Plan L

Thanks so much for your thoughts and kind words.  It is kinda empty around the barnyard without Della.  But it is also a relief to not have to worry what I would find when I walked around the end of the barn.  Bruce asked in the comments if I would do anything different after this outcome.  I don’t have a simple answer.  Except I would say No, I would have still bred her since she didn’t seem to have any fertility problems.  Usually if I cull a cow, she has lost her calf and doesn’t re-breed and therefore  is open even after being exposed to a bull.  Sometimes we eat them ourselves, sometimes they are sold as dog food and sometimes they just go to the sale barn.  And as you all know I think of my milk cows differently than I do my beef cows.  For me it has to do with the numbers I guess.  I only have one milk cow, not wanting two, but we have several beef cows and I am pretty hands off with them.  So I don’t get that attached.  Milk cows are also more productive.  My beef cows are expected to produce a calf each year, re-breed within 60- 90 days and raise that calf.  My milk cow is expected to produce a calf, re-breed within 60- 90 days, and provide us with dairy products.  Della living a productive 12 years is pretty good for a dairy cow.  And pretty good for a beef cow too.  It’s my personal rule to not eat my milk cows.  Purely emotional, not economical at all.  I just haven’t been that hungry yet, and am willing to take the loss.  I don’t feel Della owes me to the last penny.  Maybe some Disney creeping in there, but while I couldn’t eat Della, I didn’t have any problem eating steak for dinner Sunday night, and neither did anyone else here, even Hangdog who had to do my bidding and put Della out of her misery, and bury her.  I doubt he will regale the fellows at work with his holiday weekend stories on Tuesday.  It would probably horrify them since it involves guns, heavy equipment, and killing & compassion.  Meanwhile they buy their meat and dairy at Walmart…and complain about how big corporations are ruining everything… .

But back to Bruce’s question, if the numbers were reversed and I had lots of dairy cows, I would have to sharpen the pencil a little harder to make it pencil out.  But here the beef, chickens, and pigs get the sharp pencil, the dairy cow doesn’t.

So what is Plan L?

Last year I planned on maybe milking Lula (Plan L.)  Saturday we caught Lula, loaded her in the trailer and brought her to the house.  She is already demanding full attention and is due any day.  Funny how I don’t worry about the beef cows and their due dates.  I keep a wall calendar in the kitchen with important dates.  Important dates mean butcher dates, cow breeding and cow due dates, and pasture notes.  Crude cave drawing-like notes, but it works for me.  We have so few cows now, that a calendar works just fine.  Today when I went to move the cows, there were two new calves.  While building fence and moving the water trough and minerals, the calves got up and nursed (not for the first time either, judging from the vigorous butting of the udders), the cows had cleaned and all was well.  That has always been my calving experiences for the most part.  We have rarely ever had many troubles.  That is why I don’t worry too much about the beef cows.  Now if they can escape cougar predation we are good to go.

So Plan L?  I don’t really think Lula has enough milk to raise her calf and Jane, but she does have enough for us to have our raw milk and raise her calf.  I think if she raised both her calf and Jane, both would get shorted, so I am thinking that is not wise.  Jane is acclimated to milk replacer now, and is drinking two gallons a day in 4 feedings.   I will have good fresh milk, but no butter, but Della had me pretty stocked up, we have some left in the freezer, which I will dole out and we will wait.  At the rate things are going, Jane will have her first calf before we know it.