Thursday was the dairy auction in Greely where you can go and bid on milking cows from different local area farmers. Yesterday was a big day at the auction as a complete herd of 20 Holstein cattle were up for auction on top of the cow or two that the smaller farms bring in.
We already have a heifer and a steer who are both about 6 months old. The heifer can be bred only after she is a year old and should expect to be "fresh" by the time she is two. Being fresh means that the cow just calved and is now producing milk or lactating. A springer is a cow who has had her first calf, so essentially two years old. These cows are not used to being handled yet for milking and are often skiddish and feisty.
The cow we bought yesterday is three years old, she is gentle and simply put "a good cow" according to the man who brought her in.
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| She'd make a good house cow. A really good cow that one. |
Her name is Donnandale Toystory Ringolo, part of the fab four.
Ringo eh; reminds me of this:
This ~60 year old man approached us and said that his dad told him to find us and show us his cows. His dad was about 90, and was sitting in the front seat first row at the auction.
Ringo eh; reminds me of this:
This ~60 year old man approached us and said that his dad told him to find us and show us his cows. His dad was about 90, and was sitting in the front seat first row at the auction.
Now, Alex and I both have great respect for old man advice. Old man advice is key for success and their wisdom regarding farming should be listened to like scripture. We could tell the man didn't really want to part with his cows and he was probably downsizing due to the cost of hay this winter.
He had brought in three cows, two were expecting any day now and the other was three days fresh. We opted to bid on the fresh one as we really had no interest dealing with birthing a cow tomorrow in order to maybe save $50.
We also picked up two calves yesterday, one of which was free. We bid on a Jersey heifer and won her and then picked up a Holstein bull for meat.
You see, you need to produce a calf in order for your cow to keep producing milk. When you calf a bull, it is essentially useless to the dairy farmer. They do not want to feed this animal and produce 1250 pounds of beef in a year and a half or so. If the farmer wanted beef, there are meatier breeds of cow out there to raise up. So, these Holstein bull calves are sent to the meat auction and if they are not bid on, they go in a free pen until the day is done and then the leftovers get killed and disposed of.
Now this Holstein will produce roughly 30 litres of milk a day. That's a lot of milk for us you see, so by getting two calves we can use some of that milk to feed to the babies and raise them up big, for free.
This is a smart thing to do for the hobby farmer, and also delicious.
We got the Jersey because in two years, she will produce a much creamier milk than the Holstein. With a higher fat content, more of the milk can be used for making cheese and other more creamy dairy products. Delicious.
One other detail about milking cows is that they have to be milked dry twice a day, or else bad things happen. They can develop mastitis which is a curdling of the milk while still in the utter. This is obviously a bad thing and then you really need to work hard on clearing that condition up with medication and the milk has to be wasted while the cow is on the antibiotics.
This cow is used to being milked at 5am and 5pm; so 4:30 this morning was special.
As the man said, she is gentle and hand milked really well.
I find the raw milk is a bit more salty that I am used to with store bought milk. Yes we plan on drinking unpasteurized milk and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that if the cow is in good health. I wouldn't be drinking anything that came from a sickly cow and as far as we have heard, you will know when the cow becomes ill.
We give our livestock plenty of room and clean their stalls daily so they are not living in "dairy barn" conditions. Normally, cows like this are in a stall slightly bigger than they are and they have a bucket of grain strapped in front of them and a contraption attached to their cow parts. To remain competitive and supply the masses, this is a necessary evil.
The dairy barn we picked up our barn cats at was foul like this; the air burned my eyes it was so foul. Cows this size pee and poo like massive loads and they just stand there all day. Their stalls are seriously cleaned once or twice a year and according to the dairy farmer association, this is just fine.
Ontario dairy farms are NOT inspected to ensure that their accommodation for livestock meets a certain standard.
The pasteurization process effectively kills any salmonella or E coli that would be present if a sick cow was milked even if that tainted milk was mixed in with many other healthy cows milk. Since recent advancements in the ultra-pasteurizing process, the Ontario dairy farmer association feels that it is ok to treat the milk once it has been transported at the processing plant instead of ensuring that dairy farmers keep tidy barns which would have them keeping less cows and making less money.
Ultra-pasteurizing is when a vat of milk, like I dunno, 500 gallons is super heated to a boil in 2 seconds, then chilled to 4 degree Celsius. MMMmmmmm, microwaves are tasty.
Further reading about how milk is processed has told us that powdered milk is often added to dairy products so that they taste like milk, not to mention all the bleaching for that perfect whiteness. Delicious.
Now we are not hating on the dairy we buy in stores, we just wanted to know what happens to it. To be honest, after our research, we are just fine with whole milk.
It's like me and eggnog. I really shouldn't have read the ingredients on the carton, but I drink it anyways.
