Raisa's little guy, Windsor, is doing great. He's a friendly little thing and seems to like us.
It appears he's only nursing on one quarter so her udder has grown to great proportions and it looks painful to carry around. The past 2 nights we decided we should milk and relieve Raisa of her burden. To get her in the barn we have to carry Windsor in there and put him next to where we want her. I couldn't get a good picture of this. I'm going to have to train him to a halter and lead because soon we're not going to be able to carry him.
Tonight was a bigger battle than last night. Windsor seemed content to hang out with us. Raisa knew what we were up to and didn't want to share her milk. When she did get in her stanchion and tied in she wasn't happy and threw a hissy fit. Many times she tried to jump out the small window. She didn't, however, kick me, which I appreciated. James watched and said he worries about my head. He said he can see why people choose goats to milk. She's been pretty wild and a helmet wouldn't be a bad idea. Each night we got between 2 1/2 to 3 gallons of milk from her and she still had more. She's a very dairy Dexter. We're not drinking her milk yet and this morning the pigs enjoyed last nights' bounty. I wonder how long it will take for Raisa to relax about being milked again.
The goats are really producing well this year too. I'm not locking kids up at night so I'm taking whatever milk they leave me in the mornings. This morning I got 2 gallons of milk from 4 girls. That's pretty incredible. I wonder what I'd get if I separated the kids at night. I'm having a hard time keeping up with all this milk as it is. I made 2 batches of peppermint ice cream today.
I like the way Raisa's barn looks at night with the lights on.
It appears he's only nursing on one quarter so her udder has grown to great proportions and it looks painful to carry around. The past 2 nights we decided we should milk and relieve Raisa of her burden. To get her in the barn we have to carry Windsor in there and put him next to where we want her. I couldn't get a good picture of this. I'm going to have to train him to a halter and lead because soon we're not going to be able to carry him.
Tonight was a bigger battle than last night. Windsor seemed content to hang out with us. Raisa knew what we were up to and didn't want to share her milk. When she did get in her stanchion and tied in she wasn't happy and threw a hissy fit. Many times she tried to jump out the small window. She didn't, however, kick me, which I appreciated. James watched and said he worries about my head. He said he can see why people choose goats to milk. She's been pretty wild and a helmet wouldn't be a bad idea. Each night we got between 2 1/2 to 3 gallons of milk from her and she still had more. She's a very dairy Dexter. We're not drinking her milk yet and this morning the pigs enjoyed last nights' bounty. I wonder how long it will take for Raisa to relax about being milked again.
The goats are really producing well this year too. I'm not locking kids up at night so I'm taking whatever milk they leave me in the mornings. This morning I got 2 gallons of milk from 4 girls. That's pretty incredible. I wonder what I'd get if I separated the kids at night. I'm having a hard time keeping up with all this milk as it is. I made 2 batches of peppermint ice cream today.
I like the way Raisa's barn looks at night with the lights on.
Don't try to milk a sheep! http://dc442.4shared.com/img/x-pjfDF5/s3/138a5a93c40/pwned.gif
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warning, Don Juan. I doubt I'll ever have sheep. They don't appeal to me. I'm a huge fan of lamb on my plate though.
ReplyDeleteMy mom had Herefords that she's had to milk off and on through the years. What a pain! She finally smartened up and butchered the last cow that calved and needed to be milk. She kept the calf and fed him replacer. It was so much easier than trying to milk that darn cow!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your cow! Hopefully she'll get used to being milk. Or you can butcher her now and feed the calf the leftover goat milk.