To cow or not to cow?

John Seymour stated that the first question on a small homestead should be "To cow or not to cow?" and in his opinion a cow was an invaluable asset to the small homestead. Rosie and I have recently found our cow, a 3/4 mini Jersey named "Brown Cow". I have posted an image of Brown Cow and some of the great things she has given us in her short time on the homestead. Top left is a pound of butter we just made, followed by the proto-butter. We where able to use my great grandmothers old butter churn to make our butter and I can only hope she was looking down on us with a smile. The next image is one days milk, about 6 gallons. Then a image of Brown Cow followed by our fridge full of milk to bursting after the second day of milking. So far Brown Cow is amazing, she produces more milk in one day than our goats do in a month. Tomorrow will be all about making cheese, yogurt and more butter as we hold a series of classes on what to do with our new windfall of milk.

Now on the other hand, cows are a very expensive commodity; the cost of the animal its self can run into the thousands depending on the breed and the cost of food can be almost as high. Our little cow eats about 1 flake of oak hay and one flake of alfalfa a day plus a little grain and that is on top of the grass she lives on. I have heard horror stories of a Swiss Brown (large dairy cow breed) that ate an entire bale of hay a day plus 25 lbs of grain while in milk! Also cows deposit a lot a manure (up to 15 tons a year) and if you are unable to deal with that much manure it can be a big smelly mess (for us it will be much needed soil amendment).

So far Brown Cow has been a great boon to our home and our life style, we shall see what the future holds for us and for her.