Change, Milk Cows, and some Tears

It was an extremely traumatic day for our 3 babies. Cows, I mean. There's more "why" to the story, and if you'll read to the end I will answer that question. Honey, Cassie and Bella (our jersey/holstein and pure holsteins) had their first trailer ride. A good friend of ours brought his 20ft cattle trailer over to help us load. We put the leads on them and his words were "they're some gentle cows. Way easier to load than any cows I've had." Made us feel good.  We've spent a lot of time with them.

We traveled to a vet that I had used once before for a wormy goat. We backed the trailer up to the chute. It was a giant maze that sent them right to a head stall. In they go. They pretty much can't move. It's important that they're immobile during a vet check. The are huge animals. Safety first. Doc did a cervical check, also called palpating. He checked all of their girly parts to make sure they're not only ready to breed but CAN breed. Normally a vet would do this to check for pregnancy, but this was the best thing we could do

because...

Not all heifers are fertile, and we have no birth information on these cows. When boy/girl twin calves are born, the hormones and reproductive tract growth of the female is disrupted. This is called freemartinism, and the poor baby girl bovine can't have babies. Here is where you can learn more. So sadly, a heifer born sterile can only be sent to the freezer once she is grown. Unless you'd like to spend a substantial amount of money on hay to feed her and keep her as a pet, of course. But, doc said they checked out great! There is a blood test that we could've sent for, but we decided to take our chances with the free-martin traits that are present the majority of the time.

While we were there we decided to dehorn them. This was probably the worst part of this visit. Now, before you get all PETA on me, listen. I will say that we should've done this when they were younger. When we got them we had the thought that we wanted them to keep their horns so they can protect themselves against predators, i.e. mountain lions and bobcats that run this area.
We also didn't want to mess with God's divine design. <- I still struggle with this though.

Honey with horns

But, we have now learned that dairy cattle especially can seriously hurt each other with their horns. Even if they're just playing with one another, there can be a huge vet bill to fix a cow that has been gauged by another cow. Reading that, do you know what's coming next? Yup, hard and sharp horns behind a 1,000 lb animal can KILL a person! Our cows are very gentle and tame. VERY! But they are animals, and if those horns go through one of my human babies I will wish I had gotten those horns cut off. These 3 sweeties will nudge me for 30 minutes to tell me they want attention. Sometimes it gets a bit too much, and I'm an adult and they're only 500lbs.We needed to get this done.

Snotty Honey with horns

This process of dehoring was rough. Doc used a "hedgeclipper" type tool. He shaved the hair around their horns and popped those suckers right off. There are nerve endings in their horns, so it bled. A lot. A2 and A3 couldn't handle watching so they went back to the car. A1 was okay. She understood why it had to be done. After we got back to the house we put cotton balls in the holes where the horns used to be. We sprayed some rubber underlining on top. There needed to be a way to cover them while they grew back. If water or any kind of junk found it's way in there we could have an infection on our hands. Once the area has healed we'll take the cotton balls off or they'll fall off on their own. This was not just an idea we came up with. The guy who helped us has been running cattle for 30 years, we'll take his advice.

Taking these horns off didn't feel good to them. They're sore and a little bitter towards us. Hopefully once they heal up they'll forget about the pain. Much like childbirth. Honey's horns gave her so much character, so I do miss them. I have to keep reminding myself that our safety comes first. Why is that so difficult?

Honey No Horns

So, it was a very long day for Honey, Cassie, and Bella. The changes? Other than the obvious? Well, Cassie and Bella are in the market for a new home. I love them dearly, but we don't need them. Cows eat a lot and we aren't going to keep ones we don't NEED. Holsteins don't have enough butter fat in their milk to make the quality butter, cheese, and creamed "stuff" that we want. Honey, being 1/2 Jersey has a better chance. Holsteins also give extremely more milk than other dairy breeds. This is why Holsteins are the primary milk cow for dairy companies. We don't need that much milk. We could use them as nurse cows for beef calves, but we don't need that many cows at one time. Plus, we don't want to/can't feed that many cows at one time.

When Mr. Smash and I made the decision to list them for sale, I cried. No lie. Cried. I bottle fed those 2. (FYI, that's why we won't "just" butcher them). But, that's best for our farmstead. Once we sell them we will be looking for a cow currently in milk or due to calve in the spring.

As for Honey, we have sent off to do some genetic testing on her. We have done much research and have decided to proactively try to get milk for our family from a cow who carries the A2 beta casein protein gene. WHAT THE WHAT???? I could write all about it, but I'm not. If you are interested on what A2 is click here.<--- This link will take you to a fantastic website that explains all about it. And, FYI, the few dairies I've talked to around my area have no clue if their cows have the A2 gene. Check your farm!

So anyway, we will make decisions on Honey when we get the results back. But even then, Honey won't be due to calve til 2016, so waiting for her to freshen (have a baby and give milk) isn't something we want to do. Bring on the milk cow!

There's so much more information out there that we have found and are continuing to find. But, for my city friends who've been asking, that's what's up. That's the change. It's a big thing for us. All of it. I will update when I know.