Charlotte

So back in early spring we said goodbye to our sweet Jersey/Holstein, Honey. She was my like my 5th baby. When times got tough and this momma was stressed, I'd go sit and snuggle with Honey because cows don't cry. I miss her. But she went to a great home and allowed us to buy Miss Charlotte.   Charlotte is a beautiful 5 year old pure bred Brown Swiss. Her demeanor is to die for. So sweet and gentle in nature. Yes, she does have her moments of bratty diva, but for the most part, she makes my morning chores worth it.

We noticed in June that her hooves looked so bad. Completely overgrown and starting to cross, and with the insane amounts of rain, I feared hoof rot. We called all over and finally found a vet with a tilt table that would trim cow hooves. $70 later (ouch!) she was much better. Her hooves naturally cross which is why she was sold off the dairy line. Bad feet can't stand on concrete for long periods of time. She has a good home here.

When we got her we decided we wanted to go ahead and start transitioning her off of grain. Cows don't need it. We aren't requiring some unruly amount of milk from her, so she can eat grass like she was created to do. When her bull calf went to his new home we removed all grain. She did wonderfully and is still a grain-free cow. We dropped her to 1 1/2 gallons 1x/day the last month before we moved. It was just too chaotic to "do stuff" with the milk. Now I'm in the process of bringing her production back up to somewhere around the 3 gallon mark. Our plan for her is to raise calves. Genetic testing revealed she is A1/A2. Eventually we won't rely on her milk for our family directly, but she loved her calf so maybe she'll enjoy being an adoptive momma until she has another baby of her own. We shall see.

We did AI (artificial insemination) Charlotte in July in attempts to get this girl pregnant again. I don't think she took. She's shown too many signs of heat cycles in the past 3 months. I probably should have her vet checked. Hmmmm. Or the big ole black angus bull across the street could kindly jump the fence for me just to make sure.

For now she just provides yummy liquid gold for my amazing family and a few of our current farm critters. She isn't the happiest cow on the block right now because, due to fencing issues, she is in a pen with our goats and heifer eating hay. She does get tied out in the front yard in the evenings some, but it's a big culture shock for her coming from 12 acres of whatever she wanted.

Ta-Ta for now!