The Good Stuff

When a calf is born, the momma's udders are filled with colostrum.  Colostrum is truly the good stuff.  It is filled with antibodies and nutrients needed for growth.  It is so important that baby calves get this into their system.  It's God's elixir of beneficial goodness giving the baby a good start on life.  It gives energy and promotes health.

It is vital that the calf gets this.  We give the momma and the calf a little space while the calf figures out this new world that they are now inhabitants of.  Betsy stood up on spindly legs, wobbling this way and that and instincts took over.  She ambled toward LuLu and began looking for the teats on the udder.  She started at the wrong end and we tried to guide her.  When she almost had it, LuLu moved.  We opted to bring them both to the barn and give LuLu some sweet feed and alfalfa while we positioned Betsy on the right end and tipped a teat toward her mouth.  Betsy got after it with a sucking reflex.  First slow and then vigorous! 

The next morning we saw what we wanted to see - colostrum poop!  It is a bright orange-yellowish gooey poop.  That is evidence that Betsy got the good stuff in her.

We found more evidence on the ground and this signified that she got a good amount of it.  She no longer needed our urging or assistance, finding the teats on her own and sucking the udder down.

The udder looks big and swollen, but LuLu's milk hasn't come in until a few days later.  The first days, the milk supply comes in.  For right now, it's primarily colostrum.  That's what Betsy needs.  Before the colostrum supply dwindles as it's replaced with milk, we always milk out the colostrum after Betsy has enjoyed her fill.

We take the colostrum in that is strained through a filter and into a stainless steel bucket.  Betsy got hers.  Now we'll borrow a little from her for our use.

Colostrum is good for the calf, but it's good for humans, too.  It's filled with good stuff -immunoglobulins to help keep infections at bay.  So many benefits that it is marketed to athletes for a number of things like endurance and muscle growth and repair.  We've tried to drink it straight, but to be honest, I don't like the taste and the consistency is "oily" to me.  We pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it.

We'll add it to fruit smoothies with cinnamon and drink it down until we've exhausted our supply.  Sometimes we'll save some to bottle feed calves to make sure they get the good stuff so that they have a good start.

We'll Call Her Betsy

On Monday morning the alarm went off at 6 am, and I headed out to the barn to feed chickens, open the nesting boxes, feed and milk goats, and feed the cows.  I got everything done and was in at 6:30.  Tricia and I normally start our day in the sun room with a cup of coffee while we read the Bible.  We're almost all the way through the Psalms and will start on Proverbs in the next day or so.

After reading, I headed out to check on water and glanced out in the middle of the pasture.  What was I looking at?  Immediately, I knew.  I ran inside to tell Tricia, and then I went out to the pasture to check on the new arrival!

Fresh from the Farm

LuLu was standing by her little one.  She must've calved overnight as she had already eaten the placenta and the calf was licked clean.  She stood lowing for her calf, being a protective momma as we admired her little one.

LuLu

One of the first things I do is lift a leg and check to see what type of 'equipment' the calf is blessed with.  Here we go.  There is no male apparatus and four teats are clearly visible.  It's a girl!  We narrowed down the names to Opal and Betsy and settled on Betsy.  Since she was born pretty close to the Fourth of July, we were thinking it would be a fitting tribute to name her after Betsy Ross.  Perhaps we can put a stars and stripes bandanna around her neck?

A little Jersey heifer

Betsy got up on wobbly legs and plopped right down in the grass again.  You can tell that the grass is mashed down right where they are standing, evidencing where she went into labor last night.

Before the day warmed up, I picked up Betsy and carried her to the shade on the southern side of the pasture by the barn.  LuLu followed very closely behind, requiring repeated assurances from me that her baby was fine and I'd be giving her back shortly.

There was  whole welcoming committee in the shade.  Tricia was there, the roosters and hens, Elsie and even an appearance by Nicky, Betsy's daddy.

After a little bit, LuLu sat down in the shade by her little one.  It was a long night for sure.

Little Betsy lay low in the grass, napping all day.  She's a cute little thing, there's no denying that.

It's important that we get some of LuLu's colostrum in Betsy quickly, so we're about to get her up and interested in nursing.  We'll show you some of that tomorrow.

The Mobile Vet

Tricia called Dr. Chip, the Mobile Vet, to make a farm call and palpate the cows.  We have the bull in a separate pasture because he's dangerous.  When we see the cows coming into heat, we put them into the bullpen with the bull and let them get amorous.  Over the months, they have come back into heat, meaning that they were not bred.  We don't know what the problem is.  Perhaps the bull is not "hot."  Maybe there is a problem with the cows.  We wanted to get those issues addressed.

The veterinarian arrived and Tricia got the three cows isolated in the barn and in the head gate so that the vet could put on his rubber gloves and palpate.  First up was Rosie.  Rosie is eighteen years old.  The vet said she is NOT bred, but is still cycling, meaning she COULD still get pregnant.

Next up was Elsie.  Elsie is a beautiful heifer.  She is also A2/A2, so is highly sought after.  Up to this point she has not calved.  Another vet on a previous farm call, removed a cyst from her ovary.  She came into heat after that.  The Mobile Vet said that there was fluid and a fetus that the body would absorb and then she'd go into heat again.  So she DID get bred but lost the baby.  The vet thinks we should get rid of her, but we want to try just one more time.

The final was LuLu.  He palpated LuLu and said that she is two months' pregnant.  So she'll be calving in the heat of summer in July 2026.  Summer is not the opportune time for calving and milking, but we'll take what we can get.

LuLu is two months pregnant

So we know that Nicky, the bull, is fertile and will continue putting him and Rosie and Elsie together when they go into heat in hopes that we can get them all bred.

Just in the Nick of Time

It was about 19 months ago that we borrowed a registered Jersey bull from a friend who lives about 10 minutes away from us.  The bull's name was Nick, and that dude was big and not halter broken.  We didn't know how things were going to work out, but he ended up being gentle and we got him to the house.  We unloaded him and he was able to breed LuLu.  Elsie did NOT get bred.  As it turned out, she had a cyst on her ovary and hopefully we got that fixed.  Rose Ethel did not get bred, either.  We think that she may be past her 'child-rearing' years.  She's old.  But you never know.  Abram laughed when he was told that Sarai would give him a son in his old age.

It's been almost a year since LuLu's bull calf, that we named Nicky, was born.  He was born at the hottest point of the year, during a drought.  LuLu was extremely stressed after calving and we thought that we were going to lose her.  We kept her alive by keeping a water sprinkler going that kept a small patch of bermuda grass growing and by feeding her sweet potato vines after she stopped eating.  We drenched her with molasses, too.  She pulled through and has raised a nice calf.  He's coming up on a year old on August 6th.  Here is Nick today:

Up to this point, he's been docile, but in our experience with previous Jersey bulls, that changes as they mature.  We're starting to notice that with Nick.  He uses his head as a weapon, threatening to come at you.  He'll also push the water troughs all over the barnyard.  He just likes hitting things with his big, meaty head.  We don't want one of those "things" he hits to be us, so we never turn our backs to him.

Our plans for him are what our plans have been for every Jersey bull calf born on our little farm - we'll eat him.  We'll give him another six or eight months to mature and, most importantly breed LuLu, Rosie, and Elsie and then we'll take him to the slaughterhouse.  We'll get all the meat, organs, bones, and tallow.  We use almost everything off of the animal.  It may seem cruel to some, but meat comes from somewhere, and that somewhere might as well be from our pasture where he's lived a good life, eating grass, with no antibiotics, hormones or medications.  

Progress Report on LuLu

In the middle of the long, hot summer last year, LuLu gave birth to her first calf, Nicky.  Calving in the worst possible time of year wasn't bad enough.  We happened to be in a drought.  We had no grass.  LuLu was in stress from labor and delivery and had no strength.  We babied her and her calf.  We ran water hoses to try to keep one small patch of pasture alive with bermuda grass.  We drenched her with molasses and gave her a calcium supplement.  

In all truth, we thought that we were going to lose her.  Slowly, she rebounded.  She and Nicky, although stressed, made it.  This year, the grass in the pasture is growing as we've had lots more rain than last year.  LuLu is a small cow and isn't a particularly large producer of milk like our other cows.  We get between a half gallon to a gallon each day.  She seems to have perfected the art of holding back her milk for her calf.  She is able, somehow, to not let her milk drop for us.  She's real tricky like that.

It's hot in the barn so we keep the fans running while she eats.  That helps in two ways:  It cools us and her down and it blows the mosquitoes away.

You can see we have some hay twine wrapped around her rear end that holds her tail out of the way.  LuLu will show her annoyance at us, if you don't wrap her tail, by swishing us in the face with her tail.  Although that's not such a bad thing, it is not an enjoyable experience if her tail is wet with dew or urine.

We hobble one of her back legs to a cleat on the 4x4.  That keeps her from kicking the bucket.  We've learned that lesson the hard way, having milked mostly a full bucket and then having her kick it over and spill the whole thing!  Hence the old saying, "You can't cry over spilled milk."  She isn't the type cow to kick you to hurt you, so that's a good thing.

We are talking about weaning Nicky within the next month.  That will take some of the stress off of LuLu for the peak summer months.  Plus, he's a big galoot and able to make it on grass as he approaches his one year birthday.  We'll be focusing on getting LuLu re-bred and Elsie bred to yield spring calves in 2025.

Breaking Nicky

Nicky is LuLu's little bull calf.  He was born on August 5th and so that makes him 2 months old.  He's grown quite a bit.  He is frisky and spunky.  Lots of times we'll see him running around in the pasture, kicking up his heels with his tail in the air.  I've been thinking it is a good idea to begin breaking him as it is much easier to halter break them while they're young and small enough.  If they get too big, they end up pulling you instead of the other way around.

Many years ago, I would hook a lead rope to a halter and pull them.  It would be a literal tug of war.  I would pull and pull and pull.  The animal would pull and pull and pull back.  Sometimes the animal would flop on the ground.  Sometimes I would feel like flopping on the ground, too.  Eventually, the calf would get the idea that it is easier and less painful to just relent and go in the direction that I was pulling.  The animal would walk a few steps and then get stubborn again.  I would continue to pull until the calf would give in.  It took weeks.  It was hard work.  If you were persistent and kept at it, before long the animal would be broken.  The calf would go willingly anywhere you wanted it to go.

There is a much easier way to do it, I learned.  The same principle is used, but it doesn't require as much energy as the way I used to do it.  Each day when I go out to the barn, I get the breaking halter.  Nicky sees me doing that and plays this game where he runs away.  I feed his momma and while he's distracted, I stealthily put the rope around his neck and fit the halter around his head and nose.  Then I tie him securely to a solid post.  The goats are very interested in this process, as you can see.

While I have him tied up, it's a good opportunity to check out his horns.  A few weeks ago we used a de-horning iron to kill his horn buds.  The place where the horns were growing is flat.  No new growth.  The only thing remaining is a small scab.  Nicky will not have horns.  That makes Our Maker's Acres Family Farm a safer place.

What Nicky will do is this:  He will pull against that fence post as hard as he can.  Two safety precautions I'll mention:  Always leave enough slack so that if the animal falls down, he won't hang himself.  It is important to secure the animal to a place where they can't walk around and around and have the rope tighten up on them and choke them.  We had a friend have a calf the died like that.  We learned that if we are going to do this, we ALWAYS are nearby to supervise.

The calf pulls and pulls in stubborn fashion.  At some point, a light bulb goes off in it's head, saying, "It is a lot more comfortable to back off and stop pulling against this post."  When that concept has been considered and accepted, instead of pulling tightly, they take a few steps toward the post.  That loosens the halter around their head and nose.  We haven't reached that point yet.

To see if any headway is being made in the breaking process, from time to time, I'll untie him from the fence and pull around the pasture.  Nicky is still fighting me with everything he's got.  Just look at the determination and stubbornness in that little face.

That just means we've got more work to do.  I'll continue tying him to a post.  At some point (all calves' demeanor is different) he will acquiesce and I'll be able to lead him.  But that point hasn't arrived yet.  We will keep at it.  Sooner or later, things will come together and he'll lead.  Perhaps when Nicky is halter broken, he'll sing the old hymn, "He Leadeth Me, O Blessed Thought."  It will be a blessed thought indeed.

Update on LuLu and Nicky

We last reported about LuLu calving in the hottest, driest, most miserable time ever.  It put her in heat stress and possibly a touch of milk fever.  We have been doctoring on her for a week now.  I have been running the water sprinkler since we haven't had rain in a month.  I'm trying to keep a patch of grass alive for her to eat.  Here's old girl standing in the water sprinkler cooling off.  Reminds me of what we'd do when we were kids!

We have been feeding her a little sweet feed mixed with alfalfa and have been drenching her 3 times a day with molasses, apple cider vinegar and Epsom salt.  At first we were bottle feeding Nicky a little bit to supplement, but we've stopped that.  LuLu appears to be producing milk for him.  In fact, we milked out her back teats last night.  We don't want her to get mastitis.  We'll soon start milking once a day.  Nicky is looking spry and healthy now.

His umbilical cord has not fallen off yet.  We have been checking his little horn buds on his head.  I would assume in another week, we'll de-horn him.  He won't like that a bit!

LuLu is not out of the woods, but I wouldn't say she's in "ICU" like she was.  Here she is slowly eating sweet feed mixed with alfalfa.

And here she is eating some hay while keeping a close eye on her little bull calf.  Although a first time mother, she has the motherly instincts.

If we would just get some rain and some cooler temperatures, I think things would get better.  We see no respite in sight.  Next week temperatures one day are showing 104.  Yikes!

Welcome Nicky, LuLu's Baby Calf

The days are hot,

The temperatures rise,

Tongues hang out with exhausted sighs,

The ground is parched,

The grass is chaff.

But lo!  LuLu has birthed a calf!

This is the sight that greeted us on this Lord's Day as we did chores before Worship Service.  Although we were expected it about a week from now, this was a little early.  LuLu wasn't huge and her bag wasn't in "bloom" until this morning.  It's her first calf.  She's very nervous and high-strung.  When we discovered the baby, LuLu was just in the process of licking him to clean him up.  He tried, unsuccessfully, to stand up.  His long, wobbly legs gave way and he clumsily fell back in the dust.

We've had many chicks hatch out and some goats that have kidded lately, but it has been a couple of years since the last calf was born on the homestead.  It's an exciting time!  More on that later.  You look into the eyes of the calf and wonder what they're thinking.  Just last night they were secure in a dark, climate-controlled, safe location.  Now, strange creatures are looking at you, chickens are pecking at your soft hooves, the bright sun hurts your eyes.  What an awakening!

The first thing we check is the sex.  It's a... bull calf.  We always hope for heifers.  However, we're happy to get a healthy little calf.  This little guy's dad was a registered Jersey named Nick.  Tricia suggested that we name him in honor of his father.  So, we welcome NICKY to Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  LuLu's sister, Elsie, came to see her new nephew.  Sniff, sniff.  They always smell them.

Could there be a worse time to calve?  I suppose so, but this heat does stress the animals.  We decided to move Nicky and LuLu to the shade on the south side of the barn.  It will be oppressively hot by the time we get back from church and eat and have time to come out and check on things.  LuLu still needs to deliver the placenta, finish cleaning up Nicky, nudge Nicky so that he stands up and begins to drink colostrum.  That's a lot of items on the agenda!  We hayed LuLu and headed off to church.

After worship and a big plate of chicken stew over rice, sliced beets, cranberry sauce, and coffee and chocolate persimmon cake for dessert, we changed and headed out to the barn/nursery to check on the situation.  I've got to tell you not much had happened in our absence.  They were both sitting down.  They're not in a rush like we are.  LuLu had delivered the placenta, but Nicky had not stood up.  He was taking in a Sunday afternoon nap.

Tricia and Russ got him up on wobbly legs and in three shakes of a billy goat's tail, he was walking around and falling an awful lot.  Practice makes perfect, though.  He'll get it.  We got an extension cord and rigged up a fan for LuLu to cool the new momma down.  She wasn't interested much in having all this attention.  Nicky would try to find the teats, but LuLu wasn't being cooperative.

We tried to put LuLu in the head gate so that we could work with her and Nicky.  Wouldn't you know it, a bunch of wasps had built a nest in the head gate.  As I started getting her head in there, wasps came flying out.  I went back to the garage and got some gas and ended the wasps' rebellion with the quickness.  

After some time, we were able to get Nicky to nurse.  I am positive that he got some colostrum.  We'll work with him more after evening services.  I want to get his little belly full so that he gets more energy and antibodies to strengthen his immune system.  We've got to get the little fellow to stand on his own!  Right now, we're having to help him get his feet under him.

In church this morning, we sang the old hymn, "How Firm a Foundation."  This was President Theodore Roosevelt's favorite hymn.  The lyrics and music are poignant and worshipful.  Coincidentally, part of the lyrics mention 'causing thee to stand.'  (Very appropriate for little Nicky!)

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!

What more can He say than to you He hath said—

To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

“Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,

For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;

I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.

We'll continue to stand by to offer LuLu assistance.  We'll try to get plenty of colostrum into Nicky.  It's thick, yellow, oily, and nutritious. Then we'll milk the remainder out and freeze it.  That's a good insurance policy to have tucked away in the freezer.  Pretty soon we'll be back to daily milking - in this sweltering sauna in the south.  Not quite ready for that after a long reprieve from milking, but here we go again!  LuLu will require some working with as it's her first calf and she's never been milked before and she's as wild as a March hare.  We might have a rodeo on our hands, but that's okay.  It's always an adventure!

Time To Wean Elsie

We've reached a point well past the time for weaning.  We want to wean the calves and dry off the cows so that we can bring them to a neighbor down the road that has a registered Jersey bull.  There we'll have our cows bred, have them calve and allow them to freshen.  In about 6 months we'll do the same for our yearling calves - Elsie and LuLu.

So we're weaning Elsie first.  We use a weaning device.  We did use this one several years ago.  It is called a nose thorn.  That doesn't sound pleasant, does it?  You put it in the heifer's nose (ouch!)  The object of this device is that when the calf tries to nurse the momma cow, the pointed thorns poke her bag and she kicks the calf off of her udder and won't let her nurse.

We've also used this weaner.  It has the same general idea.  You put it in the calf's nose, pull the two pieces together and then tighten up a wing nut. You bend the pointed things outward and when they try to nurse, the pointed things poke the momma and she kicks her off.  Over time, the calf gets tired of getting pushed away and she stops trying - meanwhile the momma cow "dries up."

This was a new weaner available at the feed store.  It was a little more pricey than the other two, but we wanted to try this one out.  It works the same way the other two work.

With much fighting, we were able to get the weaner in Elsie's nose.  After much kicking, dust flying and rodeoing in the corral, we finally got the weaner in.  At this point, amidst all of the chaos, we didn't realize that we put it on BACKWARDS!  I tell you, they say you learn by your mistakes.  It seems like we should be really smart, because we make a lot of them.

If you could capture this photo, It'd say, "What did you just do to me and how am I supposed to eat??"

To answer the eating question, it is amazing how quickly they learn that you must stretch your head out, pull your head forward, and the weaner lays flat against the ground, allowing you to eat grass while pulling your head back to you.  In the photo below, Elsie's momma, Clarabelle, is wondering what that contraption is on her daughter's nose.

Elsie looked at us as we left the barn.  She had mischief on her mind.  She went out to the pasture.  The next morning we found her without her weaner on.  Tricia and I walked up and down the pasture until we found it laying on the ground.  She had apparently found a way to pry it out of her nose.

In losing the weaner, she was able to get to Clarabelle and drink all of her milk!  Oh no.  So, we resorted to the old tried and true weaner.  You'll see below, we have it installed.

We have this one installed properly!  So far she hasn't pried this one out of her nose.  We'll keep a close eye on old Elsie, though.  She is cunning and crafty.  If we can keep this in her nose, we'll be successful in weaning her.

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. 

We Welcome Lulu to the Our Maker's Acres Family Farm!

On a very hot afternoon in the 90's, Rosie gave birth to A HEIFER!!  After having nothing but bulls, now both Clarabelle and Rosie have given us heifers.  Poor Rosie was so hot after calving.  Her tongue is hanging out and she's panting just trying to cool off.  After checking back in on her this evening, we sprayed her down with a water hose to help her cool off.

Calving is always an exciting time for the entire barnyard.  The chickens all gather around and peck at the placenta.  Then once that's gone the peck at the calf's hooves.  Poor thing can't get any peace!

When I got home from work, we considered several names for the new baby and finally settled on "Lulu."  After getting a little colostrum, Lulu settled down in the tall grass and took a cat nap.

Funny thing is that Elsie, Clarabelle's heifer, can't get enough of Lulu.  Elsie left her momma's side and hung out with Lulu all day.  When Lulu sat down in the grass, well, Elsie was sure to sit right near her.  Lulu is her half-sister, and I think they are going to enjoy each others' company.

We went back out at nightfall to check on the new baby and to ensure that Lulu had gotten enough colostrum and let her nurse until she didn't want any more.  Colostrum gives Lulu antibodies to fight infection and strength during her first days.  I milked the remaining colostrum out.  Tomorrow we will check in on Lulu throughout the day and evening to ensure she's acclimating to her new surroundings.

We tend to overdo things sometimes.  When I try to do to much, I think of the following Wendell Berry quote comes to mind:

When you are new at sheep-raising and your ewe has a lamb, your impulse is to stay there and help it nurse and see to it and all. After a while, you know that the best thing you can do is walk out of the barn. Wendell Berry

Rosie, You're on the Clock

Clarabelle, had her little heifer, Elsie, two months ago tomorrow.  She's a healthy little thing, for sure.  Elsie is our first heifer in several years.  For some reason we hit a spell where every baby was a boy!  So now, Rosie is on the clock.  To the best of our knowledge, her due date is June 18th.  Below you can see the daily procession in the evening as Clarabelle heads to the barn for feeding, followed by Elsie, and then Rosie bringing up the rear.

Speaking of rears, Rosie's rear is fat and her girth is wide.  She must have a big ol' baby in her.  Tricia and I were talking about the ol' girl.  Rosie is twelve years old and to the best of our recollection, she's given us seven calves. 

We gave her half a scoop of sweet feed in her stall in the barn.  We have a rule that you only get fed an appreciable amount when you're in milk.  Otherwise, you are on grass and hay.  After her feeding, we put her back outside the barn.  In this photo, you can see a couple things: #1 is that she is FAT! #2 is that she is beginning to bag up.  What you can't see in the photo is that on her back end, she is starting to have some mucous leak out.  All signs of calving coming soon.

Ol' Rosie has been a good momma cow for us.  Hopefully, she'll give us a heifer.  Regardless, it'll be fun to have two little calves frolicking out on the pasture, kicking up their heels and running with their tails high in the air!

SOON!

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.