Keeping a Family Cow - book review

Before getting a house cow, I recommend that you read every book you can find on the subject.  You should also visit people with house cows if you can, and spend some time with cows, so you know what to expect.  I am still reading books about house cows, and I was very excited to find Keeping a Family Cow: The Complete Guide for Home-Scale, Holistic Dairy Producers, by Joann S. Grohman in the Brisbane City Library.  You really never know what you're going to find there!  Joann has 60 years experience with dairy cows, so who better to get you started on your house cow journey?  Joann also has a website about Real-Food and started the popular Keeping a Family Cow forum, which I have found useful for cow advice from time to time.

This book includes the best ever explanation of house cow nutrition and digestion processes that I have ever read.  She writes that you can't buy poor hay and expect to make up for it by feeding more grain, your cow will just get fat.  She also explains hand milking and how to stop a cow from kicking.  The advantages of raw milk for humans are also explained and I really enjoyed the discussion on why commercial milk is pastuerised.  There is a huge amount of detail in nearly 300 pages.

I was surprised by how much space was devoted to milk fever.  Its good to know about it and be prepared to treat it if your cow suffers from milk fever after calving.  I really like the way Joann explains the biological processes that can cause problems with cows.

This book is written for the north eastern US climate, and as I always say about US books, there are a few things that are not relevant to Australian house cows because we don't have to deal with snow.  We have different pastures, different fencing techniques and different pests.  But in general, this is a great start for any cow owner.

Of course, I would recommend my house cow ebook as a supplementary guide for Australians.

Buy my ebook "Our Experience with House Cows" on Scribd, Lulu and Amazon, or email on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com to arrange delivery.

House cow ebook now available on lulu.com

I have published "Our Experience with House Cows" on lulu.com in ebook format.  Personally I think it looks better in .pdf (buy from scribd), but if you prefer ebook format, you can buy it here instead.  If you just want me to email it to you, send me a message on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com.

If that is too confusing, just look at this photo of lovely Molly, now don't you want to know how to get a house cow of your own?

House cow milking schedule

Unless you really need every drop of milk from your cow, you can make life a lot easier for yourself by using the calf as a share-milker. Here is how it works.

Molly cow with her calf Ruby

A cow makes the most milk after she first calves and then her production gradually decreases. The amount of milk she makes will depend on her genetics, her health and the quality of her feed. We notice a huge difference in milk production if we have lush green grass in summer compared to dry grass in winter.

For the first few weeks after the calf is born, you leave the calf with the cow and milk the cow twice a day. The cow will gradually produce less milk and as the calf grows, it will drink more milk, so the amount you get at each milking will decrease. When you’re only getting 2 L at a time for a few days, you can cut back to milking once a day, either morning or afternoon, and the calf gets the rest. When you’re only getting 2 L a day, you can stop milking altogether. Now if you want milk, you separate the calf from the cow, usually overnight, and milk your cow in the morning. This provides plenty of milk for us for one week, so we milk once a week and calf gets the rest. This means we can go away for the weekend if we want to. It also means that we have 10 L of milk per day for only the first few weeks, and then gradually less until we only milk when we want to, so we’re not constantly trying to use up all that milk, but we can make cheese for a few weeks with the excess.

The easiest way to separate the cow and calf is to lead them both into a small pen where the calf will spend the night. You then lead the cow back out of the pen, she is usually tamer and quicker to follow a bucket of grain or hay than the calf. You give the calf some grain and hay and a bucket of water for the night. Don’t set up this pen too close to the house, because you will have to listen to them both crying all night! Gradually the calf will get used to having its grain too, and will follow you into the pen by itself. Make sure that there is no way that the calf could manage to get a sneaky drink through the fence, or you will be disappointed in the morning when your cow still has no milk!

Any questions about house cow milking schedules?  How do you manage your milking schedule?

How to buy the house cow ebook

My house cow eBook "Our Experience with House Cows" is available for purchase on Scribd.  Its only US$4.99, and it includes lots of information about keeping a house cow in Australia. 

If you don't want to go through all the Scribd/paypal effort, just send me an email on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com and I can arrange to email it to you instead, with either a bank transfer or I can send a paypal invoice.

If you would like  see it on another site, just let me know where you like to download ebooks and I'll investigate.

photo shoot with Molly cow

this is how you buy from Scribd

How to tell if your house cow is on heat

If you want your cow to continue producing milk, at some stage she’s going to need to have another calf.  Essentially you have two options, either artificial insemination (AI) or a bull. We have tried both. If you’re going to use artificial insemination, talk to your vet a few weeks in advance and arrange with them to have the appropriate semen ready. You will need to call them again on the day your cow is in “standing heat” (explained below) and arrange for a house call. In total this only cost us $100, but we are only 10 km from town, a vet may charge considerably more if they have to travel further. There is no guarantee that artificial insemination will work the first time and you may need several visits to get the timing perfect. When the vet came, he just asked us to lead Bella to her bales, he didn’t need to restrain her any more than we do for milking. I was surprised how good Bella was, considering how much she kicks us when we are trying to milk her, she didn't seem to mind having the vet's hand up her rear end at all!  Read the rest of this article here on Eight Acres - the blog.

You might also be interested in:

Here's the full story about Bella and AI.

And keeping a bull on a small farm.

If you want to find out more about keep a house cow in Australian conditions, buy my house cow eBook here.

Our Experience with House Cows is now available

Our Experience With House Cows, by Elizabeth Beavis
Available from Scribd here for only $4.99 in .pdf format.

Have you ever thought about owning a house cow but don’t know where to start?  Do you dream of unlimited raw milk, manure and beef to complement your small farm activities?  “Our experience with House Cows” is an eBook written by a house cow owner to help other small farmers get started with a cow of their own.  The eBook is written for Australian conditions, particularly sub-tropical Queensland, but much of the information is applicable to cows and cow owners all over the world.  This eBook covers the basics of getting a cow, getting her in calf, milking her and caring for her calf, all using natural methods.  The final sections explain how to use all that milk to create delicious dairy products!  The eBook references several other cow, cattle and dairy books which are useful to the new cow owner and explain some aspects in more detail.  Go ahead, learn how to realise your house cow dream today!

House cow ebook - Our experience with house cows

I'm very nearly finished working on my house cow ebook and very soon it will be available to purchase on scribd with details coming soon!

In the meantime, check out my blog Eight Acres for lots of house cow information.