Pre-calving and Hay

In the category of things-I-never-dreamed-I-would-talk-about, my husband and I got into a discussion about whether Christina's udder has drawn up between her legs or whether her tummy is hanging lower.  We almost put her in the stanchion to see where she's at compared to our knees.  In the end, we decided that it was both. 

She is definitely still empty.  The bottom of her udder, just above the teet, is concave.  When she gets full, the bottom will be very concave (my daughter said, "that's a cow, that's gross, yes, she's empty").

The pasture is pretty much done for the season.  Christina and beefy have eaten down the west pasture but the east pasture looks the same.  Daylight has shrunk to 10 hours 7 minutes.  I've read that plants can't grow below a ten-hour day.  It will be February 6th before our day gets back to this level.  Egg production reflects these short days.  It has dropped to about four or five a day.  Yesterday we only got three.

With the pasture grass not growing, we are shifting to hay for the cows.  We've given them hay for a while, but it's been just a supplement.  Now that they depend on hay, it's a new pattern of feeding.

Before we got Christina we bought some hay to have on hand.  Being new to all of this, I talked with the hay people about getting a dairy cow and they recommended a grass hay with some alfalfa in it.  I asked about pure alfalfa and they said that you never give pure alfalfa hay.  When the dairy people arrived with Christina they noticed the hay and said, "that will be fine for when she's dry, but otherwise you'll want pure alfalfa hay."  Dang.  I later found out that pure alfalfa is a problem for horses and you have to be careful with meat cows.  Most people around here have horses or meat cows, but a family dairy cow is rare.  The hay people didn't know as much as we thought.

We've been using that grass hay for Christina while she's dry and we'll continue feeding it to beefy over the winter.  Yesterday we got a load of alfalfa hay.  It was leaning when the guy loaded it and looked pretty precarious when he set it down.  We took pictures, at a distance, before knocking it down.  Each of those bales weighs about 80-90 pounds and they could really hurt you if they fall.  This stack is 88 bales and about 3.5 tons.  With a long 2x4 my husband pushed on the top ones until they tumbled down.  In less than 10 minutes it was reduced to a pile on the ground.  This weekend we'll move some to the cow shed and get the rest stacked nicely and covered with a carport.

Our days are short but still warm.  The average first frost for this area is the middle of October, but it still hasn't arrived.  It's beginning to feel weird to me that the tomatoes are still standing.

It's two weeks until Christina's due date.  We are in discussion of what we'll name the calf.  If it's a boy, we'll call him jerky.  But if it's a girl, we may keep her as a second milk cow and she'll need a good name.  The discussions at the dinner table have been energetic.  So far the debate options have included Clarabelle, Clare, Christine, Katrina, and Annabelle.