Our Dairy Queen

Alexia, our oldest daughter, is our farms' dairy queen.  She is the one who gets up in the morning and milks all of the goats and our cow.  By milking I don't mean turning on a surge milker and attaching the machine to the utters of our animals, I mean she hand milks every single doe and cow by hand!  And eventhough the does are so docile and friendly that anyone can come over and milk them; Buttercup, our Jersey cow only allows Alexia to milk her.  She will stand still for Alexia but if anyone else tries to milk her, Buttercup gets a little uneasy and starts to move around, more than likely this results in her stepping into the milk bucket.

When Nicole and I started the dairy portion of the farm, we decided that we were only going to bring to our farm does that have strong milking bloodlines.  To find this type of doe, look at the bloodline of the doe and a strong milker will have an * by their name.  For instance, Elliot, one of our youngest does has never been pregnant but is producing about 60 oz of milk a day.  It has a lot to do with the fact that she is around all the other does who have had their kids and is from a strong milking bloodline.

So why did I mention the types of does we have on our farm?  Because Alexia milks every single one of them, and these girls do not give just a little amount milk.  Even if you don't have a clue of what time it is, you can tell just by looking at our does.  When their back legs look like they are trying to do the splits then you know that its either 6 am or pm.  It is funny looking.  By 5:45 in the evening the does start their trek of waddeling up to the barn from the pasture and it looks like they are smuggeling a beachball between their hind legs.  We do have a couple of moms that still have their kids so they dont have beach ball-itis.  For instance Jane has her daughter Dahlila still on her, Ruby still has Zaxby on her and Prim still has the twins who we haven't named because we are giving them away. 

Now when the mom's ween off their kids then Alexia's milk load will increase almost 50%!!!!  This is just goats.

Now Buttercup is a different story.  She has her calf with her but we have to seperate the two because eventhough Flower (the calf) is old enough to be weened off of Buttercup, she will still take every last drop of milk from mom.  So what we do is take Flower from mom overnight so Alexia can milk Buttercup in the morning.  Alexia then lets the calf out of her area and then she hits the milk. At around 2 in the afternoon Buttercup and Flower are seperated so around 5 Alexia can milk her.  Then the calf is then let out again until about 9 pm when she is seperated from Buttercup for the night and the process starts over again. 

We do this for a couple of reasons:

1)  Buttercup utter is HUGE... we can take two gallons out of her at a milking and she is still not done, so Flower bats cleanup and gets the rest.

2)  Flower on mom helps promote a vast quantity of milk, keeping Flower off of Buttercup will cause her to dry up so eventhough there are days that Alexia isn't on her 'A' game with the milking, Flower will drink her dry and keep mom producing.

3)Mother's milk is best.  Eventhough all the traditional farmers tell me that it is time to ween her off, we still think that Flower will be a healthier cow just because she is still getting her mom's milk.

So when anyone meets us, either by coming having a tour of our farm, at the farmers Market or where ever, I will always introduce my oldest, and most responsible daughter, as The Dairy Queen.  Because without all that she does, our farm would never be the same.  And for that, as well as everything else you do around our farm, our house, and for our family, I want to say thank you for all your hard work.  I love you Alexia.

Alexia posing in a demonstration for her 8th grade class.