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Milk Cow Myths: Part 3

01.12.2022 by Raelene Bradley // 2 Comments

5 Myths Keeping You From Living The Milk Cow Life

In this series, I’m talking you through, step-by-step-by-step, the 5 most common myths about keeping a family milk cow so you can crush those negative thoughts and set yourself up for success.

By the end of this series, you’ll see that getting a milk cow is not only totally possible, but that it is absolutely within your reach.

In the previous posts of this series, we tackled Milk Cow Myth #1: I Have To Get Up At Dawn and Milk Cow Myth #2: I Can’t Leave the Farm or Go On Vacation. Those are big concerns, I know, but totally manageable, I promise.

If you haven’t seen them yet, go have a look and then come meet me back here. I’ll wait (chuckle).

Myth #3: I Don’t Have The Right Set-Up For A Milk Cow

If you’re talking yourself out of keeping a milk cow because you don’t think you have enough land or the money to invest in a stainless steel milking parlor, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Let me tell you what you DO need.

The Minimalist’s Guide To Keeping A Milk Cow

I love lists. Like, really love them. (chuckle) And I’ve always been drawn to those minimalist guides you see all over Pinterest. You know the ones right? Ones like “The Minimalist Guide to Having a Baby: The only 5 things you absolutely must have.”

So here’s my version of the Minimalist Guide to keeping a milk cow. These are the absolutes:

  1. A small pasture
  2. Fence
  3. Somewhere to milk
  4. A pail

And that’s it, really.

But of course you know I have more to say about each of these so let’s dive in.

A small pasture

Ideally, for one milk cow, you’ll have 1-2 acres. 3-4 is even better, but not a necessity.

Frankly, you don’t even have to have acreage. I know of several people who decided to keep a milk cow in their backyard. Literally.

It means they have other challenges – like needing to buy in more hay since the cow won’t have enough pasture to meet her needs, and manure is something they have to deal with a little more proactively – but what I mean to say is: it is totally possible to keep a milk cow in your backyard.

But if you’re not quite that adventurous, a couple acres is plenty to keep a milk cow. Depending on the health and vitality of the pasture, you may need to supplement with extra hay, but that’s not such a big deal. You’ll just need to prepare for it.

Bottom line: a couple acres is plenty enough room to comfortably keep a milk cow.

Fence

I feel like this is pretty self-explanatory: you will need a fence to keep your cow safe and where she needs to be.

But before you get off in the weeds thinking you need to dish out thousands of dollars to put in a fancy fencing system, let me assure you that you can do it for a lot less.

You’ll have a gentle, sweet milk cow. She might be a little feisty, but she’s not wild or used to wide open spaces. She’ll respect a fence. As long as it’s in good condition, you don’t need anything fancy.

There are a zillion fencing options and the price tags to go with them. I actually use a pretty low-budget system of step in posts and a single strand of electric poly wire. Simple, budget-friendly, and effective.

Somewhere to milk

I deliberately chose not to name this section “The Milking Parlor” because that term seems to come loaded with visions of concrete floors, stainless steel machinery, and miles of sanitized hose snaking in and out of the walls. That may very well be true for commercial dairies, but that’s not you.

So – where can you milk?

  • Out in the pasture
  • Tied to a post in the barnyard

Milking right out in the pasture is a beautiful experience. The sun will be just rising over the hills, birds singing, and a soft breeze will accompany the swish swish of milk into the pail. If you want to milk right outside, by all means, go for it.

Or perhaps you’ll bring her up to the barnyard so she’s close and just tie her to a post or a fence right there and milk her outside. The chickens will swarm around you, the barn cats will vie for a squirt. It’ll be lovely.

But it won’t be warm or clear every day and so you’ll need a plan for inclement weather.

These are my favorite low-budget options:

  • In a woodshed or lean-to
  • Under a carport
  • Under a tarp

Almost every farm/homestead has one of these. A woodshed, a lean-to, or a 3 sided shelter are plenty good to keep the rain off your back while you milk.

And a carport (or garage!) works great too. In fact, the concrete floor can make cleaning up extra easy.

And barring that, you can rig up a tarp to milk under. A tarp costs just a few dollars at the hardware or feed store. You can tack it up against the side of the house – or the green house, or shed, or outbuilding and there you go: DIY milking shelter.

It won’t be fancy, but it’ll be plenty enough to keep you dry.

And of course, if you’ve got it, you can absolutely go ahead and milk where I do:

  • In the barn

When we first moved to the farm, the barn hadn’t housed animals in more than 30 years. When we were getting ready to bring Sandy home, I cleaned out all the junk and trash and old tractor parts from a corner of the barn, fixed the swinging door to the outside that had been nailed shut, and tada! Instant milking shed.

It’s not a big deal, certainly not fancy, but it’s shady in the summer and keeps out the wind in the winter. It’s perfect.

I’ll bet you can think of somewhere right now on your own place that you could repurpose as a milking shed. All you need is a roof to keep off the rain. Everything else is gravy.

A pail

This too seems a bit obvious, but you’ll need something to catch that liquid sunshine. It doesn’t matter a lot what kind of pail you use; it just needs to be clean and sturdy.

I use a stainless steel milking pail. Be sure to choose one that has no seams (seams can be difficult to clean and bacteria can get lodged there).

I have friends who use food-grade plastic buckets.

In a pinch, I’ve even milked into a stock pot.

All this to say: you’ve got options.

Just remember to bring a lid (even if it’s simply a clean towel draped over the top of the bucket). You’ll want to keep any stray bits of dust or straw from falling into your fresh milk.

You’re Closer Than You Think

And that’s it. A small fenced pasture, somewhere low-budget so you can milk out of the weather, and a pail are the only essentials you need.

Of course you can add accessories. You’ll probably want a halter and rope and a feed bin or two. You’ll want a few supplies like milking rags and udder balm, and a few essential veterinary items on hand.

But if we’re talking big-ticket infrastructure, I bet you’re closer than you think.

Keep Learning in Milk Cow 101

We go over in depth all the supplies you’ll need in Milk Cow 101 – from big-ticket infrastructure (including a lot more detail about fencing and shelter) to every day milking supplies and how and what to stock in a vet kit.

So if you’re getting more and more excited to dig in and learn what you need to bring home your very own milk cow, join the waitlist for Milk Cow 101 today.

I’ll bet that day is closer than you think and I want to help you get there.

When you join the waitlist, you’ll be the first to know when enrollment opens and you’ll be ready to learn everything you need to feel confident and prepared to make that dream happen.

Categories // Blog Post, MilkCow 101 Tags // family milk cow, home dairy, homestead, Homestead Skills, milk cow

Milk Cow Myths: Part 2

01.05.2022 by Raelene Bradley // Leave a Comment

5 Myths Keeping You From Living The Milk Cow Life

In this series, I’m talking you through, step-by-step-by-step, the 5 most common myths about keeping a family milk cow so you can crush those negative thoughts and set yourself up for success.

By the end of this series, you’ll see that getting a milk cow is not only totally possible, but that it is absolutely within your reach.

In the last post, we tackled Milk Cow Myth #1: I Have To Get Up At Dawn. That’s a doozy, especially for a night owl like me. If you haven’t seen it yet, go check it out and meet me back here. I’ll wait (chuckle).

Myth #2: I Can’t Leave The Farm or Go On Vacation

Listen, keeping a milk cow is a commitment.

Truth: A milk cow doesn’t ask for much, but she asks every single day.

You DO need to show up, you DO need to be invested. But the benefits of that kind of commitment are exponential and worth every minute.

A milk cow is a commitment to a lifestyle focused on wholesome, nutrient-dense food and wonderful growing experiences of stewardship and responsibility for you and your entire family.

And yet, even with the daily commitment of keeping a family cow, you’ve got more options than you might think.

How Often Do You Really Leave Home?

Maybe I’m going out on a limb here, but if you’re thinking about wanting to keep a family cow, you’re probably pretty content staying close to home.

Be honest with yourself here: how often do you really leave home for an extended amount of time?

Once or twice a year? A long weekend every few months?

We can work with that.

You’ve Got Options

Truth: The average milk cow’s lactation lasts 10 months.

A milk cow must have a calf in order to give milk. And, at least 60 days before she is due to have her next calf, you’ll stop milking or dry her off.

She needs that break to build up her fat stores for her next lactation and channel all her energy into growing her calf.

And that means (you guessed it!) you get a break too.

Use Her Dry Period To Your Advantage

Truth: She needs at least 60 days before calving to rest & replenish her stores.

When she’s dry, you’ve got 60 days (sixty!) to gallivant all over the earth if you so choose. It’s infinitely less complicated to find someone to check on her, fill her water tank, and be sure she has plenty to eat every day or so than it is to find someone reliable (and willing) to milk her once (or twice) a day, every day.

So use that to your advantage. I’m almost certain you have a friend (or several!) who would jump at the chance to have a farm-cation and keep an eye on your place while you soak in the sun at some undisclosed tropical location, or hike into the backcountry, or get lost in the museums of Europe.

Go. Sate your wanderlust for a week or two or five.

And come back refreshed and ready for calving and a whole new lactation.

Weekends Away Are Totally Possible

Truth: Calf-sharing opens up a whole world of flexible options.

Once she calves, that calf can absolutely help carry the load.

For the first little while after calving, you will have more work to do. She will produce way more milk than that calf could possibly consume on his own. She’s been bred and raised to do exactly that.

So you will need to milk her twice a day. Plan on several weeks.

But after a few weeks or a few months, depending on her production and the size of your calf (or if you have twin calves!), and your goals, you’ll be able to shift more and more of the milking to him if that’s what you want.

You’ll start first by transitioning to once-a-day-milkings (whew! Game. Changer.) and as he grows and her production evens out, you’ll be able to leave him with her around the clock and skip a milking every now and again.

That means that, yes, you can go to your sister’s wedding. And attend your nephew’s graduation out of town. And book that romantic overnight getaway.

The calf will pick up the slack.

You can learn more about how to get started calf sharing here.

Lean On Your Community

We aren’t meant to do it alone.

Too often there’s an ethic among homesteaders that they have to go it alone or it isn’t authentic, that being self-sufficient means they don’t/can’t/won’t rely on anyone else.

I think that idea is misguided and short-sighted.

We are meant to live in community. Being self-sufficient means that you have something of value to offer and that you do your best to provide not just for your family, but for others as well.

So lean on your community.

Reach out and see if anyone you know would like to learn to milk a cow and train a relief milker.

Teach them. Train them. And then enjoy a sleep in every now and again. Or a weekend away. Or a true family vacation knowing that you’ve got a competent, reliable milker taking care of business while you’re away.

You might start small and train your spouse first, and your older kids. That’ll give you a couple mornings to sleep in.

And then train a neighbor or a gal from church or a couple you met at your kid’s basketball game who have dreams to start their own homestead. You’ll be paying it forward by giving them an invaluable opportunity to prepare and learn the skills they’ll need to make their own dreams come true.

Keep Learning in Milk Cow 101

If this is feeling more and more doable, you’re on the right track. Keeping a cow is totally possible and absolutely within your reach.

So if you’ve got the gumption to really dig in and learn what you need to live that milk cow life (boy is it a good one!), join the waitlist for Milk Cow 101 today.

Bonus: You can absolutely go on vacation. It’s all about the timing.

When you join the waitlist, you’ll be the first to know when enrollment opens and you’ll be ready to learn everything you need to feel confident and prepared to bring home your very own family milk cow.

Categories // Blog Post, MilkCow 101 Tags // family milk cow, home dairy, homestead, Homestead Skills, milk cow

Milk Cow Myths: Part 1

12.29.2021 by Raelene Bradley // Leave a Comment

5 Myths Keeping You From Living The Milk Cow Life

In this series, I’m talking you through, step-by-step-by-step, the 5 most common myths about keeping a family milk cow so you can crush those negative thoughts and set yourself up for success.

By the end of this series, you’ll see that getting a milk cow is not only totally possible, but that it is absolutely within your reach.

Myth #1: I Have To Wake Up At Dawn

This has to be the most common assumption of milk cow owners: that we get up well before the sun, in the dark early hours of the morning in order to milk the cow.

It is true that you can do that, if you want to. And since I’m sharing, my #unpopularopinion is that I’ve come to really love dark cold morning milkings.

It’s the quiet. As a mum of 5, I treasure every ever-loving minute of quiet ’cause they’re rare.

But it is not true that you must do it.

Truth: You should milk about every 12 hours.

Truth: You get to set the schedule and decide when to milk.

Are You An Early Bird? Or A Slow-Morning Person?

If you like getting up early to see the sun rise and get a head start on the day, milk early! Perhaps you’ll milk at 5am and, 12 hours later, at 5pm.

Or maybe you’re not quite that ambitious and getting up just before 6 is more your jam, then you’re going to milk at 6am and, 12 hours later, 6pm.

But if you’re a slow morning kind of person and you don’t want to get out of bed before it’s light, then maybe you’ll milk at 8am, and 12 hours later, at 8pm.

Or you want to get the kids off to school, get some tasks done around the house, and have a second cup of coffee before you head out to milk, so you decide to milk at 10am and then, of course, 12 hours later at 10pm.

Feel Free To Mix It Up

You know as well as I do that not every schedule and every family is cut and dried. And we have seasons when things are busier than others, when we have certain commitments at certain times.

And so you can mix it up.

Truth: You can be flexible when it comes to milking time.

Truth: Aim for no more than 14 hours and no less than 10 hours between milkings.

Milking every 12 hours is a good goal, but you’re not a commercial dairy and you don’t need to maximize your yields in order to make ends meet.

If you want or need to mix up your schedule so that milking isn’t quite 12 hours apart, your cow will adjust.

And once you do decide on a schedule, stick to it. Your cow thrives on routine and consistent milking times will improve her attitude (chuckle), her cream lines, and her production.

A Mixed Schedule

Here’s a real-life example: perhaps you decide to milk at 7am. That’s just right for you – enough time to get in a cup of coffee beforehand and just right to get the kids up and started at a reasonable hour afterwards.

But perhaps you have piano lessons and soccer practice and ballet commitments in the evenings, usually around 6 or 7. So you decide to milk at 5pm instead of the standard 12 hours later at 7pm.

No big deal. Your cow will adjust.

And if it turns out that you need to change it up in another couple months because your commitments change – again, no problem. Just do so gradually.

Squeezing In Even More Flexibility

  • Transition from TAD to OAD milkings

Depending on how much milk your cow is giving and where she’s at in her lactation, it is absolutely possible to transition from twice-a-day milking (TAD) to once-a-day milking (OAD).

Whew! Let me tell you, that shift is a game-changer. It suddenly feels like you have four more hours in the day (ha!)

  • Calf-sharing (when you allow the calf to stay with the cow for at least a portion of the day)

Depending on how much milk your cow is giving and how old/big the calf is, you may be able to leave them together for the day and skip that day’s milking all together.

We’ll talk more about calf-sharing in the next post where we tackle Milk Cow Myth #2 I Can’t Leave The Farm or Go On Vacation.

And you can learn more about how to get started calf-sharing here.

Keep Learning in Milk Cow 101

If you’ve got the gumption to learn something new and you’re ready to dig in and start living that milk cow life (boy is it a good one!), join the waitlist for Milk Cow 101 today.

Bonus: you for sure don’t have to wake up at dawn!

You’ll be the first to know when enrollment opens and you’ll be ready to learn everything you need to feel confident and prepared to bring home your very first family milk cow.

Categories // Blog Post, MilkCow 101 Tags // family milk cow, home dairy, homestead, milk cow

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belvederefarms

Hey there friends! Long time, no see eh? . Popping Hey there friends!
Long time, no see eh?
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Popping in to let you know I’ll be posting over at @belvedere.farms from now on.
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Same farm, same milk cow / farming / homesteading / canning & preserving / free-range kids capers & misadventures kinda stuff, but a whole new chapter.
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Sneak peek: if you’ve been around for awhile, you’ll know Maude (our milk cow Sandy’s first calf). She’s a brand new momma herself!
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She and I are learning together how to train a milk cow from scratch. It’s an adventure, to be sure!
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Come on over to @belvedere.farms and follow along.
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- Raelene
Wow. Just wow. . This is how I feel every time I l Wow. Just wow.
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This is how I feel every time I look at the pantry shelves, filling slowly but surely, bit by bit.
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Summer’s bounty + hard work (and plenty of hot sweaty days in the kitchen) means my family will eat like kings all winter long.
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It’s such a blessing to know these skills and get to pass them along.
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Sign up for my newsletter (link in bio) so you know when the next homesteading/self-sufficiency class is happening here at Belvedere Farms and you too can start filling those pantry shelves with goodness.
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I drove down to the vet’s to pick up meds for a sick heifer and since it takes me right through Amish country, I couldn’t resist stopping at a farm just off the road to pick up 10 quarts of small but luscious berries (the small ones are sweetest, I think).
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It may seem like a small thing, but it always make It may seem like a small thing, but it always makes my heart happy to look out the window and see the cows grazing in the pasture.
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It took a lot of work to get here, and takes a lot of work to stay here, but working hard for something you love isn’t a burden. Instead it builds confidence, self-respect, resilience, and stamina.
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