Milk! Milk! Milk!

Hi there! It's been a while since I've made a blog and when I was trying to think of what new thing we have brought to the farm, I thought of Brendalynn. If you don't know, Two years ago this spring, we bought a heifer from a local farmer who was selling out. they were a guernsey dairy farm and if you know me, I have always loved guernseys. Our farm was originally a guernsey farm but because of milk prices, we had to extend our breeds to increase milk production. But my heart has always been for guernsey's. I grew up milking them and showing them at our local fair. I knew I never wanted to delete guernsey's from this farm. So, when I heard this farmer was selling out, I knew I had to bounce on one. Not knowing anything about her, we picked her up and brought her to the farm, realizing she was, in fact, CRAZY!!! I wish I was exaggerating. After buying her, we had heard from the the former owners, who we know pretty well, that she had some spunk and fierce to her. Boy were they right. We couldn't get anywhere near her. She had no interest in being man handled. We knew we had it in with her. That fall, we got her bred by having a local breeder come and breed her with artificial insemination. Come to find out that winter, she lost her baby. We went ahead and bred her again that spring and she came back pregnant and was due in December! we were all eager for her to have her baby but we also knew we had a lot of work to do to get her tame. the fall came around and we tried everything to get her to calm down. When we would try and halter break our show heifers for the fair, we would simply put a halter on them and tie them to something for a couple hours which would slowly lead to a day before they would soon calm down. Not Brenda. She broke everything we tied her to. Finally, we had the idea to keep the halter on her and let her roam her pen with it on. This helps her get used to it being on and if she tried to run with it, she would step on the halter and it would slow her down. This got her used to it and by December, she was able to be touched! Not completely tame, but tame enough to get her in the chute to get milked.

December finally came and we were waiting for the arrival of her calf, all of us crossing our fingers and toes it was going to be a girl! On Friday, December 15, my dad noticed that she was dilating, she had mucus and her teats/udder were getting bigger! This was a for sure sign that she was in active labor. Dad stuck his hand up in her and could feel the calf. All seemed great. it was facing the right way, she was dilating but she still had some time before we could get involved. All we had to do now was wait. It was now around 10pm and I got a call from my dad that I needed to come out because they were going to try and pull her out. I got my boots on and headed out there. My dad and husband got the ropes and latched them onto its legs to assist. Brenda had to do most of the work but with her being a first time mom, we didn't want her to birth all by herself. They got its head out and finally the rest of the body came out. It laid their, still. Not moving. Trying everything we could to stimulate this calf, we did it. We swung it by the legs to get gunk out of its nose, we dumped water on its head to shock it. Nothing was working. She had a stillborn heifer. To this day, we have no idea what had happened. Everything went as it should have gone but these things happen.

Thankfully, Brenda is doing great! We have been milking her twice a day and boy, is she giving us the milk! She fills the bucket almost full at every milking. She has come a long way with her stubbornness and she still is sometimes but we sure do lover her and the golden milk she gives us each day.