Papa and I have the only 100% grassfed dairy cows in our area, that we know of. Probably the only one in the northern half of our Province. There was one about 6 hours from us several years ago but we aren't sure if it's still running. Most people don't believe that Holsteins can survive our winters without lots of grain and a barn (and we have neither!) and you'd be amazed at their reactions when they see our 'fat' holsteins. BTW we think Maggie is FAT, MOST farmers who see Isabel think she is the fattest Holstein they've ever seen... until they see Maggie :) In fact Maggie is so fat we think it might be hindering the AI attempts. I took these pictures this morning.
Isabel, above, is 6 months into her lactation. Her calf Ivan was born a few days before Christmas. She's giving about 12 gallons of milk a day average. Some days it's more. The pigs and chicks are loving the extra milk :) Until we got the chicks I made cheese almost every day for several weeks. The milk production went up with the arrival of green grass and we scrambled for a bit to find something to do with it, besides feed it to the 17 littler pigs who love it. (I say Littler because they are really not that little anymore! Most of them are around 175lbs with several of them 200lbs.)
Maggie's calf Milton was a year in March so she's been milking for 15 months. She's still giving about 4, 4.5 gallons a day. We'll probably dry her up after chick butchering, IF the last AI attempt worked, until then her milk is going into the meat birds.
