens!!  ps. thanks for the support, I'm pretty sure the rest of our families think we're ridiculous. :)