That's Gonna Leave a Mark

Tonight Tricia told me it was quite a coincidence that I blogged about Rosie's "winter coat"  the other night.  She had been observing that, too. 

Rosie's winter coat

As you can tell from the photo below, she grows thick hair, even on her udder, and it gets in the way when we clean up her bag in preparation for milking time.  Tonight Tricia brought the clippers out to the barn, plugged them in and gave her a haircut on just her udder.  I'll have to get a photo of the change.

Rosie is one that gets real nervous when the clippers get turned on.  The noise of the clippers turning on must be like the noise of a dentist's drill to us.  I guess it is from all the years of being shown in livestock shows.  We'd clip her to get her groomed and ready for the shows.  Rosie never liked it one bit, especially trimming around her face and ears.  Rosie does a funny thing when she gets nervous - she poops.  Tricia told me that when she turned the clippers on, Rosie pooped all over the place.  What a mess she made in the barn.  She finally got the job done, and it will be easier to milk her from now on.

Cleaning up Rosie's udder prior to milking

I wanted to show you something interesting about Rosie's udder in a photo I took this past Saturday:

This picture makes me cringe!

If you look above at one of Rosie's teats, you'll see a big, jagged scar.  Three years ago, I think it was, Rosie stepped on her teat when getting up from sitting down one day.  It made a big cut on her teat.  I know it must have been excruciatingly painful, but over time it healed up.  I remember we were real worried about it at first.  It doesn't negatively affect milk production from that quarter at all - just the stream of milk doesn't come out as tight as it once did.

We always hobble one back leg closest to us when we start milking and then 'strip' out one or two streams of milk from each teat to clear out any bacteria on the plug.

Then we put the bucket that is lined with a cloth "filter" to keep out dust, hay, hair and mosquitoes and flies, and begin milking.

When it is really cold outside, the milk coming out will be steaming! 

The Winter Coat

I have a big Columbia camouflage coat that I wear when it gets cold.  It got down to 26 degrees the other day and I broke it out of the coat closet a lot earlier than I usually do.  It did the trick of keeping me nice and warm.  Oftentimes, I'm concerned about the animals when the cold weather kicks in, but mostly when it is cold AND wet.  I've always heard, animals can handle the cold and they can handle wet weather, but being cold and wet is a hard hill for them to climb.

Fortunately, God has created a mechanism in cattle that helps them out during winter.  They don't have to go to a coat closet - they GROW their coats.  They are all registered Jersey cows, and they don't do well in the summer.  In the summer, their coats are slick - not much hair at all.  However, when fall rolls around, their hair really starts growing.  Here is Clarabull.  You can tell he's a little "fuzzy." 

Luna doesn't grow a thick coat.  Clarabelle's coat comes in a little thicker.  Rosie is the cow that really puts a thick winter parka on!  Saturday morning after milking, I walked her out of the barn and was admiring the coat she was wearing.

Yeah, I'm talkin' about you, Rosie.  She always cocks one ear up and looks at us with that goofy look.  Rosie is the cow that likes to lay in the mud like a pig all summer to stay cool.   Now in the winter, she grows a big furry coat to keep herself comfortable.

I took a close-up of 'ol Rosie's belly so you can see just how thick her hair grows around this time every year.  When we are milking her in the barn, we're freezing cold, but it doesn't bother her at all.  You can feel how warm she is.

She grows a lot of hair on her udder, too, though, and sometimes we'll get out the clippers and shave her udder as long hair on her udder can get in the way when you are trying to milk her.  The long hair they grow helps them to stay warm during the winter, but come summertime, they'll shed the winter coat they worked so hard to grow.  It's a neat cycle that God orchestrated.