Milk Cows

[Danil54grl]

She is prego for a fact and her bag is getting bigger every day that goes by. Training has to happen now!!

 

[Buttoni]

Bet you're excited now!

 

[Danil54grl]

Today was our first day of loading up in the milking staunch to eat. May need to rethink the way we did it this morning. I haltered her up and started down the lane heading for the milking parlor before Hunny started laying down feed, BUT she heard it and stopped. I basically had to drag and coax her the whole way. She has gotten to the point where we do not both fit into the staunch. I have basically lead her thru, only stopping for a short period and then go out. Today was different. I basically lead her in, just a couple feet away from the feed I laid out and then I went out the back. Had to spank her on the backside to get her all the way up. She did good and ate, but not the amount she normally would. I get it, it was a new environment to eat in, but she also had no competition. Think tomorrow I need to get her totally out before Hunny starts feeding the others. I will need to take care of her before the goats.

 

[Danil54grl]

Training has gotten better now that Hunny fixed our issues on the first day in the milking parlor due to settling. I do have to keep goats away while I am trying to get Claire out and turned around to load up into the milking staunch. We both can not load up now due to her size and I am only able to go in so far. I had already laid out her feed thinking she would smell it. So now, we need to do her before the other cows. She loads up to a point, and hunny needs to pour in feed. No problem, if it is 2 of us. Eventually I honestly think it will just be a natural thing for her to do. If it is just me, I know she knows what whoa means so know she and I could figure it out if need be. With the milk my baby girl can provide in a short period of time, can actually mean a lot in these times of our economy. Just hoping that is never the case.

 

[GeorgiaPeachie]

I’m with you on the hoping it is ever really needed, but I honestly don’t see how this coming collapse can be stopped at this point.

 

[Robinjopo1]

Right now I am leaning towards Clara Belle. When we got to the dairy, he had 2 to chose from. One the 2 week old and then this one that was 6 weeks old. I felt that the 6 week old could handle the stress of being moved a little better than the younger and this one seemed to have warmed up to me pretty fast. She was sniffing and licking me from the get go. A large goat halter ended up being a perfect fit for her and we tied her into the back of the truck. We had put the headache rack on the back and also some boards to hold her in and not fall out. Lose enough that she could lay down if she wanted to and we also put some fresh hay down for her to lay on and she did end up eating some on the way home too. She calmed down rather quickly and was basically up and down on the 150 miles home.
Once here, I put her in a smaller pen I use as my sick barn. I wanted her in a contained area where she and I can bond and she gets down the bottle feeding first. I spent the first hour and a half out with her and after a lot of coaxing she downed 2 quarts of milk replacer. I did end up putting my goat Sissy over with her so she doesn't get to lonely when I'm not out there, but in all honesty Sissy didn't seem impressed.
Next milk feeding should be at 5 AM but she also has hay out there to eat on and fresh water to drink. I just needed to come inside to eat since I hadn't yet today. . . . I was getting a headache so that had to get taken care of. I'll be heading back out soon.

Before I read this post, I looked at her and said Clara Belle.

 

[Danil54grl]

I'm tired tonight, after work I came home to do housework again, so brought Claire straight to the milking staunch to run her thru. Did give her a little grain and then had to basically coax and drag her back to the main pasture. She was upset we didn't have our normal "walk", but we have thunder and a few big drops coming down. I got no loving tonight, but I do understand.