Last week, when I first woke up and checked my email my first message was from a young farmer who I knew. He asked if we had any extra milk? That’s a very logical question to ask a dairy farmer who he knew milked a bunch of cows.
We get requests occasionally for a little colostrum, (first milk from a cow that has just delivered a baby calf) Sometimes when a momma cow delivers her . . .
calf, she dies of complications before her new calf can suckle the first meal in its life. The first milk (colostrum) is very high in antibodies which pass on from mother to calf. It provides protection from diseases and infections. Colostrum is also easier for a baby to digest than regular milk.
Since the email I received didn’t specify if the farmer required colostrum or regular milk, I immediately returned an email asking which kind of milk was needed.
Most dairy farmers keep a few bags of “good colostrum” in the freezer in case the first milk from a first time mother doesn’t have good enough colostrum. (Older cows’ colostrum is usually thicker and better quality than that from a young mother.) The return email informed me that only regular milk was required because the young farmer had purchased a few bottle-fed calves at the sale barn. I then replied that, “No we didn’t have any extra” milk because every fall during the months before Christmas, all Canadian dairy farmers are allowed to ship extra milk above their regular monthly quota.
Every year, consumers purchase more butter, cheese, specialty cheeses, sour cream, ice cream, milk chocolate and other cowy dairy products around Christmas and the holiday season. It’s also the season when more home baking of all those yummy cookies, Christmas cakes, home-made candies, etc. is done, and recipes are passed on from generation to generation.
The fall months are also the time when milk cows are hardest to find and more expensive to buy because every farmer wants them since their lactation is planned nine months earlier, when they are bred. Fewer cows are bred in January, February and March than other months, fewer cows calve in the months before Christmas.
I advised the young farmer to buy a few bags of vealer, which is a milk replacer that is higher in fat. Bottle-fed calves will grow healthier and faster if fed vealer than a milk replacer. I also told him yes and said that trying to find milk at a dairy farm in the fall was only lost time.
At the coffee shop last week, a friend of mine asked his son “What are you doing now?” I knew that the son worked at a large dealership that repaired and sold lawn mowers, roto-tillers, chain saws, snow blowers, etc.. I chirped in, “He’s probably fixing snowblowers.” The son replied “Yes” and the dealership had sold 40 snowblowers in the last two weeks.”
When I looked out the window Monday morning and noticed that everything was white I remembered that this first snow was a warning to, get your snow tires on, make sure that there is some salt or ice-melter in the garage, check to see that there is a snow brush and a snow shovel in the car, make sure that there is a good heavy set of booster cables in the truck to avoid having to wait in the cold, and then pay a tow truck more than the booster cables are worth, just to get started again. A good tow strap under the seat and knowing where to attach it is also good prevention. An extra pair of mitts, a warm coat and an extra gallon of winter windshield wash might also be appreciated to have in the vehicle before spring. Also, I have learned the hard way when I got a block of wood stuck in the snowblower, that if you have not already done a thorough check walking around the yard to pick up everything that shouldn’t be left out and get buried under the snow, it is time.
Remember that leaving early is better that rushing on winter roads and ending up in a cold deep ditch and missing an appointment or work.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
