House Cow Part 1

Mooving forward with plans

After buying our acreage, I reminded myself to take things slowly until we moved onsite. Lanky, however, charged ahead. When cattle prices dropped, he started ordering cattle without considering the long-term goals. He initially planned to get steers. After overhearing a phone conversation about the lack of steers at the auction, I suggested, “Why not get heifers so we can breed them instead?” We purchased our heifers at the wonderfully low price of $250-300 each.

I had always planned to get a house cow. I wanted to wait because dairy animals require significant time and effort for breeding and milking. Sometimes, the right opportunity comes unexpectedly. I saw an ad for a 12-month-old Jersey left in a paddock. She was potentially going to waste.

The timing made this a great opportunity. I wouldn’t want to breed her before she turns 2 years old. A cow’s pregnancy lasts 9 months. Our house build will take between 6 and 12 months.

Assuming the build takes 12 months, the Jersey will be 2 years old when we move. We can put a bull over her after she settles into the new property. We would still have 9 months to set up her birthing and milking area.

During the house build, we can train her to be comfortable around us. This is better than waiting for the house to be built. Sourcing a cow after would require another year getting to know and work with her. This approach uses the build time efficiently.

Meeting Honey.

After chatting with her owner online, we decided to drive out to Ashbourne, about an hour away, with the intent to bring her home. We hired a horse float, hitched it up, and headed out to arrive by 10 am.

At a lovely property, the family greeted us and introduced us to Honey, the Jersey Heifer. They warned us she hadn’t had much social interaction since early December, and before that, it was limited to interactions with the kids. However, she came up to the fence to inspect us and floated pretty easily. We learned she had come from a closing dairy farm. The family responded to an online ad and had to collect her that night to save her from being put down. When they brought her home, she was covered in filth and cold. They gave her a warm wash, and she was only a month old. Her birthday was May 17, 2023. Coincidentally, May 17 is our anniversary, and we first met between May 10 and 19, making May a significant month for us. At that moment, Lanky and I knew she was coming home with us.

We put her into the float and then realized we hadn’t planned to buy a house cow yet. Our only preparation was a really dry paddock due to the lack of rain and some extra feed for the boys. I spent half an hour calling around the hills to find a place that sold halters for cattle, and we finally found a place in Mt. Barker and picked up her first halter.

We also got some horse feed with molasses and a new bucket for her treats. I already had a jar of molasses at home for the boys’ treats, so we didn’t need more. After making our purchases, we headed home with our new cow, Honey.

Arriving home

When we arrived home we put the halter on her before releasing her into the top paddock, we opted for this paddock as it was off the road and close to the house. I wanted a calm paddock for her with less foot or tyre traffic till she is used of us. it also has constant water access for her and greens up nicely over winter.

by the time the halter was on she was pretty stressed from the events of the day. So we released her into the paddock and allowed her a day to recover.

Slow and steady befriends the bovine

Cows are social creatures, so it was no shock that the boys all became boisterous and began introducing themselves over the fence. I decided to use the Holsteins to my advantage the most social out of the herd they rush towards us when ever we enter the paddocks.

I have began walking down to where the two paddocks meet and giving them treats whilst Honey wanders up and slowly builds up courage to start interacting with us all. after a few brief interactions she has so far felt comfortable sniffing the molasse spoon.

Hopefully in a few weeks we will build up to neck scratches, this is a long process to train her to become a house cow.

if you would like to view Honey our future house cow head here.
or maybe you want to have a look at our house build, head here.