June 19, '09

I thought I would get started keeping everyone up-to-date on the cows... We currently have 31 and Sh'mayim our Milk cows. 31 is due in August and we are drying her off now. She is being milked every other evening and giving about 2 gals a milking. Sh'mayim is being milked daily. She is giving about 2 gals a day and we are putting her calf on after milking to help increase production.

Our management style takes into account that we have 2 cows and we take Shabbat off. So on Friday mornings we milk then put the calf on for the Sabbath. Take the calf off after Sabbath on Saturday night and milk again Sunday morning. This helps keep the calf healthy and improves the milk production.

We also have 2 steers. Hamburger is slated for the slaughter house on Tuesday the 23rd. We look forward to meat in the freezer. Roast will be ready for slaughter next winter. We have a bull calf that is not quite a year. We hope to use him for breeding when he gets big enough. We have a 4 month old bull calf from Sh'mayim that is still growing. We plan to steer him soon. We use an elastrator to steer the calves.

I hope you will enjoy the installments as I keep you updated on the activities here at the farm.

Christie