Showing posts with label cows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cows. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Cow Woes

Fiona is my milk cow. She was my Christmas present last year.


I had been wanting a milk cow for ages. I wanted an Irish Dexter and that is just what my dear Hubby got me. Fiona was bred and gave us Anna Belle in the Spring. Our plan is to have a small herd,meat for us and sell any extras. Fiona has always had an attitude about being around other animals.

This,I theorize,is from being raised as a 4-H project.She is well trained,and is easy to work with for the most part,but was not raised with other animals,hence the attitude.Her calf,sweet little Anna Belle is nothing like her,she loves all the other critters.Fiona is not a very good milk cow either.She won't let down her milk for me,even after I let the calf get her started.She gives us enough not to have to buy any,but not enough to make all the yummy extras like butter and cheese.Her attitude as of late has gotten much worse.She is trying to gore the other animals.She used to only bother them when they got close, now she is to the point she is trying to hurt them.So now she is getting staked out in the field by herself.She has no aggression towards people because that is where she thinks she belongs,with people.

I am hoping to keep her in milk until the goats start having babies in December.I'll just have to see how it goes.When Hubby gets home next week we are going to start fencing in the front pasture.

Fiona will get a spot all to herself.This is how it goes in farm land,sometimes you get a wonderful animal,sometimes you get a stinker.I am not ready to sell her,she has nice calves and is a good momma.She will just have to be alone,which is what she wants anyway,after we get our herd going then I may sell her.It really depends on how she acts.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Ya'll Want Some Tongue????







Cow tongue that is!!!!




Fiona is hoping to get a treat from The Boy.

The Boy is hoping not to get any slobber on him!

Fiona can wrap her tongue around an alfalfa cube fast as lightening and somehow leave a trail of cow slobber slime from your elbow to your finger tips!

Yeah,it's funny and gross!One of the best kinds of entertainment!!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Fiona,queen of the Bossy Cows!



This is Fiona.She was my Christmas present last year.I know,most of you girls out there are saying "A cow?You didn't ask for jewelry?"No I am a farm girl through and through,I never wear jewelry,except for my wedding ring and a cross necklace that I never take off.It is also about my fourth or fifth wedding ring.Not because I have had that many husbands!I just loose them.Which is what happens to all the jewelry I have ever owned.Last year one of my gifts was a chipper-shredder I had been drooling over.I love my Hubby,he knows what I like!

Anyway....Fiona is an Irish Dexter Cow.We choose her for many reasons.Irish Dexters can live totally off grass and only need an acre per cow.Although this year is a drought and the pasture is almost gone so she gets hay,not as good,but we do what we have to to get by.They dress out at a higher % of meat per cow pound and their milk has higher % of butterfat.Plus they give only 1-3 gallons a day,more than enough for a family of 3.Perfect for the small homestead!
Then at the end of April, Fiona gave me her own adorable little present.Meet Anna-Belle.She likes laying by the water trough because it is cool,and let's face it it is hot as you know where here in Texas!

She was a surprise because we thought she was due in May.Me and The Boy went out one April morning,like every morning,to feed the critters and I look over to the pasture and there is this tiny black calf standing next to Fiona.The Boy still likes to tell how loud I hollered when I saw that baby!
Fiona was a 4-H cow.This makes her very tame,but with an attitude that she is better that all other creatures!She is the Queen of Bossy Cows!I wanted her for the purpose of being my milk cow,and of course making little cows.I could not wait to start milking her.Apparently she could not wait to kick me in the head!My ever so gentle cow became a pro soccer player with my head as her ball.I am gettin' old,but not so old as I couldn't move fast enough to duck out of her way!We tried hobbles,too dangerous to try to get them on.So I turned to the all knowing Internet.Hubby,bless his heart for putting up with his crazy hillbilly wife,built me a milking stall.It was now me and the cow in a steel cage death match!OK, not really,she still kicked,but I finally persuaded her to stop by a swat with a pvc pipe to her very generous butt area!Don't get your gander up,I didn't beat her,just a swat to get her attention.

It worked,thank goodness!I am not the queen of fashion,I have no idea how to accessorize a hoof dent in the forehead!