Oh, No, Ceresone won't!! I actually envy you--I wish it was where I could have a cow--well, maybe not the cow, exactly-But oh, how I wish I had the cream for butter--and could make cottage cheese again like I used to!!(glad I don't have to feed her tho)
But--I guess the horses and chickens will have to contribute to the garden.

I don't think a garden is just plants. Think of her as a large yard ornament or a mower. I like chewed up warm grass breath, but not wild onion breath. I think she needs to go dry in January and have her new calf in March.

Congratulations on the cow and her calf. I think that is a
wonderful purchase. I was raised on a farm and milked cows
and few chickens and etc. You have some beautiful chickens, I like them. Nice farm too.

caroline

My only disappointment with her is.......her butterfat. I won't be able to make butter. Maybe when I change her ration over to the old dairy ration, but I doubt it.

What I need now is a Jersey! I almost bought one last month.

I have made mozzarella and some ricotta, not the best, but I enjoyed it. You will have to tell me how you made your cottage cheese. All the books have you buying different cultures to add. I have made some delicious buttermilk just using store buttermilk for a culture.

To keep this on a gardening theme, I do have a wheelbarrow of her manure collected from the alleyway I keep her in overnight sometimes.

She isn't bred back yet; will catch her next month.

I don't milk her everyday. She has a foster calf and her huge calf to take the milk when I don't need it.

If "things were different" I'd love to have one of the sweet-faced jerseys. Know the kind I mean? not the black-faced ones.
Hard to tell how to make cottage cheese as I did, it's all in the touch, literaly!
Id set a big dishpan of milk out to clabber, real thick, then, I'd take a wooden spoon and cut it up somewhat. Then put it on low heat, stirring once in awhile. Thats where the touch comes in--It has to be heated to just the right point, not rubbery, not too soft. Then, I would pour the entire mass into a clean, old threadbare dish towel, and drain overnight. You'll then have beautiful, white curds (much finer than boughten) add, cream, salt and pepper to taste. Whey goes to the chickens.
And in keeping with gardening, serve it with fresh lettuce, onion salad from your garden, which you fertilized with the waste product from said cow.

Would you believe I still have lettuce! The Buttercrunch has survived 28°; I haven't checked it yet this morning and I have winter bunching onions. I can see where a cold frame could keep you eating lettuce and spinach almost all year long. I just cover this with old paper feed sacks and then a sheet of old greenhouse plastic weighted down with bricks, but only if it is going below 28.

As to the cheese, I think you are absolutely right. It is in the touch and that will just take time and experience. I just got another gallon that the calf didn't take so I am going to do something with it, maybe the whole-milk ricotta.

I've never made my own cheese. I'm impressed! Our family uses a lot so I should try it sometime. One of the best tips I've ever gotten was to keep SHREDDED cheese in the freezer. It keeps a long time and if it's chilled when you put it in there, it won't clump together at all. We add it to frozen pizza before cooking and the kids use it to cool their foods down. It works great to cool down spagettios. I use it for everything. My kids love Italian and Mexican dishes and I'm generous with cheese. I stock up when it's on sale and stick it in the freezer and never have to worry about it molding.

I think I have only milked a cow once in my whole life! We had beef cattle growing up and had a small lot behind our house where we sometimes kept bottle calves (holsteins) that we bought from dairy farmers. We also raised a few that were orphans from our own cattle. We never had a milk cow though. I'm sure my dad had to milk cows when he was growing up but maybe it was something that he didn't enjoy.

Do you have pics of your milk cow? It would be nice to have her somewhat close to the house this winter when you get out to milk her. Will you have to venture very far through the snow?

Have you posted pics of your coldframe?

I am glad you don't have to milk everyday; that changes everything. I have been coldest dealing with cows. Is a milking shorthorn red or roan? I'd like to see her picture. We used to have registered Jerseys. They had names of course and were pets. My relatives in Kansas made butter from Holstein milk, so are you sure you are separating all your butterfat?

There is just about 2inches or less on a half gallon wide mouth canning jar. I think it would just take too long to accumulate enough. Now if I were milking daily, I could probably get enough.

She is a red with some white but her calf is a road.

I think this link will take you to some pictures of both and also the new calf (a twin not accepted) she is fostering.

Here is a link that might be useful: Compost Machine named Willow

christie, I posted a link to a photo album showing the cow.

I should have been clearer about the cold frame....I don't have one! This lettuce is just planted in a couple of 3 foot rows in the garden that I cover up. I never even got around to using the bales of hay around it.

My cow is just west of the house and at night I leave her in the alleyway by the barn where I milk her and where the foster calf is housed. I have lights in the barn and am out of the wind so I don't mind milking at all. Also, the cow is very warm and she warms your hands up while milking.

I should proof read....the above should be roan not road.

She looks like a nice cow and the calf is beautiful. I think you are better off with a big cow because if she has a bull calf it will be worth more. If you get tired of milking she can raise beef calves. I like the chickens. My mother used to order chicks one or two of each kind. We had chickens with feathers on their heads, big mild roosters with feathers on their feet, beautiful little roosters that would come stomping sideways. I know they have to raise thousands crowded in a building to feed the nation, but it really is a shame that chickens don't get to act like chickens anymore. Moses the red cochin sat down by our concrete yard ornament chicken and was "talking" to it. I ordered brown leghorn pullets and somehow there were 3 or 4 of the meanest roosters in the bunch. I had purple bruises on the back of my legs and they almost killed Isaiah the black cochin; that was the end of them.

Thanks Glenda. We've had one night that got down to 15 and about the same last night. I'm surprised that covering it would be enough. That's good to know.

The farm where you are now used to be a dairy farm right? You're much more set up for that kind of thing than we would be. I need a little mini milk cow to keep in my fenced back yard. lol

christie, yes it was an old-style dairy and we started dairying in 1993 and milked until 2004. I am not using those facilities for my cow though. All you need is an open fronted shed with a feed trough and something you can tie her up to.