Day 24 with Clara the Dexter milk cow...

I had a hard time sleeping the night Clara kicked me over. I was pretty sore. She made a direct hit on my wrist and arm and let's face it, a 700# cow, cow kicking you over with a direct hit on your wrist is painful. So was falling over backward on a metal stool...

I'm not scared of Clara. We have horses, we have sheep and we have big dogs - I've been kicked before, well not a direct hit on the wrist, but I've been pretty beaten up by the hair kids from time to time. Years ago a horse kicked my front teeth out while pitching a fit. I've been through a bit of drama over the years living on a farm.

Clara is an easy fix~~~

Day 23 with Clara the Dexter milk cow - October 21st~~~

So, the first week I let Clara and her steer calf get settled in. I spent a lot of time with them, but I didn't have a stanchion to try milking her and as was relayed in the previous posts about Clara, I was calf sharing with her steer calf Billy, so I didn't have to milk her right now. He was doing all the milking for me for the first little bit which was perfect...

The second week, my husband made me a stanchion and the milking began. Aside from the delay getting Clara up on the stanchion and the circus getting her calf penned off of her to get any milk, I was starting to milk out 3/4 gallon for home use. It was going great. I was penning Billy at night, so I could get the morning milk. Clara was kind of working into a routine and it was getting easier. Then, it started to get cold at night and Clara started to hold back her milk. She was only giving me 2 cups now. No matter how hard I tried to get more milk, it wasn't happening and I was changing schedules milking in the morning and at night trying to get more...

The third week... October 21st~~~
October 21st is a day that will live on in infamy at our farm...

My first two weeks milking Clara the Dexter milk cow...

When I first got Clara I thought I was going to have to ‘Force my Love on her” for a period of time to get her to trust me, or to come to me, or to be around me. I guess I took for granted the possibility that maybe a person could get a cow that liked them from the beginning~~~

Clara was so 'Not' afraid of me, so much in fact that she started to “Force her Love” on me immediately…

What happened during the first month I owned a Dexter milk cow...

So, my first few weeks with my sweet Dexter milk cow "Clara" were nearly ideal.
Could it be that she was the perfect milk cow?
Could I really be this lucky?

I spent time with her in the pasture the first week just talking to her and letting her know that I wasn't a threat. She would come to me if I put a little sweet feed in her bucket. Even if she was clear across the pasture, she would walk over to me.
I felt so victorious and it was so short lived...

Are you sharpening it for later?

Considering how last week went with Clara, my new milk cow, "Are you sharpening it for later" makes perfect sense to me. When the previous owner told me she was "Head Strong," he didn't mean her sense of fashion~!

We bought a Dexter milk cow...

She's five years old...

She came with a 6-month-old steer calf and she's bred back to a registered dexter bull and due on April 20, 2020. I picked a milk cow with a calf on her deliberately, because I want to "Calf Share." 

Calf sharing means that you only take some of the milk and leave the rest for the calf. To calf share, you pen the calf from the cow for a 12 hour period. You milk the cow and then turn the calf back in with the cow to finish emptying the udder. Then, you leave the calf with the cow for 12 hours and then you pen the calf again and start all over. Sounds easy right? 

LOLOLOL

~~~~ Sure~~~~ 

We'll get to that part in another post...

Clara the dexter milk cow...

Clara Belle... 

Clara is a little 5-year-old Dexter milk cow we brought home on September 28. Clara is only about 40" tall but weighs about 700#. She's as big around as she is tall. She's pregnant with a delivery date of April 20, 2020. 

We acquired Clara with her little steer calf on her that was born in April of this year. His name is Billy. Billy is a cute little guy. He is a full bred Dexter. He prefers children to adults because he had previously lived with 5 children and they spent a lot of their time showing him affection. Our Grandson's don't mind showing Billy lots of attention either...