Like a Pig in a Mudhole

Our Jersey cows hail from the Isle of Jersey in the British Isles.  They don't deal well with the summer heat and humidity in South Louisiana.  Just for grins, I looked up the average summer temperature on the Isle of Jersey.  Daily highs in July is 71 degrees Fahrenheit and lows are 59 degrees.  I guess that may be the temperature that their genetics are programmed for and why they struggle so in this tropical environment.  I mean, I feel sorry for them.

Here is LuLu seeking shade under the barn, praying for a breeze to blow in order to bring a respite from the heat.  On days like this, they remain inactive during the day and you'll see them at night grazing under the moonlight after the sun has tucked itself below the horizon.

Here is old Rosie.  Rosie is 17 years old!  She's playing a game the animals all play.  They seek out small areas or pockets of shade under the live oak trees, patiently waiting for the shadows to grow as the sun lazily works its way across the sky.  Over the course of the day, they know just where to be to enjoy the shade found on the eastern and western sides of the pasture, depending upon the time of day.  

Finally, here's Elsie.  Elsie has hit the jackpot.  Underneath a small live oak tree I raise from an acorn I picked up in Tallahassee, Florida, she's enjoying a little patch of shade, but the shadow made by the tree comes with a bonus - mud!  In the hot, baking sun, laying in a mudhole cools the old girl off.  She gets absolutely filthy.  It is fortunate that she's not in milk right now or we'd have to give her a bath before milking time.

In the summer, they just enjoy rolling in the mud.  In addition to cooling them down, I'm sure it also helps with the mosquitoes, flies, horse flies and deer flies.  This is the last little mudhole they have left, but have no fear, more rain is expected for the next several days and that will ensure additional mud holes in which to lay in just like a pig.

I look at Elsie as she pants in the heat, with drool running down her nose.  I won't even tell her that she's got all of July, August and September to go before she can expect any sort of a cool down.

She doesn't know where her ancestors are from, but I bet if she had the opportunity, she'd rather be living on the Isle of Jersey than in her home on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm in Jennings, Louisiana.  

The Dairy Daily Diary

Tonight I'll bring you up to date with what's going on with the milking operations at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  We're milking one cow (LuLu) and two goats.  We drink all we can and sell the rest.  Despite the high heat LuLu, our Jersey cow, yields rich milk, high in butterfat.  Look at the cream line in that gallon jar of milk!  The cream rises to the top and almost a third of it is heavy cream - perfect for butter or whipped cream, excellent in coffee or for making ice cream.

I walked out in the pasture in the late afternoon.  Cows aren't super smart, but they aren't super dumb most of the time, either.  Notice how Rosie and Elsie are grazing in the shade.  They follow the shade out and wait until the shadows lengthen before they move on out.  Belle is guarding her charge, too.

LuLu is grazing by herself, but she's following the same protocol.  She'll move on out as the shadows lengthen.

Here is Rosie in the foreground.  She is 18 years old!  She is the first Jersey calf born on our property.  She was a champion show cow in her time and gave us many wonderful calves over the years.  Her time is getting short, however, and we'll have to make some hard decisions soon.

Here's Elsie.  She's a bossy beast, if there ever was one.  She is still a heifer.  She should have calved two years ago.  We had the veterinarian come and check her out when she never got pregnant.  He found a cyst on her ovary and got rid of it.  She was going into heat every cycle, but still never got pregnant.  She's a fat, good looking Jersey, but if she's only going to eat and not give us calves and milk, well... the clock is ticking for you Elsie, girl.  The pressure is on.

We'll see.  We haven't seen her go in heat for the last several cycles and Tricia seems to think her udder is showing some changes.  Is hope on the horizon for this heifer?  Funny, I pray every single morning that our cows get pregnant.  As I said, we'll see...

And this is LuLu.  I call her LuLu Boofaloo.  She has been in milk now for two years come July.  That's a long time to be milking a cow.  We need a break and she does too.  We plan on drying her off on July 4th.  Independence Day (in more ways than one.)  We've seen her milk production really fall off.  It could be the heat or the time in milk, but it could be that she's bred, too.  We will find out in due time.

Here is the bull.  Nicky.  He's a registered Jersey like Rosie, Elsie, and LuLu.  He, hopefully, has planted his fertile seed.  When the girls had not gotten pregnant, I had talked to a neighbor down the road.  He has a Holstein Jersey cross.  He wants to trade me his bull for Nicky.  That way we'd learn if Nicky is "hot" or fertile.  Introducing a bull with Holstein would make calves with more volume.  Holsteins give more milk, but Jerseys give richer milk.  I'm thinking we'll just keep Nicky, but if he's not going to be successful in his breeding endeavors, we'll make necessary adjustments.  We send our bulls to be processed to fill our freezer and it's pretty empty right now.

The pasture is holding up pretty good right now, thanks to the lime Dad and I broadcast in the early spring as well as the wonderful rains we have been getting.  Cows head down is something you like to see.  Later, when they sit, chewing their cud, you know they are happy creatures.

That's gonna be a wrap in the Dairy Daily Diary.  

If at First You Don't Succeed...

This is Billy Boy.  He's the Devon bull we've borrowed from a friend to breed two of our three cows.  Well, actually, to breed one cow and one heifer.  One of our Jersey heifers was bred (we think) by a registered Jersey bull that we borrowed from another friend.  She hasn't come back in cycle and if our calendar is right, she should be calving in August.

We watched Billy Boy romance both Rosie and Elsie.  We marked the calendar and began watching intently 18-21 days later.  Elsie did NOT come back in heat.  She's bred.  Rosie on the other hand did.  She was not bred.  She's 14 years old.  That's pretty old for Jersey cows we've owned.  I did read, however, that the record longevity for a Jersey cow was 37 years!!

Billy Boy, the Stud

So 21 days later, we're watching and see that Rosie came back in heat.  Billy Boy was on the scene and took care of business.  You can see by Rosie's crooked tail and the long string of mucous coming from her back side.  We've marked our calendar and will see what happens in 21 days.  Hopefully, she's bred this time.  If not, we'll have to send Billy Boy back home.  Our pasture doesn't have enough grass to support him and our cows, goats, and chickens.

Will the third time be a charm, Rosie?

Speaking of Jersey cows, they are a lot smaller than beef cattle and smaller than a Holstein.  We learned this during the livestock shows back when the kids showed.  In comparison to other animals, our Jerseys were small.  We also learned that after buying a head gate.  When trimming hooves, giving antibiotics, wormer or even for grooming and milking, it is important sometimes to have a head gate.

We purchased one and bolted it to a makeshift chute on the side of the barn.  We installed a gate on a hinge that we push to isolate the cows for treatment.  We learned quickly that the head gate was made for bigger cattle.  As soon as we closed the head gate, all three of the cows were able to wiggle and pull their heads back through!  This won't do.

I had a plan.  Time to invoke redneck engineering.  I ripped a 36" long 2 x 4 and made it a 2 x 2.  Then I purchased 6 carriage head bolts, nuts and washers.  I used my impact to drill holes in the galvanized vertical pipe that makes up the stationary side of the head gate and did the same to the 2 x 2.  Then I bolted it up.  When finished, it looked like this:

As you can see, I don't think they'll be able to wiggle out of the head gate now.  I was going to test it out on Elsie or LuLu (one of the two heifers) Sunday afternoon, but time got away from me. I think it will work.  The gap is much smaller now.

There's a walkway between the garage and the garden and pasture that we call the 'grove.'  A pecan tree and live oak trees create an area of perpetual shade.  The breeze blows in this area on even the stillest of days and I like to think it is a little cooler here than anywhere else on the homestead.

Tricia hung her hammock between the pecan tree and the Bradford pear.  That tree was a free tree I got from the Arbor day foundation.  I planted it temporarily in the yard, intending to move it to a better location one day.  By the time I tried to dig it up, its tap root was well established and I couldn't dig it up.  I let it stay where it was.  At least it serves a newfound purpose as an anchor for a hammock!  Tricia was relaxing...  On the ladder in the background, you can see a swarm trap I have set.  We are trying to catch swarm #3.  No success yet.

The next day when Tricia wasn't in the hammock, I figured I would see how relaxing it was.  I climbed in and was enjoying the comfort when...  Belle, our Great Pyrenees decided she wanted to jump in the hammock too.  The big galoot!

Perhaps tomorrow I can sneak back into the hammock without having 'company' join me.

The Heat is On

In This Post from November we posted about bringing Nick back home.  He was a registered Jersey bull that we borrowed from a friend to breed our two heifers and cow.  We haven't seen LuLu come back into heat and, although we haven't had her palpated, when we look at her back end, we think her bag is starting to grow.

Here's a more close up shot.  Hopefully we're right.  If we are, somewhere in August, she'll be calving.  That's always exciting.

I wish we could say the same for Elsie and Rosie.  We've seen both of them go back into heat.  Nick had stayed here for two cycles.  We thought things were done, but obviously not.  A friend of ours has a breed of cows called Devon.  Devons were brought to Plymouth in 1624 from England.  They are a rare breed that are dual purpose - milk and meat.

We both figured it would be good to have a Devon - Jersey cross and since he has a two year old Bull, it just seemed like we should play matchmaker.  We drove to our friend's home and picked up Billy Boy and brought him back to our place.  Here's Billy Boy:

He's a stout fellow with horns.  The other animals are all keeping their distance from him.  He's walking around the pasture, getting a feel for the new surroundings.

The next day, however, he's become fond of Elsie.  She's expected to come into heat in the next day or so.  Elsie and Billy Boy have been spending time together, but Elsie is not in standing heat yet.  Things won't work until she's in standing heat.  We'll be watching for that.

Until that time, Billy Boy shadows Elsie everywhere she goes...

We estimate she'll get bred in a day or two.  We'll be watching to record the date and plan to keep Billy Boy around for another month to ensure that once bred, Elsie and Rosie don't come back into heat again.  Rosie ought to be ready to be bred in about a week.

Nick Goes Home

Nick is a Jersey Bull that we've "borrowed" from some friends down the road.  He had a very specific job to do and that was to seduce our Jersey cow, Rosie and our two Jersey heifers, Elsie and LuLu.  Exactly four weeks ago today, we picked him up and brought him to Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  He is a big dude and he's not halter broken.  My immediate concern was, "How in the world are we going to load him back up in the trailer when it is time for him to go?"  We don't have a corral or loading chute.  It might end up being an adventure - or impossible.

We're kind of "fly by the seat of your pants" folks.  I just thought that we'd deal with that problem when we had to deal with it.  First things first - we had to get our three animals bred.  Cows have a 21 day cycle.  It's been four weeks.  We see no more 'activity' so we're thinking the romancing is done.  But here's the thing: We saw evidence of the two heifers going in heat, but never Rosie.  Even with the heifers in heat, we never Nick and our cows consummate their relationship, if you know what I mean,  but, we weren't watching 24/7.  There was programming on a TV network Nickelodeon a long time ago called "Nick at Nite."  Perhaps Nick was amorous at night, hidden from view.  We hope so.

So today we had a window of time between morning and evening worship service to load up Nick and bring him back home.  How was this going to work?

We backed the cattle trailer to the gate and opened it up, chaining the gate to the trailer, so there was no way for him to escape.  Then I got a bucket of sweet feed to coax him with, because everyone knows the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Nick was very suspicious.  I opened an escape door in the back of the trailer and then walked backwards with the bucket, luring him to the open gate.  Slowly, slowly...  I got him to where he got his front two feet in the trailer.  Benjamin ran up from behind to shut the back gate in back of him.  Ol' Nick figured out what was up and he backed up in a hurry.

I'm not one to give up easily.  This time I led him with the feed and let him get a good taste of the molasses-laden sweet feed.  He liked it!  I pulled it away and walked into the trailer, setting the bucket in the very front.  I walked out of the side gate of the trailer and waited.  Nick jumped up in the trailer and Benjamin slammed the cattle trailer gate closed.  Got 'em!  Nick was not happy that he'd been hoodwinked.  We fastened the gates shut with ropes and began the ten mile drive back to Nick's home.

Three ladies bid Ol' Nick farewell.  They'll miss him, but it'll mean more hay and feed for them.

A cows' gestation period is nine months, so we'll hopefully have three calves somewhere around August of 2023.  That means we'll be milking again in September.  C'mon Nick.  I hope you did your job and our cows are carrying.

And a Bull Comes 'A Courting

We currently have 1 cow (Rosie) and 2 heifers (Elsie & LuLu) on the pasture.  We have watched their activity of when they come in heat and marked it on the calendar.  At least we have for Elsie and Rosie.  They come in heat this week.  We don't really know when LuLu's cycle is.  Cows have a 21 day cycle.  It is important that you introduce a bull during this time for obvious reasons.

I called our neighbor that has a Jersey bull and asked if we could bring our 3 girls down to his place.  Unfortunately, he told me that he just sold his bull.  That's too bad for us.  It was only a short 7 minute drive to get to his home, unload the cows and have them bred.  We made some phone calls and it just so happens that some neighbors a little further down the road have a Jersey bull.  He was agreeable to allowing us to use him.  He told us we could pick him up from his farm and take him back to our place.

Today after church, we did just that.  Russ hooked up the cattle trailer to his truck and we made the ten minute drive, backed up to the chute and prepared to load him up.  After some cajoling, he was in the trailer heading to Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  The bull is gentle, but he's not halter broken.  We got him unloaded into the pasture, but we're scratching our heads on how we're going to load him back up in the trailer when he's finished his work here as we don't have a corral or chute.  We'll cross that bridge when we get there.  We'll have to be real careful having him here, though.  Dairy bulls are a dangerous thing to have around.

We unloaded the fellow and he began checking our his new surroundings.  He's a young bull, but he's larger than our animals.  He very slowly walked around, taking it all in, scoping out the ladies.

Rosie, Elsie, and LuLu circled around him and he got acquainted with them.  There's no romance yet, but in a couple of days, things should start happening.  And if all is successful, we'll have late July/early August calves.

The friend who offered to let us use the old boy said, "We're glad he's able to serve a purpose.  He was kinda taking up space around here."  We're thankful to have him around and we'll be watching the courtship take place in the pasture.  We didn't even ask what his name was!  We might have to make up a name for him for the short time he's here.

Gotta Come up With a Plan B for the Cows

Last week when we were driving back from the hay field, we passed in front of the pasture and I had to stop the truck and get a photo of the cows.  They were all lined up in a row and looking right at us.  It was as if they were posing for an Olan Mills Family Portrait.  (Makes us sad Clarabelle isn't in the photo.)  In the afternoons, the cows like to meander over to the west side of the pasture next to the neighbors and relax in the shade.  Tricia and I were hot and sweaty from loading hay.  The cows were refreshed and rejuvenated in the green grass, shaded by pine trees.

From left to right is: Elsie (Clarabelle's heifer), LuLu (Rosie's heifer), and Rosie.  If you remember, Clarabelle was injured when the cows were going in heat and jumping on one another.  Cows' cycles are 21 days.  It is almost that time again.

This afternoon I contacted the neighbor that lives about 5 miles down the road that we always bring our cows to him to get bred.  Well... bad news.  He informed me that he sold his Jersey bull on the 12th of this month.  It was so darned convenient.  We'd mark off the days and when the cows/heifers were going into heat, we'd drive them down the road for their "date" and then pick them up.

We are frantically calling around, trying to arrange breeding with another Jersey bull.  So far the first call resulted in Strike 1.  The gentleman I called sold both of his earlier this summer during the drought and hasn't replaced them.  He did give us a lead and we'll be following up tomorrow on that lead as well as another.

Dairy bulls are not found in every pasture.  When our cows have bulls, we keep them around for at most two years.  They get real mean.  In fact, they injure/kill more farmers than beef cattle bulls.  When our bulls show the slightest signs of this ornery or bossy behavior, it's off to the slaughterhouse for them.

We will be on the phone tonight and tomorrow, trying to come up with a Plan B for how to get them bred.  We'll take Rosie and Elsie for breeding first and then two months later, we'll bring LuLu.  Hopefully we can find a bull that's not too far away!

Testing Elsie and LuLu for A2A2 Genetics

Today we took tail hair samples from both our little heifers to send off and test for A2A2 genetics.  Here is little Elsie all haltered up and ready.

And here is LuLu.  It is not that uncomfortable of a thing.  My goal is to pull approximately 20 tail hairs out of the tail head with the root attached.

I'll try to simply explain what we're testing for and why.  Clarabelle (Elsie's mom) is A2A2.  That's what we want.  I'll tell you why in a second.  Rosie (LuLu's mom) is A1A2.  We never tested the bulls, so we don't know what we'll get.  Since Clarabelle is A2A2, if we knew that the bull was A2A2, there would be no need to test.

There are different proteins in milk and the proportion of various proteins varies depending on the breed.  Casein, particularly beta casein, is found in milk.  In Jersey cows (A2 cows), (ours are Jerseys) the beta casein has an amino acid called proline.  In newer breeds like Holstein (A1 cows) the proline mutated into an amino acid called histadine.  Beta casein has an amino acid called BCM-7 that is linked to negative health affects.  The proline that exists in A2 cows has a strong bond to BCM-7, which helps keep it out of the cows’ milk.  The histidine in the newer A1 cows, however, has a weak hold on BCM-7, which allows it to get into the milk, and also into the people who drink the milk.  By drinking milk from A2A2 cows you are not exposed to negative things.  Granted, people with a healthy gut are not really subject to them anyway, but people seek out A2A2 milk for that benefit (Source: http://www.a2a2milk.com/page-2/)

So we're testing to see what Elsie and LuLu are - A2A2 or A1A2.  I grab the tail and pull out tail hairs by the root four or five at a time until I have 20 of them.

We twist them and tape to the Genetics testing form that we requested for each animal.

And now we'll mail it off and wait for the results.  We'll post the results when we get them.

An Update on Elsie

Elsie is our little Jersey heifer that Clarabelle has on April 7th.  Today she is three months old. She is a pretty little calf and is officially registered with the American Jersey Cattle Association.  At two weeks old, we dehorned her with an electric de-horning iron.  At 3 months old you cannot even tell at all where the horns were.

Elsie is the tamest calf, but we've worked with her methodically every night putting a breaking halter on her and tying her up to a post.  We brush her and gently talk to her.  Over time, she's come to trust us and is very gentle.  Elsie is the calf in the back with the halter on.  In front of her, with no halter, is LuLu.  She's Rosie's heifer.  We'll start working with her soon.

Elsie and LuLu are half sisters and are partners in crime.  They run around the barnyard helter-skelter, with their tails high in the air, chasing chickens with dust and feathers flying.  They kick their heels in the air mischievously kicking the barn with a loud "thwack" sound that echoes across the pasture.  

Elsie is a growing calf.  She drinks all of Clarabelle's milk and then proceeds to go and share Rosie's milk with LuLu.  LuLu better be careful or she won't get enough!  We weigh Elsie by using a measuring tape that converts inches in girth to pounds. 

At about a month, she was 31 1/2 inches in girth, or 92 lbs.

At two months, she was 175 lbs.

At three months, Elsie was 42" in girth, or 240 lbs!

We'll keep you updates with how things are going.  I guess the next milestone for her will be when we wean her. 

Elsie, the Heifer, At a Month and Three Weeks Old

I thought we'd catch you up to date on Elsie, our little heifer.  She's almost two months old.  We have had quite a few calves over the years, but we think she may be the prettiest.  Rosie and Clarabelle may beg to differ.  Elsie is inquisitive and frisky.  We watch her jump around the pasture, playing with the goats.  Then she lifts her tail high in the air and runs as fast as she can.  Our neighbor has told us that she enjoys watching all the animal activity.  Here's Clarabelle and Elsie in the pasture on a sunny afternoon recently.  The grass in the pasture still hasn't really taken off.  We are still supplementing with hay, but with the warm days, the grass will soon outpace the animals' eating.

Elsie is getting plenty of Clarabelle's good milk to drink.  In the late afternoon, we call the cows to the barn so that we can separate Elsie from her momma.  About a week ago, we would have to milk Clarabelle out as Elsie wasn't drinking everything.  Not anymore.  That girl is growing!  She's now drinking it all.  We separate and all night long Clarabelle is able to make milk for us.  In the morning we milk (Tricia during the week and I do it on weekends) and then put Elsie back with Clarabelle.  We don't milk hard in order to leave a little for Elsie, but Clarabelle holds back some.

When we open the gate, hungry Elsie rushes out and begin to ravenously suck on each of Clarabelle's four teats, switching from one to another until they are all empty.

Right now, Elsie is drinking primarily milk.  Her rumen is not fully functional yet.  Her rumen is a fermentation vat where her body breaks down food.  In about four months her rumen will be developed and then she'll be able to digest grass.

Until then, she'll continue to nurse, drinking Clarabelle's sweet milk.

Introducing "Elsie"

Clarabelle, our Jersey Milk Cow, was due to calve around April 10th according to our record-keeping.  As time stretched on during the nine month gestation period, we wondered from time to time if she was pregnant.  Over the past week or so, we could tell that she indeed was due to the "blossom" of her bag.  Yesterday Tricia said, "I bet it's gonna be tomorrow."  She was right!

Shortly after 1 pm she sent me the following photos with a text that said, "I think we have a heifer!"  And we do.  As I stated before, I had a stern talk with Clarabelle the other day.  Both she and Rosie have given us nothing but bulls the past several years.  It is time for a girl.  Clarabelle gave us one.  

We began thinking of a name for the little one.  First, due to her color, I thought 'Honey' would be a nice name, but I also call my wife that.  That would be confusing.  Tonight we began tossing around names.  I liked Buttercup, but Tricia said that had too many syllables.  We settled on "Elsie." Elsie was the spokeswoman mascot for Borden milk.  That seemed like a nice name for the little one.

It is always very important for the calf to get colostrum the first day for health and antibodies to give strength and fight off sickness.  

Elsie is a cute little thing - solid brown, with big liquid eyes.  She spends most of her time sleeping, but she was very quick to get up on her feet.

We are always very protective of our barnyard babies, nervous that the cows will accidentally step on them or the chickens will peck at them.  I always want to help with the labor and delivery, but nine times out of ten, it is best to just let the animals be.  God created them and He knows what He's doing.  

Clarabelle was very weak when she was born.  It was a challenge to make her nurse and hard to get her to even stand up.  Although strong, we are seeing some of the same things with Elsie.  We are keeping our eyes on her and will update you more about Elsie's progress on Sunday Night.

Driving Ms. Luna

Luna is our youngest Jersey cow.  She is small - smaller than the rest of the cows by a long shot.  We call her a runt, but she has the bossy personality that defies her small stature.  She bullies the other cows and goats.  It is amazing to watch.  Tricia and I often tell the other animals not to let her bully them around and remind them that she is smaller than them.  They don't understand!

You might recall that over a year ago, Luna lost her first calf in delivery.  In the process, we almost lost her, too.  We were able to save her, though, and kept her in milk.  When Rosie and Clarabelle calved, we "dried up" Luna, because it is hard to milk 3 cows for very long!  Last month, we observed Luna going in heat.  We marked down the date on the calendar and circled the date 21 days in advance.  It is time to get Luna bred.  We loaded her in the cattle trailer.

Although we have 3 registered Jersey bulls on the property, we want to introduce new genetics into our little herd.  We have a friend that lives about 3 miles north of us that has a new Jersey bull.  He is a big bull with grey coloration.  He asked us to bring Luna by his house and drop her off after church this evening.

Since Luna is a runt, we never brought her to the livestock shows.  I had forgotten about that.  When I went to load her into the cattle trailer, she didn't know how to load.  The others just jump right on in.  She didn't know how to step up into the trailer.  I asked Tricia to go get a bucket of feed to coax her up.  While Tricia was on the way to the barn, I pulled and pulled and was able to get her in the trailer.

According to our paperwork, she'll go back into heat this Thursday.  If things work as they ought to, we'll be able to pick Luna up and bring her back home next weekend.

If everything goes as planned we'll bring Luna home as a pregnant cow that will deliver in April 2020.  For now, and until Luna comes home, the rest of the animals on the farm are enjoying their peace and freedom from the barnyard bully.

Farewell to Daisy

So this post is hard to write...

I can remember being a little boy showing sheep in 4-H.  They were "market lambs."  I wasn't smart enough to figure out what that meant until the day of the sale.  I could hear the auctioneer arriving at a price for someone's animal and then asking, "Where do you want this animal to go?"  The answer I heard burned into my brain: "Manuel's Slaughterhouse."  The truth of what a market lamb was hit me like a ton of bricks.

I ran and jumped in the stall with "Fluff" and "Snowball" and hugged them and cried.  And cried.  And cried.  These were my friends.  I walked them every day.  They followed me around.  My dad was about to call off the sale, when logic finally settled in on me.  They were wethers.  This means they were castrated at a young age.  They are no good for breeding and only good for eating.  It was hard to do, but I relented.  This is life.  It is hard, but it is truly a blessing to be at the top of the food chain.

Fast forward forty-something years later, and I'm in the same situation.  Daisy was the calf that came alongside "Momma Cow," our first Jersey milk cow.  Daisy grew up and became a great show cow and milker, providing milk for our family for years and years and provided us many calves.  She is the matriarch of our little herd and quite bossy.

She's eleven years old and as she's aged, she's run into a problem.  For two years we've tried to have her bred, but she won't get pregnant.  Bulls breed her, but she is never able to get pregnant.  Try as we might, we cannot get a positive test.  The veterinarian has looked at her and found nothing wrong, but she is unable to get pregnant.  On our 3 acre pasture, we just don't have room or money to just "put her out to pasture" and let her live out her days without providing calves or milk.  The sad day came when we realized that Daisy couldn't stay with us anymore.  Saturday we loaded her into the cattle trailer...

And we took her away.  That's all I can say.  We both told Daisy we were so sorry.  She was a good cow and was with our family for 11 years.  We took very good care of her and provided her a good home and peaceful surroundings.  Our Maker's Acres Family Farm was like "cow heaven" to her, I'm sure.

As Tricia walked away with Daisy's halter in her hand and we drove away in the truck, pulling an empty cattle trailer, the same pain from forty-something years ago gripped my heart.  I feel like a big baby, but it is an emotional thing to me.

Farewell Daisy.  We will miss you.