May 6, 2010

In my last post, I said I would tell the story of our new calf's arrival here at Liberty Farm. I didn't know it at the time, but T-Bone's arrival was not the real story. It turns out that Sugar was quite ill. The reasoning behind it is mostly educated conjecture so if any dairy folks are reading your comments are welcome. Anyway, here's the story.

About three weeks ago, Sugar forsook hay completely for fresh green grass. Subsequently, her milk production went from 3.5 gallons a day up to 5 gallons. Great! (we thought). About a week ago she started scouring (i.e. got diarrhea). This wasn't the typical loose manure that cows get when eating grass but pure liquid. We knew something was really wrong last weekend when she refused grain and her milk production dropped like a rock.

Here's where the conjecture comes in. The grass this time of year is high in moisture content and low in mineral content. It is also quite high in nitrogen (protein). The protein caused the spike in milk but the wet, mineral-deficient grass wasn't fibrous enough to maintain good rumen function (hence the scouring and lack of appetite for grain).

Our solution has been to keep her confined in the barn eating dry hay. She has been in there since Sunday afternoon and her appetite has returned with a vengeance. When we first brought her in we supplemented her with molasses and apple cider vinegar. I've been giving her probiotics every other day. Tuesday she was finally her usual self at the grain pan and she tried to eat the plastic tube that the probiotics come in. Her manure is still not the "cow pie" we like to see but it's definitely three dimensional. I'm confident that she will have developed a good fiber mat in her rumen by this weekend and plan to let her out on grass. If she stops eating hay altogether, though, we will confine her for part of the day.

As for milk, we really don't know what's going on because of the calf nursing. By the way, she has thoroughly adopted him and I suspect that she may be refusing to let down for us. We're getting very little milk for the house but the calf is fat and sassy. Once things are back to normal we'll begin separating the calf at night and milking in the morning. There are some training methods for cows that refuse to let down but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

April 29, 2010

Here are some photos that Jennifer took today. Man, when I look at our bull, Porter House, that long body brings to mind visions of ribeyes over charcoal! The new calf is named T-Bone. He's 1/2 Milking Devon and 1/4 Dutch Belted with a little Jersey and Holstein in there somewhere. His arrival here and Sugar's reaction warrant a blog post but I don't have time right now...

April 19, 2010

Our final lambs (I hope) were born during the night to Sonja. That makes eight total and she kept up this year's trend of having one of each sex. I penned mama and babies up together and checked both teats for milk flow. I think both lambs had already nursed. Mama was happy to get some good hay, fresh water and a little corn and oats. Next up is butchering last year's hoggets. They are both sold.

I'm sure any scientist reading this will scoff, but I think our house cow, Sugar, knows that this is the time of year she should be calving and she really wants a baby. If you've been following, you'll remember that we didn't breed her because we wanted to get her on any earlier calving schedule. (Last year she freshened at the end of June.) Anyway, she's been watching the lambs with much interest and lately we've noticed her grooming one of the rams. She licks his head and face just like she would a calf. We've got dibs on the next bull calf born at our favorite dairy. Hopefully, she'll readily adopt him.

Now that we're done lambing I've got wood to cut for next winter and garden preparation to do. Next weekend, though, another plumbing project looms. Ugh...

April 7, 2010

We've had six lambs born to three ewes so far - 3 boys and 3 girls. Here are some pics my daughter took today.
This little guy was born last Friday. I love the pattern.


These two were born yesterday afternoon, less than 24 hours before this photo was taken. The brown one is standing in the salt. Less than a day old and already an ornery turd.


Here's the brown spotted one again with his sister, eyeing that same salt lick.


Here are those two again with their mom, Annie.

First Lambs

The ewe that I didn't think was pregnant gave birth to twins early
this morning. It's hard to fast when the events in the barn are saying
feast.

Sent from my mobile device

March 30, 2010

Today I lamb-proofed the barn. Wouldn't want a newborn wandering through the bars into Porter's stall and getting squished. Thursday could be the first day of our lambing season. The timing isn't ideal with this being Holy Week but Luther made that decision for us when he went through the fence back in November. The call of nature is stronger than our best-laid plans, I guess.

It's supposed to be in the 60s and 70s and sunny here the rest of this week. Things should dry out nicely. I plan to prune the apple trees but beyond that probably won't get much farm work done. The Sacred Triduum will be our focus.

Anyway, things are growing and greening here. More to come as we get busy on the farm.

March 19, 2010

This is our Ayrshire bull calf, Porter House. He'll be nine months old next week. We just took him completely off milk two weeks ago. It's hard to judge his size by a photo but 1.5 gallons of milk a day up to 8+ months of age really packs on the muscle.

In late June or early July we'll put him in with Sugar for breeding and in October or November we'll put him in our freezer. Because Porter was kept by himself since our other calf went home in November, he's quite rambunctious and has pretty poor manners. I always take a riding crop when I go in the stall or pasture with him so I can slap his nose when he tries to force me around with his head. In the future I hope to always have a group of at least two calves so they can be companions and teach good manners to one another.

If breeding this way with a yearling works well, we'll probably do it every year so we don't have to rely on artificial insemination. We're fortunate to have an organic dairy with Dutch Belted and Ayrshire calves for sale in the spring and summer. My biggest fear about reintroducing Sugar and Porter is that he will try to go back to nursing. He's been separated from her since mid-October but old habits seem to die hard with these dairy calves.

All of our snow is completely gone here and the grass is greening up nicely. I have enough hay on hand to last until mid-April so I may have to buy a bit more.

Lambs could start coming on April 1st. We sheared the ewes last weekend and there are only two that I'm certain are bred with a third being probable. I think our one year-old, Annie, is open and the two (almost) yearlings are also. Thank God for that. I didn't want to deal with yearling mothers.