I'm proud to announce that...
WE'RE EXPECTING!!!
We're expecting a Jersey heifer, that is, in the next few weeks and we're so excited. Her name is Molly and she's 3 weeks old. She'll be weaned a little longer and then make her way over to our house. She's 1/2 Jersey full-size (mother) and 1/2 Jersey mini (father). As we've moved our garden to another area of our yard where it will receive more sun, our back garden area is empty. Because we moved our garden beds, but didn't move the dirt, we have great soil that is getting ready to be planted with wheat grass and some other grass seed that benefits Jerseys. We're scrambling to read up and become "experts" on Jerseys, but excited to get Molly to our house. We won't have milk from her, of coarse, until she calves someday. It'll be approximately 2 years until that time, but we look forward to starting with a baby calf so that she's used to our family and essentially becomes part of our family. The real test will be keeping grass growing in our back yard area where she'll be. To be honest, I'm looking forward to using the manure in our garden.
WE'RE EXPECTING!!!
We're expecting a Jersey heifer, that is, in the next few weeks and we're so excited. Her name is Molly and she's 3 weeks old. She'll be weaned a little longer and then make her way over to our house. She's 1/2 Jersey full-size (mother) and 1/2 Jersey mini (father). As we've moved our garden to another area of our yard where it will receive more sun, our back garden area is empty. Because we moved our garden beds, but didn't move the dirt, we have great soil that is getting ready to be planted with wheat grass and some other grass seed that benefits Jerseys. We're scrambling to read up and become "experts" on Jerseys, but excited to get Molly to our house. We won't have milk from her, of coarse, until she calves someday. It'll be approximately 2 years until that time, but we look forward to starting with a baby calf so that she's used to our family and essentially becomes part of our family. The real test will be keeping grass growing in our back yard area where she'll be. To be honest, I'm looking forward to using the manure in our garden.
Because we live in the city, the fact that Molly is part mini-Jersey works great. Eventually, I'd like to breed full-size, purebred Jerseys, but Molly will be perfect for where we're at now. If we continue breeding Molly, we may be able to eventually breed the "mini" part out of her. Not 100%, but it'll be fun learning.
Although I'd like to be feeding her her mother's milk, it would cost a lot of money since we'd be purchasing multiple gallons of raw milk per day from the dairy. So, we'll do the next best thing by putting her on a powder/supplemental feed, just like infant powdered formula for a baby. She'll be weaned by 9 weeks (approximately) and on hay and some grain.
The kids are very excited and I'm on cloud nine myself! Rob is excited and up to the challenge as well. He definitely likes working with cattle more than chickens or a garden. It's "manly". :)
We'll definately keep you up-to-date on our adventure becoming parents to a sweet Jersey cow. Lots of fun to come.
1 comment:
Sooooo cute! Oh, they are adorable. Good luck on your new venture.
Post a Comment