I guess I should introduce myself.....

[melwynnd]

Hi everyone,

I've been "lurking" about for a while getting a feel for these boards, so it feels as if I know a bit about you all. But it's just occured to me that you don't know anything about me.....

I grew up on a homestead ranch in the Wind River mountains in Wyoming. We kept a herd of 260 Angus cattle as well as horses, pigs, and a Jersey milk cow we called Bossy(origonal isn't it ). It was a wonderful way to grow up and I am sorry I can't give the same experience to my daughter. But I'm afraid the family ranch is pretty much a thing of the past. :no:

So now I have seven acres in the Big Horn Basin, of Wyoming. It's very dry country and everything has to be irrigated. After a hiatus of about 15 years I got two Morgan horses. This lead to chickens, pigs, and finally after a 2 year search, my Jersey/Gurnesy milk cow, Daisy. We do our best to get most of our food from our small place.

I like to sew, garden, take care of animals(obviously), read, and have a small herbal bath products business.

Hmmmmm........I suppose that's pretty much all there is to me

It's nice to meet you all...

Sherry

[Momof8kiddoes]

Welcome Sherry!
Now, I have to know...after two years of searching, where did you finally find your jersey?
Mary F.

[melwynnd]

I actually found Daisy by sheer luck. We are in the middle of beef country, so ANY milk cow is very rare here. There are a few brown swiss, but they are bred beefy here too.

Anyway.....I went to the local livestock auction to find out the price of pigs. I got there a bit early and started reading the notices on the bulletin board. There was a little slip of notepaper that said milk cows for sale. So I took it and called. The guy's name was Frank and he was only 60 mile away. So my daughter and I went down that afternoon to look at the cows. Most of them were pretty scrubby looking, but there was a sweet little heifer. Frank said she was 10 months old and a Jersey/Gurnesy cross. So we bought her for $400 and he actually delivered her for me since he was taking steers to the sale the next week.

Daisy is a very sweet cow now, but she was a holy terror when she was younger. The problem with dairy cows is they are SMART. It makes it hard to keep them in. If was a little hole in the fence........she found it. Dairy calves also have long legs and run very fast! :haha:

I waited until late September to breed her to a BrahmV(sp?) bull so she would be fully two years old when she calved the next June. She had a sweet little black heifer with no trouble(we left for an hour, came back and the calf was already dry :waa: ). So I picked up the calf and carried it to the barn with Daisy following behind. Then I got on one side, my mom on the other and we proceded to milk. I bottle fed the calf for a week. Then put the calf and another on her at night. Two weeks later I threw another bum calf in without even attempting to make it smell like her or anything. She sniffed her and took it for her own. We can put any calf on her at any time. But I don't put calves on her. She gives about 8 gallons a day and calves can be VERY hard on a delicate udder. I bought a milking machine on E-bay last year for $550. Best money I ever spent.

If you'd like to see pictures of Daisy(I'm putting new ones on this weekend) She's at www.sherrysapothecary.com. Click on the Homestead page. She's very pregnant with her third calf. Not supposed to calve until the middle of this month, but the way she's bagging up..she may be a bit early. If it's a heifer, it will be for sale(don't have pasture for another milk cow).


Sherry