My First Family Milk Cow Has Arrived on the Homestead! My First Day With Gracie, Our Dairy Cow!
I can't believe it! After six months of considering, deciding, dreaming, preparing, anticipating and fighting my nerves, I am the proud owner of a family milk cow! I've never had my own cow before, let alone a dairy cow. Research can only get me so far, now it's time to roll up my sleeves and put in the work to learn. Just to add to the fun, we got an adorable little bull calf, named Jake who we will raise for beef.
I am so thankful for the opportunity to have fresh milk for my family, to make all of our own dairy and start raising beef!
This is a dream that couldn't have happened without the support of my husband, Matt. He goes along with all my crazy ideas and supports me every step of the way. I couldn't ask for more!
Stay tuned to watch more adventures raising cows, processing dairy and providing farm fresh food for my family!
#homesteading #milkcow #dairy #cow #calves #rawmilk #handmilking #beginners
Пікірлер: 30
wonderful cow
Good Luck with your new cows .
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
Thank you! 😊
So happy for you with the new cow
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
Thank you! I'm so excited to have them!
Congrats on the new calf!!! A gallon a day, you can make a ton of cheese 🧀!
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
Yes! I feel pretty comfortable with butter and ice cream. My yogurt needs some improvement, but cheese is pretty intimidating! I might try my hand at it this weekend :)
@l0I0I0I0
Жыл бұрын
@@littleladyhomestead I know what you mean about cheese 🧀. I saw a few YT vids on making my favorite, mazzarella! It looked pretty easy actually. I plan to buy milk locally and try to make some myself. I'll let you know if it comes out well. It may be a few months however.
We can see how excited you are!!!!!
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
Yes, they have been amazing!
I don’t know the first thing about cows but Gracie sounds a bit vocal. 😆
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
Haha, yes! At least the least two days she has been. I think she misses her cow family :( hopefully when we get the second calf and they become more active, they'll keep her busy enough to not be lonely.
So exciting!!!!!!
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
Yes, I can't believe she's finally here!
Beautiful healthy cattle Tessa! Good luck. A family cow and calf makes your homestead complete!
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
Thank you! I love them and I'm so happy to have them!
@kl1958
Жыл бұрын
@@littleladyhomestead That is great! You have a nice homestead...now that I am retired...I am searching for property myself...we'll see what happens.
Can you please teach how to milk the cow
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
I'm currently learning myself, but hopefully it won't be too long before I can share my routine :)
@r.s.arunpravin6326
Жыл бұрын
@@littleladyhomestead with pleasure please share your Milking experience
Are you calf sharing yet? Gracie is very pretty. She seems pretty relaxed. If you need some insight to hand milking go over to Roots and Refuge. Jess just bought her 1st cow about a year ago and did a lot of videos showing her techniques. Good Luck! Blessings to all!
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
We actually just got our second calf! We were supposed to get them together but it took a while for another bull calf to be born. So now Jake, the first calf is separated at night, but Charlie will stay with her full time for at least a week before we separate him at night too. I will check out Jess's video with her milk cow, for sure. It helps so much to see what other people do! Thank you!
@Jules1280
Жыл бұрын
@@littleladyhomestead You're welcome!
So owning an extra milking cow 🐄, it can produce on average 1 gallon a day of milk & cream, which you can sell for $5, which is $150 a month? So lady cow cost is ~$50 a month net $100 per cow?
@l0I0I0I0
Жыл бұрын
If you use the cream to make cheese, 🧀 & other things, so you can double your profits $200 a month per cow?
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
I'm still ironing out the details on what our ROI will be. I'm estimating that she'll cost us $120 a month in Grain, minerals and bedding. Vet costs and hay for the winter will add approximately another $500 a year. So right now we should be saving a out $50 a month instead of buying dairy from the store. We're using excess milk we can't consume to feed the chickens and feed our beef calves, so that saves a lot too. I think I would need to sell about 3 gallons a week to break even on getting another cow. These are all very safe estimations until I have some data to back it up. That could be a future endeavor though!
@l0I0I0I0
Жыл бұрын
@@littleladyhomestead Nice, $50 month. Well on your second, of you sell the milk and products, hopefully it will bring in more than $50 but I hope that includes labor as your time is very valuable.
What all do you do with all that milk? We want to get a family milk cow but I'm scared I'm going to get overwhelmed with all the milk.
@littleladyhomestead
Жыл бұрын
So far we are getting 1.5-2 gallons per day while sharing with 1 calf. We plan on getting a second calf in the next couple of days so we might only get 0.5-1 gallon then. When she's in full production and not feeding a calf, I plan on making all of our butter, yogurt, cream cheese and ice cream and learn how to make a simple cheddar cheese. Anything extra I will feed to the chickens and pigs :) my chickens can easily eat some food soaked in a gallon of milk per day and I'm sure pigs could eat 2 gallons soaked with food too.
@terriwhite6273
Жыл бұрын
You can also make soaps, freeze dry milk, barter with neighbors