My Cows and Pigs

A Great Question and Good Conversation

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Wed, 28 May 2014 21:17:00 +0000

I had the awesome opportunity to accompany the Illinois Farm Families Field Moms on their tour to Paul & Donna Jeschke's farm in Mazon, IL. Thanks to an uneventful morning on our farm, a successful scoop and move with the toddler, and a puppy to occupy her once we got to Uncle Chris's for me to successfully escape without a meltdown, I arrived on time to the bus stop to enjoy a BEAUTIFUL spring day with other farm moms and non-farm moms to talk about agriculture.
Aside from wanting to pick up and transplant Donna's gorgeous landscaping to my house (I've come a long ways from the girl that couldn't grow marigolds in high school horticulture class), I enjoyed talking and learning from these moms.

These were people who WANTED to have a conversation with us about what we do. That was what made it so enjoyable. Last year, I stood in a grocery store on 2 separate weekends, giving out coupons and food samples and trying to start random conversations....either I wasn't very good at it, or I just had the wrong people, I had zero (not a one) meaningful conversations or even questions. I was, however, told I was "evil". The guy was serious and truly thought that I was an evil person because my profession was one of caring for animals. I'll admit that was a downer of a day. It was pretty hard to take that this person, really/truly thought that what I did for a living (and what I love) was morally wrong. Needless to say, we did not have a conversation where we shared our thoughts and ideas with each other with respect for the other's point of view.
I'll freely admit that I'm not the most accepting person in the world. I have a tendency to stay in my "ag" circles b/c I have a hard time understanding weekends (or weeknights) without chores, vacation homes, and whatever else occupies people's time and minds that don't have their head filled with haymaking, cow milking, and poop-scooping/scrubbing. But, at the same time, I really enjoy talking about farming to those who don't understand it b/c I find that the guy who called me evil was a vocal minority, and that the silent majority of people have lots of excellent questions and concerns that in a good conversation we can answer. Maybe we'll satisfy their concerns, and they'll realize they don't have to feel guilty about the food they feed their family. Maybe they'll say, "Thanks, but I'll continue to buy speciality products, b/c I feel more comfortable with the decisions made by those farms", but at the end of the day there will be genuine trust, respect, and understanding of different farming operations, technologies, and families. I also realize that we have lots in common. God Bless poor Tim from Beck's who got to listen in on a potty-training discussion over lunch. Maybe I do have a better idea what occupies people's time...
One of the best questions I got asked that weekend was "How do YOU decide?" How do we decide what to plant, apply to fields, feed animals, etc. I had to think for a second, and I've pondered it for the past couple of weeks. Well, I do the same thing these Field Moms are doing. I do research. I go to meetings. I listen to the salesmen, (then I listen to the opposing salesmen). More than anything, I try it out. You'll see several examples of farmers "trying out" a new crop, new variety, or new practice on their farms. Usually, we'll start with 20 acres of this, or 20 acres of that. This year, we are trying 20 acres of peas & barley that we will chop and feed to the cows, and then we'll follow that up with winter wheat. We're also trying snaplage to feed the cows next year. Many farmers will run test plots, where they will run different seed, chemical, fertilizer, spacings, and other variables against one another on a section of land. They'll analyze that data to decide what did or did not work on their farm, regardless of what did or did not work on the neighbor's farm, or the university or company research.
BUT, the thing I realize we were forgetting to say in that answer is that FIRST AND FOREMOST, I make sure that I do the research and feel comfortable with the SAFETY of any product. Before we decide what makes things better/easier/more efficient/more profitable for us as part of a business decision on our farms, we've already decided that we think its safe. As farmers, we tend to skip over that step that we all go through. Maybe its because we are more familiar with the research and approvals necessary for these products to even reach the market where we can buy them. Believe me, I don't think it is because we are more trusting of government (probably the opposite). Remember, we feed our families the same things you do, from our farms or from the farmer down the road.
We haven't been perfect in agriculture. So, how do I "decide" that GMOs or certain pesticides or herbicides are ok to use when maybe we used or did some things in the past that we found out weren't a good idea? Well, I don't. Not 100%, without any sliver of doubt/potential, BUT I feel like our research and knowledge is better than it was 50 years or even 10 years ago. And, if there is ever a peer-reviewed/documented case that something we are doing isn't safe, we'd change it quickly. People ask about bees. We are all wondering what's up with the bees. If we thought it was us, we'd change what we are doing, but we don't think it is.
So, we'll continue to work for what is best for our family, and for yours.
And thanks for the thought-provoking weekend.....I've come up with a few other blogs that I should write. Motivation is key!

My Night By The Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 15:24:00 +0000

Thanks Emily Webel for the idea of "By the Numbers".....:-)

1 - the number of calves we pulled last night
2 - the number of cows that calved last night
3 - the number of live calves that were born last night
(Have we had the "aha" moment with math here?)
4 - the hour at which I got up this morning
5 - the number of vaccinations the single heifer calf was given
6 - the number of cows due to calve in the next 10 days
7 - the hours of sleep I wish I got last night
8 - the number of CALVES due to be born in the next 10 days
(Another math moment with #6)
9 - the hour on the clock at which I found 2 new calves last night
10 - the number of calves in the calf barn right now
11 - the hour on the clock at which I went to bed
12 - the number of days early the cow with twins calved last night
13 - the minutes along with 1 (1:13) at which Ainsley woke up, needing to be soothed back to sleep
14 - the number of degrees below zero it was last night

The #1 best thing this morning:
Brent: "Ainsley, Mommy is a saint"

Made my day! :-)

Day 30: The Future - Luxury

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 18:17:00 +0000

Ok, so Luxury has been my little pet. With Gail out of commission for feeding calves for a little bit, Luxury has been my little pet. The first week I started feeding her, she got sick, hard. And fast. And I went ballistic - cleaning, revamping, calling in the vet, driving samples to the vet clinic on Saturday, picking up new meds....you name it, I was trying it, b/c while I was able to nursery Lux back to health, though it took a full week, I was NOT going to go thru that again. And, if a calf is getting sick, it hurts their very sensitive growing gut for the future and could stunt her future growth and milk production. And, Luxury is Lucke's calf. The FIRST Holstein heifer calf that we have gotten from her, and as God as my witness, SHE WILL LIVE.

Luxury will hopefully be a show heifer, though she will be a little young this next year to compete with heifers born almost 2 months before her (the class has heifers born from Sept. 1 thru Nov. 30, and she's Oct. 26.....), but hopefully by the time she is a yearling or a cow, she'll be able to compete, and Ainsley will be big enuf to at least walk at the end of the halter.

I had this gorgeous picture planned of Ainsley with Luxury as the future of our farm, and well, it got cold VERY early this year. It was froze the week of Thanksgiving. We had a ear infection while we traveled south to see my family, and I don't think Ainsley has been outside besides runs to & from the car since. Seriously, I could use a warm up b/c I have about 15 calf panels to clean for the new calves that will be born in March, and I have not had a SINGLE day (on a weekend when I'm home) that is above freezing to even attempt to try washing all these panels. I have 2 set up for the one lone heifer calf that is due at the beginning of February. They are at least clean, though they need repainted and have frozen snow & ice stuck to them. I'm hoping it thaws enuf that I can at least get THAT done......

Oh spring - where art thou?

Full Name: Po-Cop Armani Luxury
We call Her: Lux
Age: 1 month
# calves/lactations: Hopefully Many! :-)

Linking up with Holly here.

Back to my beginning of 30 days here

Day 29: Nothing Special - #9015

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 18:08:00 +0000

She's nothing special, but she is the type of cow that pays the bills. She has been the high milk cow on individual tests several times. She is rarely sick, doesn't have foot problems, is easy to work with, walks into the parlor easy and freely every time. She's a no-nonsense kind of cow, and I LOVE that.

Full Name: Po-Cop Matches Mirage
We call Her: #9015
Age: 4 years, 6 months
# calves/lactations: 3

Linking up with Holly here.

Back to my beginning of 30 days here

Day 28: Thanksgiving - Blessing

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 03:45:00 +0000

I also wrote about Blessing a long time ago. I literally brought her into this world & breathed life back into this calf when she was born. Now, to see her in the milking barn, I am reminded of that late night, the thrill I had in saving her, and how thankful I am that we get to farm! Even the late nights, cold days, and all the ick in between that we end up dealing with - it is awesome

Blessing is usually in the 1st group or two of cows in the morning, and she's just a little skittish, but nowhere NEAR what her mama was.

Full Name: Blukel PC Exactor Blessing
We call Her: #141 or Blessing
Age: 2 years, 1 month
# calves/lactations: 1

Linking up with Holly here.

Day 27: Revisiting - Million Dollar Reward

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 03:45:00 +0000

Here she was a long time ago:

And, here she is now:

My how times change.....

Full Name: Po-Cop Million Dollar Reward
We call Her: #101
Age: 2 years, 8 months
# calves/lactations: 1 - due again late winter

Linking up with Holly here.

Day 26: Interesting - Curious George

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 03:44:00 +0000

Ok, so I've been really excited to talk about "Curious George". That actually isn't her name at all, but that is what we call her, because she is slow, methodical, and not scared of anything! She always has to come check out what we are doing, and give us a sniff, nudge, or just sometimes stand there and stare. Although George is curious, she sometimes gets completely freaked out by the grates in the barn, and while she doesn't spook or jump, she will simply NOT cross over them sometimes (no matter how much you may push & pull, and if a 1800# cow doesn't want to go somewhere, believe me, you are NOT going to make her). But, she crosses them at least 4x a day to get in & out of the parlor, so maybe she just learns to not look down at that time. However, she is so calm, sometimes we just leave her standing there while we sort or go get other cows to bring in or out of the barn. Usually when we come back from wherever we are going, there is George, still standing in the same spot we left her.
In fact, she is the only cow that doesn't back out of the headlocks in fear when Ainsley comes running down along the alley (to allow great pictures like this to be taken).

Curious George & Ainsley

Full Name: Po-Cop Jeeves Tomatillo

What we call her: Curious, George, Curious George, or #9030

Age: 4 years, 2 months

# calves/lactations: 2, due for #3 this winter

Linking up with Holly here.

Day 25: Interesting - Ribbon

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 03:43:00 +0000

Ok, Ribbon has a pretty interesting story. Ribbon is the only ET (embryo transfer) calf to be born on this farm (at least in the last 8 years since I've been around), and she was born a few weeks premature (or at least her mom hadn't even gotten moved to the "close-up" maternity pen yet). I remember her being pulled out in muddy/snowy conditions, a very small little girl.
She has survived quite awhile and is now almost the oldest cow on the farm (unfortunately, we had to bid #864 good-bye this week, but Lucke has moved up as the "oldest"). Ribbon was bought at a sale as an embryo at a sale, and she was implanted into one of our cows that carried her (nearly) to term.
Ribbon is an Oman that is one of the great names in Holstein bulls. His mom was bred & born by our friend Becky and her family @ Meier Meadows, and the cow, Jezebel, sold to another family in northern IL, and O-Bee Manfred Justice (shortened to OMan) is now a name known round the dairy world! Pretty neat. (ok, so if you know Holsteins that might actually make sense to you. If not, it was complete jibberish!)

Full Name: Miss O-Man Ribbon-ET
Age: 6 years, 8 months
# calves/lactations: 5
Lifetime Milk Production: 100,050# or 11,633 gallons

Day 24: The Interesting: Peach & Pear - a Twofer!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 04:09:00 +0000

It's not very often that you get 2 live heifer twin calves, AND get to see them both come back into the milking string, but Peach & Pear are just that! Unfortunately, twins are pretty hard on the mom, and we lost their mom after she had these two, but now we have double the P's.
The go back to a cow, Penelope, from a farm about an hour west of us that has lots of really good cows. Penelope's daughter, Persephone (Peach & Pear's granddam) we sold at our state Holstein sale, and she ended up going just down the road to another neighbor, and we got to see her at the county fair for several years, towering over her new owner, Ellie. I think she had a couple of heifers for Ellie - hopefully they are still doing well. One of the best things for a farmer is to sell a cow, and know that she did well for her new owners!

Full Names: Po-Cop Shout Peach & Po-Cop Shout Pear
What we call them: #136 & 137
Age: 2 years, 2 months
# calves/lactations: 1 each (thank goodness!)
Lifetime Milk Production: Pear - 1,761# or 204 gallons; Peach - 5,279# or 614 gallons. (Peach has been milking longer than Pear. We'll have to see if she catches up!

Day 23: The Revisited: Bambi

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 04:02:00 +0000

Ok, so I'm going to do a little "revisiting" of cows that I have talked about before on this blog.
First up, Bambi.
Bambi arrived in 2011 about the time we were finishing the new milking cow barn. She came from a farm about an hour south of us. The family had already sold their cows to our neighbor and they were milking well, but they still had some heifers available to sell, and so we bought 3 bred heifers together. Unfortunately, Bambi is the only one left of the 3. She is very big & TALL (though not the Tallest!)
Someday.....(that might be a while in the future), we think Bambi can be an Excellent cow.

Full Name: Blukel Lightning Bambi
What we Call Her: Bambi
Age: 4 yrs, 4 months
# calves/lactations: 2
Lifetime Milk Production: 46,449# or 5,401 gallons

Day 22: The J's & the K's: Jiffy

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 03:56:00 +0000

What else goes with Jelly than Peanut Butter! (And, we already had a Peanut Butter, she was born right after Jelly), so we expanded a little with a "J", and got Jiffy. Jiffy is like her mother, and is pretty slow and steady. She doesn't usually like to leave the parlor when she is done milking, and so gets an extra "Let's go Jiffy" nearly every milking.
She looks like her mother too.....

Full Name: Po-Cop Prince Jiffy
What we Call her: #1014 or Jiffy
Age: 3 yrs, 6 months
# calves/lacations: 2
Lifetime Milk Production: 24,304# or 2,826 gallons

Day 21: The J's & the K's: Jellybean

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 03:53:00 +0000

ok, so this begins a group of slightly entertaining names. Jellybean is Jelly's 1st daughter (of several).
Jellybean is almost always one of the first cows into the parlor in a group. She leads the way, and has a little more playfulness than her mom. Jellybean is also one of the few cows that Addison knows by name (maybe Ainsley will soon too!).

Full Name: Po-Cop Anando Jellybean
What we Call her: Jellybean or #9006
Age: 4 years, 8 months
# calves/lactations: 3
Lifetime Milk Production: 64,051# or 7,448 gallons

Day 20: The J's & the K's: Jelly

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 03:49:00 +0000

Jelly is again a favorite on the farm. Cows that have been around for almost 7 years have a tendency to grow on you. Jelly is out of a cow that was bought from a farm in Central Illinois when Brent came home to farm. Jelly is the most unexciteable cow there is - nothing bugs here, nor does she ever spook, get excited....nothing, very even keel. Her favorite place is in a stall or at the feedbunk.
You'll meet some of her daughters/offspring the rest of the week.

Jelly is the big tall white cow (I couldn't get the other one out of the picture)

Full Name: Po-Cop Lucas Jelly
What we Call her: #7013 or Jelly
Age: 6 yrs, 6 months
# calves/lactations: 5
Lifetime Milk Production: 84,269# or 9,798 gallons

Day 19: The J's & K's: Kalypso

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 03:45:00 +0000

Kalypso is also one of my favorites, but truth be told, I sure wished she milked a lot more! She looks almost exactly like her mama. You will notice that she is in a different pen, as she is due to calve within the next 3 weeks, she is hanging out in a pen bedded with lots of straw to await her pending calf (unfortunately, its a bull).
Kalypso & Kaliedoscope are sisters - I find it very interesting that Kaydence (their mom) had these calves at nearly the same time of year (there was an 8019 in the middle of these two). Kaliedoscope (#7025) was the 25th calf born in 2007, while Kalypso (#9025) was the 25th calf born in 2009 - pretty cool, huh?

Full Name: Po-Cop Bolivia Kalypso
What we Call Her: #9025 or Kalypso
Age: 4 years, 2 months
Calves: 2, with #3 due anytime!
Lifetime Milk Production: 42,088 pounds 4,893 gallons

Day 18: The J's & K's - Lauden (Loud n') Klear

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 03:31:00 +0000

Klear started our list of words that should start with "C", that we change to "K" to make them fit names for this cow family. When you have bull names that you can work with, you have some fun with naming.

Full Name: Po-Cop Laudan Klear
What we call Her: Klear or #9016
Age: 4 years, 6 months
# calves/lactations: 3

Day 17: The J's & K's - Kaleidoscope

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 02:09:00 +0000

Kaleidoscope probably could have made the list of "-est" cows as the best, but regardless, she is probably my favorite.

She just calved in again with her 5th calf. She is a part of the "Kay" family, and I've even wrote about her before. She milks a lot - I think she can get to 150,000# easy, and hopefully 200k+. She is scored well (VG 85), and I think she can go Excellent someday (I hope), which would be the 1st Po-Cop (or home-raised) animal to do so. So, let's just say that we hope everything goes well, and that I haven't jinxed her by writing this!

Full Name: Po-Cop Elayo Kaleidoscope
What we Call Her: Kaleidoscope or #7025
Age: 6 years, 3 months
Calves/Lactations: 5
Lifetime Milk Production: 109,417 pounds or 12,722 gallons

Day 16: Red Week - Shorthorns - Sandy

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:57:00 +0000

Ok, so this is a name I can get behind. This is Sandy. She & Stingray were purchased together.
And, she is the closest thing to a roan calf that we've gotten so far (which is one of the only reasons I am supporting Brent's shorthorn habit - I have ALWAYS wanted a roan or white Shorthorn calf).
Sandy is hanging out in the monoslope barn right now with the other 3-4 month old calves

Day 15: Red Week - Shorthorns - Stingray

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:54:00 +0000

Stingray was a recent purchase from a farmer in Minnesota, so I don't have all her paperwork on her full name, etc.
(However, I just have to say that I think Stingray is a completely ridiculous name for a heifer, so I'm going to call her "Sinnamon" in honor of the fact that she is the same color of one of my show steers in 4-H, named Cinnamon. But, I do realize that sometimes if you are searching for names, you have to get creative, and if we ever have a Farm Boy, instead of a Farm Girl in charge of naming calves, I'm sure we'll get some interesting names)

Stingray has only been here a few weeks, and is ready to get bred soon.

Day 14: Red Week - Shorthorns - Pixie Dust

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:51:00 +0000

Full Name: Po-Cop Pixie Dust
What we call Her: Pixie Dust
Age: 5 months

Ok, so we are having to diverge down into the heifers to finish out Red Week, but you can't not love the names we have going here with the P's.

Pixie Dust is getting ready to move up to the next pen of older heifers tommorrow. We tried moving her a few weeks ago, and although our Milking Shorthorns are big, she is still very small compared to our Holsteins, so I let her stay in the "monoslope" barn with our younger calves for a few weeks.
However, we have more Shorthorns coming up behind her, so she needs to move!

Day 13: Red Week - Precious

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:43:00 +0000

Full Name: Po-Cop Logic Precious - EXP
What we Call Her: Precious
Age: 1 year, 11 months
# calves/lactations: 1

Precious & Princess are full sisters, and they couldn't be more different.
Precious also is never a problem, but she is smaller than Princess, has a better udder, and is milking more than some of our Holsteins!
Her daughter, Pocahontas is in the calf barn now. Our Shorthorn herd is growing rapidly!

Day 12: Red Week - The Shorthorns - Princess

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:43:00 +0000

Full Name: Po-Cop Logic Princess EXP
What we Call Her: Princess
Age: 2 years, 11 months
# calves/lactations: 2

Princess is the first Shorthorn calf born on the farm. Let's just say, I'm not overly impressed.....her milk production doesn't exactly set the world on fire, but if she keeps getting pregnant (having heifer calves most of the time too), and remains not a problem with feet or mastitis, she gets to stay.
Granted, her life as a cow started off rough. She aborted her 1st calf 2 months early, and she was full of milk, so we milked her anyway as a very young cow, and tried our best to get her bred back again, which was successful, resulting in some of the cows you will meet in the rest of the (elongated) Red Week.

Day 11: Red Week - The "oldest" red cow

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:38:00 +0000

Full Name: Po-Cop Talent Felicity-Red
What we Call Her: #7009 (or I call her Fanny, which was actually her Mom's name)
Age: 6 years, 9 months
# calves/lactations: 5 (as of last Friday, her heifer calf, Freckles, was born)

#7009 is the oldest of our red cows (and one of the 5 oldest cows on the farm)
She was more than a little camera shy when I tried to take her picture.
One thing you will notice are the red bands on her rear legs. That is the signal that she has been treated with antibiotics. Sometimes cows get sick, and sometimes, antibiotics are what I need to use in order to take the best care of them. We have a protocol that has been discussed with our veterinarian (and reviewed as conditions change) of how/what/how long/how much to treat our cows when they become sick. We hadn't actually noticed that #7009 was sick yet, but we just had our cows tested by the milk tester, and the report came back showing that she had a lot of "somatic cells" which is an indicator that she is sick or is becoming sick. So, we have a paddle in the parlor that allows us to test the milk of the cows to determine which of the 4 quarters is the problem. Turns out, her Left Rear quarter has some problems, and so we have been treating it for the last couple days with an antibiotic that will hopefully get her on the road to recovery. When we treat a cow, we have to keep her milk out of the food supply, and so we use these red bands as our notice to pull her milk into a separate bucket that gets dumped and not placed with the rest of the milk. We hope she is back milking into the tank soon!

Day 10: Red Week - #75

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:30:00 +0000

#75 is the last Red Holstein of the week.

Full Name: Playtoys Ad Lassie-Red-ET
What we Call Her: #75
Age: 6 years
# calves/lactations: 4
Lifetime Milk Production: 56,803 pounds or 6,605 gallons

Interesting Info: I'm actually really surprised that #75 is still in the herd. We bought her at the Nat'l Red & White Holstein sale in Belvidere a few years ago, mainly as a companion for another cow that we had already bought. The other cow went back to "Roxy", the Queen of the Holstein Breed (I make fun of the fact that at an auction the auctioneer may use the term "Straight Back to Roxy", even if it 6 or 7 generations back. It's a running joke between Brent & I). Let's say our Roxy was a mess and is no longer with us (frozen teats is the reason why we didn't have anything else calving during that time period in late December), but we thought that she needed a "friend" in the maternity pen, so we bought #75 cheap later in the sale. She didn't milk anything for several lactations, but she always got bred the 1st time, never had mastistis, or gave us any problems (though she really needs her hooves trimmed), and she has finally grown up - milking over 80# on the last milk test. I have no doubt that she'll be aiming for "Oldest Cow" very soon.

Day 9: Red Week - #9028

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:23:00 +0000

Full name: Po-Cop Advntg Igeria-Red-TW
What We Call Her: #9028 (or I call her Big Red, but she is no where near as big as her mom)
Age: 4 years, 2 months
# calves/lacations: 3
Lifetime Milk Production: 42,642 pounds or 4,958 gallons

Interesting Info:
9028 is out of "Big Red" another cow that Brent bought when he came home to farm. She is a red Holstein. She's an early bird - she usually comes in the first group or two of cows in the morning.

Day 8: Red Week - #9032

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Pollard) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:19:00 +0000

Yes, we generally have Holstein cows (the black and white kind), but Holsteins do have a recessive gene for red coat color, so if you breed 2 red cows, or red carrier cows together, you can get Red Holsteins, so we have a few of those. We also have a few Milking Shorthorn cows. Let's start "Red Week" with I think Brent's favorite cow.....#9032.
This is what he had to say about her in June on his Facebook page:
"Our cow 9032 named Daisy Dukes was ranked 7th in the Milking Shorthorn breed in April based on her genetic potential for milk and conformation. She is scored 86 point second lactation, had two milk tests over 130 lbs or 15 gallons of milk and is due in September with Mudslinger twin heifer calves. We love our good cows."

Full Name: GE Po-Cop Famous Daisy Dukes
What we Call Her: #9032
Age: 4 years, 1 month
# calves/lactations:3/4 (a set of twin heifers you'll meet later this week)
Lifetime Milk Production: 54,742 pounds or 6365 gallons

She milks a lot and has heifer calves - she's makes the "good list" in my book!