Name: Cookie D.O.B: 7/4/07 Origin: Daughter to Fluffy
This is Fluffy’s first calf and she’s very protective. Cookie is a bit bow legged and wobbly on her feet so it’s going to take a bit more attention and care to make sure she gets enough exercise to correct this small imperfection. She’s also shown herself to be an escape artist and likes to bust out and run around the barn.
This video was taken only a few hours after her birth. Her mother had already cleaned her off and she’s settling in well. Still trying to figure out the whole standing thing though…
Name: Gladys (aka Smokey) D.O.B: 7/1/07 Origin: Daugher to Black Jersey, sister to Jersey. Because her mom is a Black Jersey (the result of a jersey/holstein breeding) and she was bred to a jersey bull, she came out a bit of a smokey gray-brown (thus the nickname).
Name: Flinger D.O.B - Origin - Daughter of Susan, Dam of Half & Half, and Slinger, granddam to Daphne
This is Flinger, who is sometimes referred to as “The Flinger.” The story behind her name is actually quite simple, each night as she comes in from the field, she runs to her stall, hops up in, grabs a mouthful of feed and flings it up to the ceiling.
She kind of keeps to herself…unless there are apples around. Darcy made the mistake last summer of taking a bag of apples out into the field to give as a treat to some of the cows. The next she knew she was backed into a corner and surrounded by cows. Flinger was one of them, and even came up to Darcy and started nosing into the pocket of her jacket looking for the apple she just knew Darcy was holding out on her.
Thankfully Legs is nothing like her mother, temperament-wise. She’s a bit of a “nervous” cow, but not mean. She’s also one of the very top milkers in the barn. She got her name after her really long legs, which make her one of the tallest cows in the barn. She gave birth to Knees last summer, who shows the potential to be one of the biggest and best cows coming up in the future. (With the exception of Molly of course.)
Name: Jersey (Creative, we know) D.O.B.: Unknown Origin: Daughter of Black Jersey. Dam to New Jersey.
Like her mom, we’ve taken to just calling her by “Jersey.” She’s a nice little cow, a bit timid, but curious like her mom. She couldn’t be bothered to stand up when we came with the camera.
This is a crotchety old beast. She’s just plain mean. She’s in the first stall of the barn, and if you walk by, keep an eye out - she’ll try to wack you with her head! If she can’t hit you with the top of her head, she’ll try to spear you with her nose. (Thus her name.) Failing that, if you go beside her, watch out for the tail, which she likes to keep wet and messy!
We got her as a bargain buy from a much bigger farm. Despite the fact that she gives a ton of milk, they decided she wasn’t worth the hassle…especially when she had hurt someone.
She’s gotten older, and a bit slower, while still being a great milker. We’ve been putting her outside this spring and she’s been behaving herself…for the most part!
It finally feels like spring with the weather warm (it was in the 80’s this week) and the green growing thick. Here’s a look at one of our fields
This is also to be the house lot for Bruce Jr and his wife Darcy - third generation members of the Red Oak Hill Farm.
Here’s another angle of that field:
We’re looking to have the house built up here by the end of the year. This will allow us to help out more on the farm and be here if we’re needed for anything.
Molly is growing like a weed…we hope to have more pictures of here up here soon.
Spring is finally here and the snow is starting to melt. The list of things to do to get ready for the summer is a mile long. We’ve had a few births in recent months but only one heifer (See Daphne) who is a cutie. Winter was long as usual and the cows are anxious to get out again. Before we do that, we have to make sure that the fences are all secure and the path to the pasture is firm enough for them to walk on. Unfortunately we also lost Gidget. She had banged up her leg and the infection spread into her muscles. We did our best to help her heal but in the end, we didn’t want her to suffer so it was best to have her put down. Molly is still a piggy and growing more every day.
