On Being a Milk Maid (or, The Family Cow)

I've been called everything from a hippie to a dork, but really never thought I'd bear the title of Milk Maid. Apparently there are those out there who don't refer to me as a hippie or dork who think I'm somewhat of a professional Milk Maid. Just this week I had two more folks ask about having a family milk cow. There's such a movement of folks concerned about their food and either moving to the country on several acres or homesteading a little piece of heaven just outside the city limits. Either way, the vision of the family milk cow somehow gets fixated in their minds and they envision adding that piece to their borderless puzzle. Picture Ma Ingalls, in a clean barn built by her husband with her gentle cow chewing her cud while Ma happily milks her by hand, joyfully bringing the fresh, warm milk into the house to her gleeful children awaiting a glass of warmth for their bellies. Ma skims the cream off the cooled milk, making butter, buttermilk and then using the milk to make wonderful cheeses and treats for the family.

Ok, it's not exactly like that, but it can be what you make of it.

There are really several things to consider in having a family milk cow. She's not a dog who will stay on the porch and chase her tail, though she may lick you when she sees you. (Come to think of it, I have had a cow find her way to stay on the back deck during a night time winter storm.) Having a cow means you really need to have a place big enough to keep a cow. And I'm not referring to barns or buildings. Preferably, you'll need lots of lush pastures with different kinds of forages to keep your cow happy and healthy. Keep in mind I'm a grazer. A hippiefied grazer. No chemicals, anti-biotics, no excessive inputs, equipment, etc. Just God-given natural stuff. In my opinion, cows are happiest when they have access to clean green pastures. By access, I mean that's where they live.

The first step is finding a cow. This is usually easier said than done. We've found the best way is just by talking to folks. Ask the farmers drinking coffee at the local cafe'. I found my last cow just by striking up a conversation with a fellow who had a Jersey steer in a stock trailer in the parking lot of a hardware store. Some folks use internet sales sites like Craigslist. I've recently seen cows on there going for anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500. You can probably expect to pay something like this for a family milk cow. I would not recommend going to the local sale barn unless it's a complete dispersal sale, and even then I recommend using caution. Cows at the sale barn are cull cows. They've been cut out of the herd for reasons varying from ill-health to bad dispositions. There are also several breeds of milk cows to choose from. Jersey, Guernsey, Milking Shorthorn, Holstein, or a crossbred of these breeds and others.
Another thing to consider is how you are going to milk. By hand is generally the most reasonable for one family milk cow. I recently just purchased a portable machine, only because I told Cowboy Cody that 4 cows was my limit to milk by hand! But, machines take electricity and can be costly. Mine cost as much as a really good milk cow. Yet another thing to consider is buildings. Barns can be overrated. For those 4 years of milking by hand, I milked my cows in the open pasture. The girls and I braved the elements together! You won't mind snuggling up next to your favorite cow in the dead of winter! I do appreciate my barn now on days when it's raining or sleeting!

This is one lazy calf.

Another thing to know is whether or not you will feed anything during milking. Most cows will stand more still if they have something to munch on. We feed alfalfa hay and a little powdered molasses in the barn. Sometimes I'll use an alfalfa pellet, but we choose to not feed any corn or grain products. We have studied where these products not only change the genetic make-up of the cow, but have an effect on the milk as well. Not feeding grains cuts down on the quantity of the milk we get, but we feel the quality is better. Another bonus to not feeding grains is it also cuts down on the amount of poop in the barn! Rarely do my cows poop while they're in the barn. But if they do, it's shovel time.

Having your own fresh milk to drink is unmatched by anything you can get from the local grocer. Unpasteurized and raw, milk is full of health benefits to help anything from a sniffle or allergy to the so-called uncurable diseases. And the products you can make for your family are fun and enjoyable, too.

Check out the amount of cream in this pitcher of milk. See the slightly darker shade at the top of the pitcher? That's all cream. It can be skimmed off the milk for coffee creamer or to make butter. A lot of folks just stir or shake it up and drink it in their milk.

Fresh butter, cheeses, yogurts, kefir, the list goes on and on of the products that can be made right in your little homestead kitchen from your raw milk. Likely, with even one family milk cow, you will have excess milk. Cows can give anywhere from two to five gallon in a day and most families, even with a lot of kids would have to work hard to consume that much in a week! You have to know your state's legislation whether you could sell your excess milk. It's allowed, sometimes with restrictions, in around half of the states. If not, it may be possible to make some product from your milk and sell it. Just be sure you know what your state's laws are concerning raw milk and raw milk products.

Another option, if you're truly homesteading a little piece of heaven, is to feed your excess milk (or whey, if you're making cheese) to a pig or backyard chickens. They both love the milk and you can fatten them both out to end up in your own freezer or sell the finished product to your friends.

Something else to consider if you're going to have a family milk cow is bull power. Your cow can't have a calf each year as she should without some sort of bull power.

If you want your own bull, there's the breed to decide upon. (As well as for your cows, too.) We prefer Jerseys. The cows are generally very gentle, will adopt an orphan calf within days, and the milk is high in butterfat, resulting in lots of cream. Now, I never trust a bull 100%, and Jersey bulls are no exception to that rule. But, my experience has not been that any of our Jersey bulls have turned mean, they are just so used to being in close contact with us that they don't think they have to listen and do what we want, but only what they want. Kind of like teenagers.

Another option is AI, or artificial insemination. Lots of commercial dairies use this practice. It's sometimes an easier way if you're concerned about having or keeping a registered herd of cattle, but can also be pricier and time consuming for you. Remember, I'm a hippie. I like things done naturally.

Either way, you should end up with one of these. A baby calf. Our preference is for the calf to be born naturally, without interference from us, out in the pasture. Generally, we don't even know our cows are calving unless we just happen to be in the right place at the right time. And when you get a calf, it's time to start milking! Don't take any away from the calf, though! But, you won't really want to drink the milk for a few days because it's all colostrum, which is the mother's way of passing all those natural antibodies and disease fighting good bacteria to the calf. Since we have more than 1,000 head of cattle on our ranch, we will milk out and freeze the excess colostrum that the calf doesn't suckle for those rare times when we have an orphan calf.

Then you have the dilemma of what to do with the calf. I consider myself a lazy milker. I allow my cows to raise their calves until they're weaning age, usually at least 9 months old. When they're newborn, they don't take all the milk the cow can give, so we share the cow. Once they hit the toddler stage, I start pulling the calf off at night (keeping the cow in a seperate paddock is easier than moving the calf), milking the cow in the morning and then turning her back in with her calf for the day. Once they hit adolescence, I have to pull the calf off earlier in the day, generally around noon. For the teenage stage, I usually keep the cow off for about 3 days in a row, still just milking once a day, and turning her back in with her calf for just a couple of hours once every 3 days. The calf still gets the benefits from the milk, but I can get the majority of the milk. And, if I have to be gone for overnight or longer, I can always turn the cow back in with the calf and no one suffers.

Which brings us to the dilemma of what to do with the calf once he's past the teenage and weaning stage. If it's a heifer calf, she can be added to your milk cow herd, expanding your work, but also your product. If it's a bull calf, he can be kept to breed back to your cow. Ok, I know I'll get slack for that one. Remember the hippie thing? We believe in linebreeding, too. I'm thinking that God implemented some sort of linebreeding a long time ago. There's always the option of the calf being raised for butcher. I know, I know, sounds so cruel. Wait 'til you see the next picture. But, it's a legitimate answer. We try to keep a rule that we never name anything we're going to eat.

Meet Beauregard. Even Taylor agrees that he was mighty tasty.

But think of the educational aspect of keeping a family milk cow. We have hosted thousands of school-age children on our ranch and it always amazes us, even though we are in a rural area and host lots of kids living in rural areas, that so many don't realize where their food comes from. It's great for us to be able to have those kids, and our own children and grandchildren here where they can learn what nature is all about.

This is our granddaughter, Isabel, when she was four years old, helping me milk Fancy Face. She's never forgotten that!

Another thing Isabel's never forgotten and another thing you have to consider is what to do with all that poop from your family milk cow. Being as we have oodles of acres, we ensure that our cows are spreading their droppings throughout the ranch. Since we use no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, anti-biotics, growth hormones, etc., we believe the cow's manure and urine is the absolute best fertilizer around. It's natural!

And where there's poop on organic soils, there's dung beetles! These little guys are amazing. But that's another blog.

I hope I've helped answer some of the questions of having your own family milk cow. I'm sure I've left details out, but there really could be an endless amount of details to be discussed.

Josie, my longest milker

Being a milk maid is a joy and is in essence, an out for me. I enjoy my time with my girls whether in the barn or lying in the field looking at the stars.

Annabelle

I was just chatting with my sister-in-law about our kids and telling her that I don't think anyone is ever truly ready for the blessings and trials of having kids. The same could be said of having cows. It's one of those experiences that you don't really get until you try it.

Pumpkin, my newest addition