it is weaning time for Moose. Moose is an 8 month old steer. Certainly old enough to live off the grass of the land. We have put his mother, Coco, in another field for now, separate from her son.
Poor Moose. What a crybaby! He is not terribly thrilled with the new arrangement. Coco, on the other hand, seems oblivious to the different status. She is getting to munch down on all that nice green grass in our front lawn. And I am getting to milk her in the evening now. What a lot of milk! The evening milk has even more cream than the morning.
Moose is a more efficient milker than I. He can empty Coco out in minutes. Sometimes I get halfway through and want to quit. My hands get sore. The carpal tunnel kicks in and several fingers go numb. I look in the big 3 gallon stainless steel bowl at the half a gallon of milk and am tempted to quit. How much milk do we really need, anyway? Then I think of the cream.
Cows, like humans, have different types of milk at the beginning and ending of a milking session. The first milk is called foremilk. It is watery, high in carbs, great for energy. Think skim milk. The hind milk is where the cream comes in, at the end of the milking session. All that fat leaves a very satisfied calf. Well, at least before yesterday, it left a very satisfied calf. If one stops milking before the udder has been emptied out, the milk will be lowfat. There are many conditions that contribute to fat content in milk, what type of food the cow is eating, breed, mood of the cow(does she let all her milk down or not), and the milker.
I like cream. I like butter. My family adores creamy milk and butter. Soooo, when I look into that bowl of a half a gallon of milk, I keep on pushing on. It really isn't that difficult. If I don't give up I will have a couple of gallons of milk to show for my efforts in the morning and the same thing come evening and enough cream for many cups of coffee and plenty of butter for bread and mashed potatoes. Milking reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures: "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9
Guess I better sign off and skim the milk so we can make some butter. Then I plan on applying that scripture to the housekeeping department.
3 comments:
My gosh you make me tired! Now you're doing your own butter!
We have been ,making butter since last Dec. and it seems like such an easy task, but just adding those extra steps, even though we use a blender, has added a lot of work to the week. Having to knead the butter and wash it and what not...
But it does taste great! And is a little step in the whole self-sustaining lifestyle thing! The girls love doing it, so what I am going to have to do is let them take over that task!
That's funny--I was just telling you about a story I wrote on my blog about cows being weaned and then I read this that you wrote.
You have to work harder to get to the good stuff!
www.GreenerPastures--ACityGirlGoesCountry.blogspot.com
Post a Comment