Steps to safely handle and store raw milk.And just when your fingers are about to fall off after a 20 minute milking session, back to the grindstone ya go! Having a dairy animal is -yes- a lot of work to milk but rewarding if you can put the milk to full use (cheese, butter, yogurt). You can check out how we prep and hand milk our family milk cow here.Now, lets get this milk to the house!Place a milk filter into your strainer.Place the strainer on your jar and pour the milk into the basin of the … [Read more...] about Handling Raw Milk
Dairy Cow
How to Milk a Cow
This is either going to make you quit drinking milk or buy a cow.This is Barley, our 2nd milk cow on the homestead. She is 5 years old- a 3rd time calving Jersey cow. After milking our first cow, Brie I'm growing to love the challenge of identifying what each cows quirks and preferences are for milking. Brie was very spoiled, demanded grain in her face thee entire time. If you took too long she would kick the bucket. Barley is a pain to move, it's all that hornage, horning up into my back. It'll … [Read more...] about How to Milk a Cow
MEET BARLEY
Getting a new teat job.We had our first milk cow Brie for almost a year. I was SO obsessed with her- such a honey. Great with kids. Deep brown baby fawn eyes. What can I say, I have the hots for blonde bovine. Unfortunately...she ended up being open. Open- means the cow is not pregnant, open uterus & open for bullish business if you know what I mean. I get this question quite a bit- "Do cows always have milk?" The answer is no...just like humans and other mammals, our bodies produce milk to … [Read more...] about MEET BARLEY
Meet Brie
Cut off & Craigslist."Ok, I am separating our joint checking account if a dairy cow even comes close to this farm," says my very approving husband- as if that threat would stop me anyways from purchasing this life changing dairy cow. I grew up on a grain farm in Midwest Minnesota, but I wasn't the average 'live for the county fair type' farm kid. No, I was seriously obsessed with..COWS. It was a physical being that always grounded me and followed me through high school and college...Not to … [Read more...] about Meet Brie