Meet the Girls

Our family has been in dairy commercially and now in herd shares for 56 years. In that time, we’ve had as many milking cows as 90 and have now been as low as 12. We’ve seen a thing or two so we’ve learned a thing or two. Through years of learning, we’ve determined what breed we want and what we’re looking for in our cows.

We started out with holstein cattle. Grover Raymond bought some bred heifers and started milking cows when he bought our current farm in 1968. Holsteins are the black and white cows we often see associated with milking cows. They are high producers of milk. Though they often have a lower butter fat percentage and are more likely to have A1A1 milk proteins versus the coveted A2A2.

Around 2001, we started rotational grazing. Rotational grazing is another way of saying we rotate the cattle through different pastures. The entire backside of our property is sectioned off into different pastures for our cows. At that point we started breeding with jersey bulls.

Jerseys do better on pasture than holsteins. They’re great eaters. In very hot weather, a holstein will stop eating while a jersey basically never stops eating! Jerseys also tend to have a higher butter at percentage and have higher odds at having the A2A2 milk protein. The cows are docile and incredibly cute.

All of our cows have some level of each holstein and jersey in them. We went back and forth for the years post 2001 with jersey or holstein bulls or semen (when we did AI) always tending more towards jersey. But in the past 4 years we exclusively have bred with jersey bulls from another local small herd share farm.

When we decided to transition from commercial dairy to herd shares, we did reduce our herd. How we decided to due this pending on testing. We were looking for several things in the cow we kept: health, temperament, and good test scores.

We test annually for tuberculosis, brucellosis, and Johne’s Disease. If any of our herd had tuberculosis, the whole herd would need to be put down. So obviously we don’t have that! If anyone in the area would have tuberculosis, the county would be put on watch and more testing would be done. If any cow were to have another disease, we would not keep her.

If a cow were to be mean to the point of hurting people or other animals, that would be a mark against them staying. We wouldn’t only sell a cow because she’s irritable or unenjoyable to work with, but it does play a factor. We kept a cow for years after she broke Arnie’s leg because she was really a great cow! She just got scared and kicked him. On the other hand, when our last bull ran over me when I was 9 months pregnant and my almost 70 year old day, we did sell him right after. Though it was his time to go. There’s many cows though that maybe don’t test the greatest, but we just love them so much so we keep them.

We test monthly the milk of each milking cow. We evaluate each cow also by her milk. Through her milk we can test the milk components, somatic cell count, pregnancy, A2 milk proteins, and more. The milk components are things like the butterfat, protein, and lactose percentage. We look at this, the A2 protein and the somatic cell when we evaluate each cow. Our goal is to be fully A2A2, but we’re about half way there with our current herd. The rest are A1A2. We want cattle with higher butter fat as well. We also take into account their somatic cell count (SCC). SCC may be indicative of an infection like mastitis. Most cases of mastitis resolve themselves, but some need treatment by antibiotic. If a cow needs treatment, we withhold and dump the milk until she tests clear of antibiotics and her SCC has gone down. Some cows have chronically high SCC even after treatment. This would make the milk sour more quickly. If there is a cow with SCC we can’t lower, we likely won’t keep her.

Lastly, some of our cows we just have a sentimental attachment to. For instance, Rosemary is a somewhat irritable A1A2 cow. She does thing her own way and can be a mix of friendly and downright ornery. But when my daughter was under 1, she went nightly to visit the young stock. Rosemary was her cow. They snuggled and walked together and bonded. So despite all her flaws, we love her and are attached to her. Tabby is a very holstine looking A2A2 cow that sometimes has higher SCC, but she is the friendliest, sweetest girl. Tabby will be with us until she dies because we love her so. Elanor is much older cow that is an overly protective mother but she always has great test results and is A2A2. Bertha has only 2 of her 4 quarters that produce milk, but she is overall agreeable, comes in on the less favored side of the barn, and is one of our highest producers with great butterfat.

With having so few cows, we know each of our girls in and out. They each have their own personalities and pluses and minuses. We take into account so many different factors as to why we keep each of them. We’re so grateful for each of our girls!