Last October we hauled Belle off to a friend's farm to breed with his Hereford bull. She ended up staying most of winter, but we finally picked her up on Monday.
Belle is somewhat of a *beefy* looking Jersey, but I was pleased to see she was healthier than ever. She kept weight on nicely and was easy to load and bring back.
It didn't take long before Belle and Lucy hooked up and spent the entire day and night, like long lost friends.
Then on Tuesday we took the trailer up to a nearby dairy and bought a new milk cow.
She is a young, 2 year old jersey, who just freshened a couple of months ago. She is very gentle, although a bit shy.
She really is not too sure about the chickens clucking around.
She is milking well, and after a week I suspect she will be completely settled in to a milking routine here.
My only complaint is that she is quite skinny.
Here she is next to Lucy. I will be spending the next month trying t get some weight on her. She is easy to hand milk too, even though we use a machine milker.
She seems to be fitting in well with the calves and cows here.
After much thought and family debate, we decided to name her Penny. We especially love the white dot on her face.
As of writing this, Lucy has not left Penny's side.
We also made good use of yesterday's nice weather to repair the sheep shelter/canopy.
The snow collapsed the canopy and the poles are badly damaged. Devin will have to replace most of them, but we have it rigged in the meantime. Now, we just wait for lambing to begin.
2 years ago we had no cows and today we have 9. I admit that we are somewhat smitten with the sweet Jersey beauties and will likely get more as the year progresses.
For now, we are enjoying the warm weather, the abundance of fresh milk and the promise of a spring season.
Happy Hump Day!!
