I BOUGHT A COW!!

I BOUGHT A COW!

Major farm level UNLOCKED! In February, I bought an American Devon Jersey cross Milk Cow! She is due to calf in the beginning in March, so I have just enough time to train her at the milking stanchion and get her ready to join our dairy herd share. We named her Reba MilkEntire. She was raised by a horse farmer, is halter trained, soft as a ball of cotton, and extremely gentle - so she is a very special cow. She also weighs 1000 pounds of amazingness. I feel incredibly lucky to have such an awesome animal to learn the ins and outs of dairy farming with!

Milking a cow in no walk in the park. It has to be done twice a day at exactly the same time and each milking is about an hour of strenuous labor. You develop a solid relationship with the animal (and the milk is great), so it’s worth every moment. The cream cheese, yogurt, butter and other goods coming our farm’s way make me very excited indeed!!! I’ve been raising dairy goats for years, but having our own milk cow has been a lifelong dream and a very vital piece in increasing the sustainability of our organic farm. Rotational grazing improves our land incrementally each season, manure goes into organic compost to feed our garden (and we will have a huge one here!), the proceeds from the milk support growing the farm and infrastructure, extra milk goes to bottle feed our little lambs, and spoiled milk supplements go towards feeding other animals on the farm such as pigs and chickens.

See more of Reba here!

The proceeds from the milk support growing the farm and infrastructure, extra milk goes to the bottle baby sheep, and spoiled milk supplements the feed of other animals on the farm like pigs and chickens.