Maggie.

Our sweet neighbor Jim came to pick up Boss and Beauty as we finally found another milking cow and bought her. We had a bit of fun getting Boss in the trailer. She turned out to be a bit of a pain as she didn't chase at all. The calf was a wild little thing that scaled a fence as tall as my nose!! Because of this we could not separate them long enough (without a big battle that we weren't sure would be worth it.. putting a halter on the calf.) to get any real amount of milk. So yesterday Jim took them both to auction to be sold today and took Papa out to a local dairy to pick up our new cow. She's a Holstein. Purebred. Papered!! Her birthday is the 21st of August so she was 2 then. She's super tall. And will make Bindy look the half jersey she is. She had never been off their dairy and Papa figures never off concrete. She seems very unsure of herself on dirt. She also moves slow and easy and will GLARE at the chickens but not chase them. When they pulled up she was almost shaking from fright! She seems to be a really calm cow all in all as she was fine and eating in less then 30 minutes. She is like a big calf. Really curious about everything. She loves to see us in the window and has licked the window where she can reach it. Papa got up early to milk her this morning. He was very careful to find out what she's been eating when and then got some of the silage they'd been feeding her to transition her over. She is really mild mannered and sweet. Last night after we'd gone inside she'd come to the window as close as she could get and try and look in. She was very happy when I opened the window and talked to her. That's when I named her Maggie. Her papered name starts with a D and doesn't suit her. This morning the biggest problem he had milking was getting her head in the stanchion. He had to tie a rope to the stanchion door and pull it shut from a ways away because every time he got close she's leave. She had her calf very close to her birthday so has been milking for less then a month. We are hoping she will adjust well to hand milking and this morning was a great sign. She would only pick her feet up, not to kick, but just up slow and then Papa would push it back down. It was interesting watching him milk her as she is so tall. He sat on a 3 gallon bucket to milk instead of a small 6 inch stool. His knees were at right angles and his back straight. He's hands slightly above his shoulders. And the bucket way down there. With Bindy we have to dig a hole to fit the 3 gallon bucket under her. With Maggie we are thinking about putting it on a stool!! The outside of the bucket was a real mess of splattered milk as it's hard to aim when it's so high up. She gave him a full 2 gallons this morning. Which is great as that is what they were getting. I expect the amount will go up. She is very thin which is going to be a challenge. We are hoping that our non grain mix will fatten her up a bit like it did Boss. Boss gained a fair amount of weight her in the short time she was here. What with no competition, all the grass she could eat, and a bucket of sweet stuff every couple days. When she left we could no longer see every bone on her back or shoulders. We are both hoping that Maggie will do the same. Boss was farther into her lactation so it might take longer. I'm watching Maggie out of the window here as I type and she has finally found the bucket of sweets that Papa left for her. She wouldn't really try it this morning but now she really likes it. That is a great 1st step. She'll have a lot of stuff to get used to. Eating grass, chickens, hand milking, children, being out of doors, electric fence, being the only cow on the place til Bindy comes back. She stands in our milking area (our secure pen) and stares out into the yard. She can't keep the awe out of her big black eyes. This weekend is Papa's 3 days off in a row so we are going to slowly let her adjust to us and farm life. I'm planning on being on hand with the camera as she gets to go out on pasture for what is probably the 1st time in her life. I know that lots of dairy farmers now raise their heifers up on grass but Papa took a good look at the farm and just didn't see this guy as one of them. There did not appear to be any outside pens. I find myself feeling like we rescued Maggie from a life of indoors-ment and opened the world up for her. And all because she'd ONLY give 4 gallons a day!! Ah well... we got what we wanted, needed and so did they! And I'm very sure that, we'll give her a bit, she'll fit right in and enjoy farm life. Here she is on grass for the 1st time that we know of. The boys had been feeding her grass the day before and so she knew it was good!!

Here is Maggie trying to crawl in the window. This is NOTHING compared to what she had been doing. That 2x4 you see is holding her back!! Her whole neck was inside at one point. She loves to look in.