T-Rex

This post should begin with a comment about how much Theo loves T-Rexs. Loves, loves loves them.

We went to move the cows one day during chores and PB, the friendliest one, wouldn't move. She's a bit of a pig and loves to eat, so it was surprising she wasn't interested in a new pasture. Turns out, she had just given birth and had tucked her calf in the brush to rest. We quickly found him and Theo quickly named him T-Rex.

When we walked up to the barn to get the calving supplies (iodine, the notebook, scissors etc), we found PB eating the placenta. Remember this post? The meat falling from the sky? Well we found out later that that was also placenta, picked up by vultures and dropped on yours truly. We were very glad to see that PB had gotten to hers before anything else could.

We tagged his ear with number 5, which he didn't enjoy too much.

And Theo cut his umbilical cord.

All in a day's work! T-Rex is now frolicking happily with the other calves, though he's the only black one so he's always easy to spot.

It's Summer!

Summer is officially here! See that tomato? It's this tomato. I took this picture yesterday and today it was ripe! And I ate it! And Emily ate one! We officially had tomatoes on the 29th of June which is ridiculously exciting. Too bad we ate all the ripe ones and will probably have to wait a few days to have any more.

Also, our first calf was born last night! I'm going to try to take a picture soon but it's pretty hard to find calves since their moms are so good at stashing them away to hide. Apparently it's pretty cute, though.

Our Flerd!

We've decided to try multi-species grazing and have introduced our flock of sheep to our herd of beef cows to make a flerd. So far they seem to be getting along quite well, though that mainly means ignoring each other. There was, however, one lamb that kept follow the cows around bleating while they ignored her. I don't think they know what to make of each other and are more focused on the tasty clover in their pasture.

Pride's a Mom!

Pride had her calf! And even she can't believe how big her udder is. When I took this picture he was less than a day old.

Green green and green again

The clover we seeded has germinated!

We put the cows and sheep out to 'top graze' which means they go quickly through all our fields and chow down on the new grass. They're happy and the clover is happy since it gets more light. We're happy that the animals are so clearly over the moon (get it? cow? over the moon?).

And our veggies are all grown up and moving to the fields! We've been transplanting and seeding and discing and bed shaping. Spring is so exciting here! It was strange to get here in the fall and finish up another group's crops. It's been really nice to see the start of the process.

Hay

All that hay for 20 days. Amazing how much cows will eat. And how they'll turn that into delicious meat and poop.

Betsy and Olivier have a bet going that we won't run out of hay. Even though we ordered this, Olivier is technically winning since we still have some of our own in the loft. Hopefully this will turn out better than the time Betsy bet Justin he wouldn't make it down to Virginia before midnight and charged him a nickel for every fifteen minutes he was over.

Jersey: The Dramatic Cow

I apologize for the poor quality of this picture, but it's worth pointing out that Pride, our dairy cow was thrashing around so much it was impossible to get a good shot. Our vet, Dr. Ledeoux, was showing us how to give an IV which is an important skill for a farmer when the vet is either too far away or unavailable. We tied Pride's halter to a post and he put a small needle in her jugular. All hell broke loose.

I admit that getting shots is not the greatest thing in the world. However, it's not as bad (I imagine) as being eaten alive by rampaging tigers, which is how Pride was acting. She immediately dropped to her knees and, hanging by her halter, began to flail around as if she was dying.

Dr. Ledeoux assured us that this was completely normal behavior for a Jersey and something about their breeding causes them to put on a show like this.

Also...

Also, this happened. I'm refering to the part about spraying molasses all over the grass. Lee, my fellow farmer friend, is blogging as well. She, however, can add captions and borders to her pictures, making them look much cooler. I'm very jealous.

Our Own Starbucks

Emily, Kiyoshi and I woke up early to be ready to start milking at 6:30 this morning. After bringing Pride, our dairy cow, in from the field, we set to work. Milking is incredibly difficult to do quickly when we have little to no experience so it take us over an hour between getting everything set up and finishing. During that time, we were hankering for a pre-breakfast coffee so I popped into the house for two mugs. What better than filling the rest of the cup with steaming warm milk? We found out that if you add enough quick enough, it froths at the top and tastes better than anything a coffee shop could make. We're getting rather spoiled with our fresh milk supply. We even had a chicken come in to supervise.

The Great Calf Escape

We were minding our own business weeding and reading beds for the last planting of the season when we all looked up to two calves romping across the not yet harvested crops. Not so good. We had heard plenty of stories about animal escapes, some funny, some that I hope never to repeat, and we jumped up from the dirt to chase after them. For the first escape of our year here, it was quite anticlimactic. The calves acted like teenagers caught doing something they knew was wrong and hurried back under their fence to their pasture. We found where the fence had shorted out, aiding their path to freedom. Patrick, who had been overseeing our planting assured us that the animals aren't that easy every time so I'm equally nervous and excited to see what all these cows/sheep/pigs/goats have up their sleeves.