Milk Jail

Matilda-Cow's milk.
This took about 10 minutes at the most!

Last night I placed Matilda-Cow in jail so her babies (both old enough to be off milk) couldn't sneak up behind her and drink. 4-H neighbor had suggested I take the babies off her, and since she knows what she's doing, I took her advice.

I woke up at 7 this morning because I couldn't sleep well and rushed the kids off to the ranch by 8 to find that Matilda-Cow's udder was HUGE. It was pretty hard and being that I had babies of my own once, I knew that meant she had a lot of milk in there.

I got her on the stand and gave her an allotment of grain mixed with alfalfa leaves (so she had to work for the grain). She fussed during the udder washing process but when I started milking, and mind you it was a million times easier than before, she just relaxed and let me do my thing--for as long as I needed to.

I couldn't believe how much milk came out of her. Nearly a small mixing bowl full which came to exactly one quart. I had to stop on the way home and get some quart jars for milk storage. Right now we're freezing all the milk collected to save up until we have enough to make soap, cheese, and even butter.