Milk!

We have another cow on the place today.  Our landlord is wintering over several hundred dairy cows from farms near Culverden (122 cows are here).  Ninety percent of New Zealand dairy farms are seasonal, meaning all the cattle calve in about August and are dried off in May, and most are trucked away from their home farm and grazed elsewhere over the winter to give the home farm a rest.  Our landlord planted oats after the wheat was harvested, and the cows are given a small strip every day.  This one cow had her calf at least a month earlier than she should have, and of course it died.  She bagged up, though, so they offered that we could milk her till the herd goes home. That will keep her in milk for the farmer and give us more milk! Our own cow is still in milk, but not producing a lot, so this is good timing.  The cow arrived here at 11:00 this morning, and I milked her immediately.  We got 10 liters of colostrum!  Now I’m trying to figure out how to use it.  I found a couple of intriguing recipes here and here and here.  We’ll see how many I actually get around to trying.  Looks like, if we want to try the Indian recipes I’ll have to find some cardomom; wonder if the little local supermarket has it?

I think I’m a farmer at heart, and that cows are my favorite animal.  Also, I  look at things around me with the thought of whether we can get food from them!

She stood very still while I milked, although she has likely never been hand-milked before.  She has lovely big teats!

This cat showed up while we were milking–looks as though it wants to move in.