For a while now, Kuihi has been fascinated by horses. She’s had little rides at a friend’s place and just keeps asking if she can ride some more. I took her to the local horse riding school over the school holidays, where they were running half hour rides for kids. She was one happy girl, a big smile on her face the whole time she was up there. Five minutes after she was back on the ground she asked if she could get on the horse again…
This little farm girl is not scared!
In the midst of lots of rain (it’s literally been raining pretty much non stop for the past three weeks. And cold), the first twin lambs were born! Kuihi decided the first one (the one with the two little white spots on its face) should be called “rainbow” (first choice was “wooden stick”) and we agreed the second one has a white pattern on its face that looks like that you can see on moths, so we named it “moth” (had it been a boy -they are both girls- we could have named it “mothballs”, hehehe).
They are very cute and very healthy and hopefully will be as tame as their mum.
After Barry the bull had his rush of testosterone and started being too dangerous it was time for him to go. We were all happy to have a break, but there was still the problem of getting the cows in calf (otherwise no milk!). It just so happened that the neighbour has some highland cows (pronounce heelin’ coo with a scottish accent), including a bull. We asked him if we could borrow him, to which he replied we could have him (he wanted to get rid of him). now this is possibly an unwise move, and those of you who know about cows and bulls are probably thinking that we haven’t learned our lesson yet, but he is 3 years old already (the usual age where bulls can start getting dangerous) and rather mellow. He is not too familiar with us humans and will run away if we get too close or threaten him mildly). So yes, we decided to give it a try and this is how we ended up with another bull a mere month after saying au revoir to his predecessor.
He looks like a teddy bear and goes by the scottish name of Robbie. He is not the most stunning highland bull (his feet are terrible), has a broken horn end and compared to our two girls (especially Choupette) he is rather short. This last point might turn out to be a problem (a you can judge by the photo below), as I should find out next week when Choupette is due to be cycling again.
Go Robbie, Go!
Zen and Caline are respectively 5 and 3,5 months, more or less. They have changed a lot, both darker. They have very different personalities too. Zen is true to her name, calm, but also more inquisitive. I think she will have a great nature for a house cow (and hopefully some super creamy milk). Caline is more elongated and has a narrower face, she looks like she will be taller. She is more flighty, nothing unusual for a calf. Choupette, her mum, was the same, if not more shy. She turned out to be a lovely, quiet house cow (although she decided this year that she didn’t like to be milked in the cow bale…), so I expect Caline will be the same.
They are both still on their mum and looking very healthy!
Here is Zen:
And Caline:
Josh and I have been disagreeing on the weather. We sometimes do, and debating about weather is a bit of a kiwi thing. To me it feels like this spring took a long time warming up. I expected strong winds that never were (apart from one gale a few weeks ago, way later than usual) and warm dry weather. Instead there was rain and cool nights, some warm-ish days that never seemed to warm the soil enough and then all of a sudden the rain stopped and the wind dried the soil overnight. I struggled to get early summer seedlings going, some of which packed it in when the weather cooled too much (I’m thinking of you, cucumbers), if they even got going at all (eggplant, capsicums and even pumpkins all failed, as did sunflowers). I have been watching the grass, which only seemed to finally start growing in the past two weeks. It feels like I’ve been in the starting blocks waiting for the signal, ready to take off. Makes for great planning!
In the meantime, our second milking cow, Choupette, had her calf, a cute heifer I named “Caline” (it means cuddly in French. Some wishful naming). She is strong, tall and healthy. I am quite happy that we have two calves born close together, I’m sure they will have some great fun together! Zen is looking very healthy. She worked out she could guzzle some of Choupette’s milk while Caline was suckling too. Choupette tried to push her off the first few times but she persevered and got what she wanted. She is going to be one well fed calf!
So I am now milking two cows, every second day (after the first couple of weeks of milking Choupette daily to make sure she doesn’t get too full, although Zen greatly helped in the matter) and am getting lots of beautiful milk and cream. I have been making butter weekly (greatly satisfying) thanks to Alzina’s beautifully creamy milk.
Choupette, who used to be the perfect milking cow, has decided she doesn’t want to go into the cow bale anymore, or have a halter put on her, so I have to milk her in the field and make sure she has enough nice food to keep her still long enough (unfortunately there won’t be any nice fresh hay for another month). I am hoping I can start training her again once I have proper hay to keep her happy. She is a very sensitive cow, and I have to make sure I introduce her to changes very slowly so she feels safe.
On another bovine note, our bull of three years, Barry, had to go. I am not sure what we will do in the next year to get our cows in calf again, but am not wanting to rush into getting another bull right now… Things are so peaceful!
One of our chickens hatched six duckings a while back. We had trouble last year and lost all our chicks and ducklings to over eager dogs and rats/possums/ stoats. So this year I fully enclosed an A frame chicken coop in chicken wire. It has worked out great and we haven’t lost any of our ducklings. The day they hatched, one of them worked out how to jump into their water container, and as they got bigger, we put in a bigger container so they could waddle in the water. They love it, and seem to particularly like fresh pond water (they won’t swim in dirty muddy water) with all the bugs swimming in it which they try to catch.
Now that they are big enough, I let them out during the day and they frolic in the pond before coming back in at night. It’s amazing how easy it is to train ducks to go where you want them to! They are very cute and funny.
I also got to watch three swarms take off from the hives… We caught the first and third one, lost the first one. The second one flew up to the forest, I chased them until they disappeared into the trees and couldn’t figure out where they went.
The first time, Josh was home and he just walked up to the cluster (in shorts and tee shirt), snipped off the branch, put it into a bucket and put it into our empty hive. Unfortunately by evening the hive was empty, with not one bee in sight. We’ll never know what happened there.
I am so glad we were third time lucky as it is getting close to the end of swarm season and we were really hopping to get our own hive going. I was the one to catch that third one… somehow it wasn’t as straight forward as when Josh caught his.
I love the idea of beekeeping but am not feeling brave at the thought of hundreds of bees buzzing around me and thinking of the potential to get stung. The day I walked into the cloud of swarming bees, even though I knew there are very unlikely to sting, being too full of honey, I did my best to keep the fear/ stress levels down. I didn’t do a great job and I wasn’t feeling brave. I had a cardboard box and some secateurs, ready to snip off whatever branch the swarm would have clustered on, shove it in the box and take it away. As luck would have it, they had settled in two places: a broken branch sticking out of the ground and a branch too thick to get snipped. With no idea where the queen could be, I decided to try and pull out the branch sticking out of the ground. It wouldn’t give, and tugging at it only shook the bees off and they ended on the ground. Hum. Meanwhile there were hundreds of bees buzzing around me. The adrenaline rose a level. I was hoping no bee would start getting impatient at me taking so long.
With no way to snip the upper branch the other cluster was on, I put the box under and tapped the branch. most of the cluster fell with a bump into the box. If I hadn’t been scared of swallowing a bee by mistake I would have exhaled loudly. I still had no idea where the queen was, had a quick look on the ground and picked up a bee that looked bigger than the others and threw it in the box (most likely it was pointless). Then I struggled to close the box, bees buzzing inside and around my head, imaginary sweat dripping all over me. I walked back up (they were in a gully, of course), taped the box then grabbed another box and a dustpan hoping to scoop up the remaining cluster (alert losing our first swarm, I really wanted to make we had the queen and most of the bees). By the time I walked back down, the cluster had moved to the branch where the previous cluster was (I’m guessing the queen must have been on that branch and left her pheromones there), so I threw my dustpan in the grass and knocked the second cluster into the second box, quickly walked back up, taped the box and put both boxes in the shade waiting for Josh to get back so we could move onto the next phase: put the bees in their new hive. This time it worked and I am so glad it did… I don’t think I’d be keen to catch swarms on a regular basis. Great feeling to have done it though.
A bit of cuteness to celebrate spring. We went from cold rainy muddy weather and even a bit of frost (last week) to warm, sunny and definitely spring king of weather (this week). No crazy high wind yet but I guess it won’t be too far behind.
Our heifer cow had her first calf, a heifer. Textbook birth, she was pushing for a while (one hour, feels like ages when you’re watching wondering when to ring the vet), in the end the calf came peacefully into the world, shook its head and snorted to get the mucus out then just sat there and contemplated life for a while, in no hurry to either get up or get its first feed of colostrum. After an hour I decided to encourage it to get up. Once up and not so wobbly it started heading for its mum’s udder. Unfortunately being a first time mum and very anxious to have her calf in sight at all times, Alzina (the mum) kept turning around to follow her calf. Needless to say the calf wasn’t getting anywhere, or more to the point wasn’t getting any milk in a hurry. She ended up giving up and wandering off (beyond the electric tape of course). Alzina got even more distressed and jumped over said electric tape to follow the calf. At that point I decided I should do something before the calf got too tired and more importantly before it got dark and cold (the wind was cold and the night promised to be even colder, not great for a calf with an empty stomach). So I carried it to the cow bale, Alzina in tow (cows have very strong bonds to their calves and will not leave them out of their sight if they can help it. They would literally follow them to the moon if they had to). Once in the bale, I tied Alzina up and guided the calf to the udder. Once it got some of that liquid gold it kept going for more and Alzina finally understood that she should just stay still. The next morning the calf was doing its thing and I let them out into the paddock again.
The calf stayed calm through the whole thing, will let us go near it and pat it, even handle it, without trying to run away. So I named her Zen.
The goats are all having kids, and this semi tame one had beautiful twins. We can get near them and pick them up, which of course the kids love!
I have been milking Choupette, our house cow, in the new cow shed, purpose built… bliss. It is a rectangle of 20m2, at the moment one big closed in area. There is a stanchion at one end, with platform on the other side to put the box of hay down.
Eventually we might put a rail that goes from the stanchion to in between the small and big gates, so the cow and milker are separated a bit more, but for now there is no need. The calf sleeps in there at night, then in the morning I tie him up and let Choupette in. She is such a great house cow, I don’t need to tie her up or lock her in the stanchion. I do tie her up when my little assistant milker comes with me, just in case, but she hardly moves when being milked. She gets a feed of hay, a bit of grains and minerals mixed in with molasses (and apples if they are available). If her back leg is in front of her teats, I just give her a gentle nudge and she moves it back. Once finished, I take my bucket. stool and washing gear out, let the calf off and close the gate. Once back home, we strain the milk into jars and billies, put them in the freezer to cool down for a few hours and let the cows out to pasture.
And that’s my morning meditation done!
We don’t really celebrate Christmas. Instead we choose to honour nature and celebrate the summer solstice. There has to be some kind of festivity going on, and the longest day of the year feels a bit closer to our hearts.
it usually involves a laid-back gathering of like minded friends, some food and drinks and good times together. This year I wanted to have a go at making a nature mandala. They turned out great and I am loving the bright colours they added to the day.
two days earlier we welcomed Julius, Choupette’s new calf. He is very cute and looking very much like the twins when they were born last year. Definitely a swiss brown…
Unfortunately Choupette hasn’t had much colostrum, I am hoping she has enough for Julius (he seems fine and is jumping around following the herd on the property. I am kicking myself for not noticing before how much condition Choupette has lost, both her and Belle were looking good at the start of spring. This and the fact that Alzina, last year’s calf, was still suckling her are probably the cause of her low milk production. So I am doing my best to boost her nutrition naturally (lucerne hay, molasses, willow, freshly cut grass from around the pond)… and hoping that we might still be able to milk her!
Three years on the land, three years of milking house cows… not that long in the scheme of things and compared to so many other “lifestylers” out there. But I think we have a system that works for us. But first let me introduce you to the reality of the dairy world…
If you’ve ever considered going vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons, dairy is definitely where you want to start… In commercial dairy farms, cows breed every year. No babies, no milk. Apparently a lot of people don’t realise that’s the only way a cow will produce white liquid gold. Or maybe they haven’t thought too much about the process. So each milking cow will have one (sometimes two) calf, every year. Some will be kept and eventually join the herd (females of course), as for the others… well, some dairy farms sell young calves (called bobby calves), none keep them and feed them until they get bigger and most end up being trucked to the local abattoir only a few days old and end up as dog food. So far, it’s not what nature intended but not an ugly picture as such. The reality of farming animals is one of compromise: how far we wish to compromise and deviate from the course nature would take is up to our values. Am I happy with factory farmed chicken and eggs, pigs and sows raised in crates (no and no)? How important is animal welfare when it comes to buying food or raising your own (food)? There are so many options put in front of us, for most consumers it’s a matter of working out what they are comfortable with.
How are the animals raised (or vegetables grown)? Where do they come from? How much does it cost? What is the packaging like (lots or not so much, maybe even none)? What are they fed (organic, conventional, GE)? How good is it? These are all questions we (should) ask ourselves. For anything we buy. It makes shopping a tiring and lengthy expedition the first few times, but I find that now I am so used to it I can scan the isles and know what I want or don’t want to buy according to my priority list. For starters I try not to buy anything too processed.
Back to our cow and calf situation… If I chose to become vegetarian again (not in the near future but who knows), the first thing I would stop buying is dairy. Because when that calf is born, it is taken away within hours of its birth, leaving a bereft mother bellowing and looking for its offspring. For the first few days after birth, a cow (like all mammals) produces colostrum, that special super rich milk. You won’t find it for sale on your supermarket shelves (yet), but it gets sold as a supplement, apparently for a high price. The calf often doesn’t even get one drink. I have read that the reasoning behind this taking them away so swiftly (apart from the monetary gain) is that the faster you take them the less painful it is. If you have ever seen a mother cow being separated from her newly born calf, you will know it is very far from the truth. Actually, I think it’s the opposite. As a mother, it draws tears, I feel her pain and desperation. On the contrary, when the calf is older, even thought she will be angry and looking for it, she won’t be as upset. Of course in an ideal world the calf stays with mum, it grows a happy life and we get milk.
I have been working on this ideal situation and I am pretty happy with the results. Admitedly we have only been in this milking business for 3 years (so I may not have enough experience to be tellings others how to do it), and we are only using it for ourselves. We are definitely not for profit (haha).
There’s this idea out there that if you have a house cow, you are stuck milking for 10 months of the year, once maybe twice a day. No holidays, sick days or week ends away unless you have a relief milker. Unless.
Unless you have the perfect share milker, willing to help day in day out, on short notice and who won’t take any holidays. In other words, I’m making the calf work for me. For free!
This system requires a bit of organisation, and a place to put the calf away at night. Since we keep our calves (for the freezer, or for selling), we would have to bottle feed them if we separated them from their mum. On top of milking the cow everyday. Our house cow gives us up to 10L a day at the height of her milk production. That’s way more than I want to use (I’m not fully making cheese yet either) and we don’t have pigs to feed any extra milk to. Last year, I was cheese making once a week and it fitted in well with all the other stuff we do. I wouldn’t do it more frequently for now. I actually worked out that if I milked every second day we got sufficient milk for our needs (milk, yoghurt and cheesemaking). The risk with infrequent milking is that the cow gets mastitis. Unless. Unless I leave the calf with its mum. That way I don’t have to feed it, and I don’t have to worry about daily milking. Until the calf is about 2 months old, it can actually stay with its mum full time. Dairy cows have been bred for milk production, and the amount of milk they produce is probably 4 times what a newborn calf can drink. So in the first couple of months, I milk daily, once in the morning. After that, our routine is pretty simple: get the cows from wherever they are in the evening and take them to the milking shed. Lock the calf in the milking shed at night then tie it up in the morning while I milk. I leave one teat for the calf, and once I’m done milking I let the calf off and it can finish the milking. The great thing about this system is that a calf will milk out its mum better than any machine or hand milking. And a cow that has been properly milked is at low risk of getting mastitis. A milk fed calf grows superbly well, hopefully stays healthier (this is the part I haven’t verified yet as we haven’t been doing it that long, but instinct tells me I must be right) and puts on good weight (think freezer goodness). If cow’s milk is the same as human milk, her milk will change in composition if the calf is sick, providing with antibodies. On top of all this, the calf learns about proper hierarchy and cow behaviour. Its mum is teaching it how to be a grown up calf, tenderly grooming it and teaching it what to eat. Dare I say it now, it’s a win-win!!!
What I wish to show here is that there are other alternatives to the systems used in intense dairy farming. We have the luxury to have our own dairy animals, and we don’t have to replicate what is done on a bigger scale. We can make this more humane by farming on a smaller scale and introducing other aspects than maximum profit from one product. We are holistic farmers.
The bees love borage in flower, they are all over it. I’ve noticed the lambs love the tops too.
pioupioukids 