New arrivals

**Odilia** · 09-20-2007, 12:23 PM

The first of our 3 milk cows calved this week! Clara is a Milking Shorthorn. The heifer calf was sired by a red Simmental bull. The little bull calf is a Holstein we're fostering on Clara. Clara was our first family cow, and she is a horrid kicker. I prefer letting her raise foster calves and milking our sweet Jersey cow.

The kids named the calves Sally Mae and High Loper. They're big Hank the Cowdog fans...LOL!

Sally Mae will join the herd, and Loper is destined for the sale barn or our freezer.

Our 2nd Milking Shorthorn is looking close to calving. I wish our Jersey would calve. Her due date is the 24th, so even if she goes late, it won't be much longer.

**Missy** · 09-20-2007, 12:28 PM

omg! calves are so cute!!

**sdrjeolsen** · 09-20-2007, 03:12 PM

They are so cute. I used to raise cattle when I lived on our farm in Nebraska, its how I paid my way through college.

So if the Jersey's calf is a heifer, will you keep it?

**YankeeMom** · 09-20-2007, 03:25 PM

They are adorable!!

**Odilia** · 09-20-2007, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by sdrjeolsen

They are so cute. I used to raise cattle when I lived on our farm in Nebraska, its how I paid my way through college.

So if the Jersey's calf is a heifer, will you keep it?

I'm not sure. Her last calf was a purebred Jersey heifer, and we're keeping her. We'll breed her to calve spring 2009, so she and the mama Jersey are calving 6 months apart, and we can have milk year-round.

This calf will be 1/2 Simmental. It may make too much milk for just a brood cow, and we sure don't need another family milk cow. If we can find someone who wants a family milk, we'll probably sell a heifer calf. A Simmental/Jersey cross would be a great family cow. As a kid, we milked a purebred Simmental for our family. We had several milk cows over the year, and the Simmental was a really good one.

I'm kind of hoping our Jersey will have a bull calf, so we don't have to figure out what to do with a heifer...LOL!