A New Farm Baby

Two years ago, on my husbands birthday (he was ecstatic, or maybe not, but we can pretend), I finally got my wish and brought home my Jersey cow Ginger and her adopted calf. I had been casually browsing the livestock section of a local sale site when I ran across her and just knew that girl had to be mine.

So here I was with this 10 gallon per day milk cow, and have never milked a cow in my life!! I seriously had to have lost my mind. We had to cancel our family vacation, and park our camper for the year because mom went and got a dairy cow. I chased this cow around the pen trying to milk the best I could, who knew it would be so hard!! Eventually, she turned into a nasty little thing and I had to call my mother-in-law and husband in to help get this cow milked out. Yeah, that went well! Everyone talks about the wonderful milk, butter, cream, ice cream, cheese and the list goes on... but no one ever mentions just how nasty these cows can be! Also, my first glass of fresh milk tasted like a barn, ugh! I spent my whole first week crying, but being the determined person I am, I wasn't going give up. My MIL is amazing and got my husband to build me a stanchion, we ordered a milk machine and in a week we were on a roll. Then I realized this cow was also very bossy, go figure!! So I threw together my first fencing job and fenced a "run" to the shed. Smooth sailing from there! Oh, and no more barn milk!

Fast forward to the fall, we weaned our milk sharing calf and Ginger dried herself off immediately. We ran her through a round of AI and waited. Come December, Ginger went down, the first vet we called pretty much said she was a goner. Our second vet entertained my hope and did what she could. We kept her fed, watered and warm, and I cried as she laid her head in my lap, praying for a miracle. Ginger was down for two weeks when I had walked out and she was trying to stand. Over the next several weeks she gained her strength and became the stubborn ole cow she had always been. Needless to say, with the steroid injections, if her AI took there was no way it held.

Late last summer, we were offered to put her in the pasture with a neighboring herd of cattle. Of course she is the only dairy cow in the area and was talk of the country side. Everyone was wondering who the crazy person was with a haltered Jersey cow, the perks of living in beef country. All winter I watched her for signs of pregnancy and in May had determined she looks pregnant but was told we had several weeks. Nope!! One day Ginger had been MIA all day so I walked out to check on her and there she was with a CALF!!! We welcomed a new baby to the farm and it has been a crazy, busy month! Meet our new girl Daisy!