Meet Maggie

I guess today is Earth Day, right? Yawn.

Most Earth Day celebrations are empty bits of nonsense. However Don and I did something fairly extraordinary today, something I suppose could be attributed to our desire for clean food and self sufficiency. We bought a heifer.

Dear readers, meet Maggie.

With all the crazy stuff going on in the world, it’s been on our minds to get cows sooner rather than later. Then yesterday morning just before church, Don got an email from an acquaintance who told us this family had a little Jersey heifer for sale, and we were interested? You bet!

We called the seller and made arrangements to see the animal. She’s about 13 months old and comes from the west coat of Oregon, near Tillamook. She’s been blood-tested as A2. As you can see, she’s horned (we’re talking to the local vets about correcting that), has a sweet disposition, good udder attachment, and – except for the mud-caked fur – is bright-eyed and healthy.

We’ve hesitated getting livestock up to this point, since we’re still getting cattle infrastructure set up. This is only the first of what we hope will be at least two or three animals, since it’s not good for cows to be alone.

The enclosure where this heifer (and some other heifers) were being kept was quite muddy, but the seller was waiting to turn the animals out on pasture until the ground dried out a bit.

Comically, the ear tags of Maggie give her the name of Nosey (due to her white nose). That was the name of my childhood dog, LOL. So yes, Maggie it is.

The sellers are holding onto Maggie for another four to five weeks while we hastily fence a pasture and set some horse panels up around a feed lot. During this time, Maggie will be bred to a bull who’s about half Jersey, half Holstein.

So I won’t be milking Maggie anytime soon, but it’s a start.

Meanwhile, we’ll be looking for (probably) another Jersey heifer or young cow, and also a feeder calf we can raise for beef.

It’s a start, dear readers! The start of our new homestead.