Keeping a family cow. For real.

     About 6 years ago I met a miniature cow.   That was when the seed was planted.  I started talking about wanting a cow.  Sometimes, I would talk about it just to annoy my husband but other times I was really pondering if it was something we should consider.  I started asking more questions and doing more reading.  First thing was to sort through the myths of keeping a cow as well as making sure the information gathered was based on actually keeping a homestead type cow vs. industrial dairy cow.

     Books by John Seymour were extremely helpful and the most practical of all the books.  Yes, the other Family Cow books were very helpful but not as practical for someone that just wants to keep a cow or two not run a cattle business.

     So fast forward a few years and I make contact with our local lady who specializes in homestead specific cows.  Not Big-Wall-Of-Meat cows.  Not miniature cows either because they aren't that practical.  No.  These are heritage cows or crosses.  She listened to me and understood what I was looking for and what my personal fears and concerns were.  Did I say fear?  Yes.  Fear.  Big animal that could run me down or gore me.  So she was breeding me a specific cow.  A Dexter and Jersey cross called a Belfair.  The size and efficiency of a Dexter, the milk and cream of the Jersey.  Efficiency is important.  Nobody needs a cow that will eat more than she gives.  Heritage breeds excel at this.

     Now I have to convince my husband that this is a good idea.  I'm not going to bore you here with the ins and outs of all the reading I did, or the history of my family and food allergies and looking for ways to healthfully feed my family or the ways to be self-sustaining.  I will tell you that part of my research did include considering dairy goats and what I found was that while in a pinch I can see them as being good options, for the long term and not pinched, we do not really prefer goat milk or meat.  It does not pay to invest in something that you will never really love.  What I did was make a loaf of fresh bread, smeared it with fresh (I had just made it) butter and handed it to him.  He did not put up much of a fight.  No fight at all actually, one bite and he agreed, we need a cow.

     I did, just as I did with the alpacas, go spend time with my friend and her cows.  I learned how to milk.  I asked a lot of questions.  Two years ago we brought Zoey home.  She calved the following May and the real test began, milking daily.  Well, not exactly because she has a calf and that was part of the selling point of keeping a family cow.  If I am unavailable to milk I can just leave the calf with her and there is no issue other than not having milk in the house.

     Now this brings me to the part of the story where I recall people being concerned, many years ago, that I was buying 12 acres and "What was I going to do with all that land?"  and I replied, "Anything I want."  Later I was asked, "What was I going to do with alpacas?" and now the question, "What are you going to do with all that milk?" and, "Nobody needs that much milk."  To the people who questioned me, I am just glad that I do not have your lack of imagination.

     First of all, because I am sharing the milk with the calf, it's not more than I can deal with and second even now while I am cow sitting for a cow that does not have a calf on her we are by no means unhappy with our glut of milk.  This brings me to the meat of this post, what DO I do with the milk?  Is keeping a family cow worth it?

      The answer is simply YES.  In fact right now I am feeding three cows.  One, Hannah, is just here temporarily, Zoey, and her calf, who is 17 months old now.  Roughly 8-10 flakes of alfalfa a day.  Zoey is due with calf #2 next month and Hannah, is a Jersey in milk.  Alfalfa is currently $12/bale as long as you buy direct and not from a feed store.  I get about a gallon a day.  Grass fed, non-pasteurized milk, last I checked is $12.75.  From two day's milk I can collect about a quart of cream.  Sometimes this is turned into ice-cream or caramel but most of the time I turn it into butter.  It yields about 1/2 a pound.  A pound of raw, lightly salted butter is $11.00*.  From the buttermilk collected after churning the butter I add three tsps. yeast, 2 tsps sea salt and enough flour to make an elastic dough.  Buttermilk bread with no sugar or additives.  A large loaf of buttermilk bread is??? $4-5.  Yogurt is also a favorite around here.  We prefer the whey drained from ours and a half gallon of milk yields about three pints of yogurt.  Today we made our first soft crumble cheese.  I am excited to sprinkle it over tonight's salad.

Yogurt, out of the thermos and into the strainer.

      When Zoey was in milk I did not get quite the same yield as I get from Hannah.  That may be different this next time around since last time was her first baby and they are different breeds.  Hannah definitely has a higher feed need.  But you can see that the cost of feeding these cows is much less expensive than buying (assuming you can in some states) quality dairy and bread products.  Also, keep in mind that Zoey's calf from last year will be next springs harvest, so some of that feed cost is going into next springs meat.  All this plus you know where it's coming from, and what it was fed, and you are directly responsible for it's quality of life.  If you are a label reader and you could write your own label for your food and know that it is the truth, this is the ultimate.

     All of this does assume that you have the time to make all this but it doesn't all happen every day and some of it doesn't require much direct supervision.  The butter, I pour in a food processor, turn it on and walk away. While it's spinning I start the yogurt on the stove. The Yogurt, once you bring it up to 180 degrees and hold it there for 15 minutes, you cool it back down to 108, add your culture, put it in a thermos and forget about it for a day.  We drain it after that, which is our preference, but you don't have to.   When the butter separates you will hear a distinct watery noise from your food processor.  Strain the buttermilk from the solids and put the liquid in your mixer.  Rinse your butter under cold water and let it continue to drain.  Add your yeast and salt to the buttermilk in your mixer and mix in flour with the dough hook until it is elastic and not sticking to the side.  Knead by hand into a ball and place in a bowl to raise.  This will take an hour or so and now is when you clean up, add salt to your butter and "squadge" it, as John Seymour would say. When most of the liquid is squished out, put the butter in a mold or container.  I freeze our extra so that there is butter when milk is not as available.
      When the dough is double you can punch it down and place it in your bread pan for a second rise.  When it's double again bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  This is great bread for sandwiches, or just toast. 

Cream in the food processor

butter solids separate

Strain out the buttermilk

press into molds and chill

buttermilk dough

     There you have it.  Milk, butter, yogurt, and bread.  That's not even touching cheese if you are so inclined.   That's what you can get with your own cow.

buttermilk bread

Now for the REAL.  

     She will not always be in milk and you will still have to feed her.  Just keep in mind the lovely beef from the calf one day.  If, at all possible, you might work out an arrangement with another local dairy cow owner to be in milk while your gal is dry.  That would keep the two of you in milk most the year long.
     You will be milking mostly once a day to keep production up.  It will rain, or wind, or snow on you but this is true of all livestock.  I don't recommend just jumping in with cows if you are not already acclimated to farm life.
     Cows are masters of the passive aggressive.  They can be stubborn and willful like a two year old.  Temperament of your dairy cow is important because they don't always want to be milked and it takes time and training to get her to a routine of behaving herself.  She will still pick up her foot and knock over your hard worked for milk pail and yes, you do cry over spilled milk.  IF she does it too often the term Kicked The Bucket will take on a whole new meaning for you.  When you are not ready for it she will lift her tail and defecate.  That's a special kind of passive-aggressive because you can't really yell at her for it.  Sometimes milking just stimulates that.  But I would be lying if I didn't tell you that sometimes I'm sure she does it on purpose.  There is also the flicking of the tail.  It seems so casual, natural even, but the third or fourth time she has slapped you with it you will realize there's more to it than that.  You can tie up her tail and she will learn.  Just like that willful two year old, she can be disciplined.

     There is much to consider, as with any livestock, before you commit to it.  I am here to say that six years later after really thinking about it I am a very happy cow owner.  Zoey is a great cow.  I was fortunate to get her while she was young and be part of her training so now even though she out weighs me and has horns we have an understanding.  Much like training our LGD's when they are small so that when they are bigger we have good manners, cows are very much the same. 

      Not much is needed in the way of equipment for milking.  You can strain using one of the reusable coffee filters but when you do decide to invest in more permanent equipment I recommend www.shenandoahhomesteadsupply.com

Are you interested in trying?  Cricket Bishop will work with you and even offers "leases" so that you can try this lifestyle without the full "I bought the cow" commitment.  

*prices based on OrganicPastures.com