Jillians big romps!

We decided with our growing family that we needed a dairy cow to take a large load of the grocery bill away a month.  We had our 3 yr old and I was pregnant again.  So, we got Jillian.  She is well enough behaved.  She was a 4-H animal.  And then milked in a commercial dairy barn.  Now, at some point I will get into what exactly that means, but for now, lets just say it makes the animal hand shy and cautious.  Even after being here more then a year, she will approach you for food, but touching her, she will still back away.  She is alot better now though.  When she first came home she wouldn't even allow you within 20 yards of her if she was in a pasture.  In a stall, well, it was a breeze, but not in a pasture.  We pasture our Jerseys when it isn't too cold.  So most of the year she is outside. 

One memory stands out the most.  We had her in the pasture and it was time for her to come in to be milked.  My husband went out to get her.  Now, Jillian is the biggest Jersey I have ever seen!  I had was only days from my due date, so I didn't dare go out there.  I as standing there at the gate and here I see this man, who is not so little of a man, trying to act very small as to not scare Jillian.  He had a bucket of her favorite grains.  We figured that one out really fast.  He had the halter hidden behind his back with the lead rope attached to it.  So, eventually, Jillian starts to eat her grain.  Hubby walks up to her and she is fine.  He touches her and she bolts.  So, starting over.  She finally gets to the grain.  He decided this time to stand by the grain and she would have to come up to him and the grain.  Everything went well, it only took her bout 5 minutes.  Then he touches her.  She didn't back off as far, but was still very much out of his reach.  So, start over again.  It was getting close to an hour of them playing this game.  I was laughing so hard at his very rapidly shortening temper.  Finally, she allowed him to touch her.  By this time, her grain was almost gone.  He knew unless he went and got more, this was his last chance.  He is there, petting her face and neck.  He brings the halter out and she tries to bolt.  Well, he'd had enough by this time.  He jumps on her neck, feet off the ground and all.  He hangs on for dear life.  His feet come back to the ground, dragging, as Jillian is running across the field.  Dust is flying every which way.  Then everything stops.  They were half way out in the field so I couldn't make everything out.  But moments later, here he comes walking back with the the biggest crappiest grin I had seen in a while.  He had somehow managed to halter Jillian in all the dust flying that was going on.  Once haltered Jillian is a very well behaved girl.  So, he gets the milk, knowing what just happened out in the field, he takes it over to the chickens and dumps it in a bucket for them.  Then walked past me and said, she wont be back at pasture again.  Well, he was right for a few months.  He kept her in a stall for the next 10 months.  Only giving her a few hours a day in a 50 ft by 50 ft pen outside. 

This is Jillian when she first came to us. 

This is Jillian now.  She is still impatient when it comes to getting her grain from the bucket to the feeder!

Jillian is currently in calf for a Jerseyland calf in March.  She will follow to a holding pen with her grain bucket where she can be milked.  We have also added two other Jerseys to our small place.  Annie who is the biggest doll I have ever seen.  She will let you do anything to her and you can walk right up to her out in the pasture and milk her without a halter and be done with it.  Then there is Whipcream.  Named by our then 3 yr old.  This heifer thinks she is a dog.  She will try to follow you everywhere and always rubbing on you.  She is due for her first calf in July.  She even lets the kids ride on her back while we walk her around the field.  She is hard to halter only because she is too busy rubbing against you to be petted, that she doesn't always hold her head still. 

Pending no more cow wrangling, we should have three milking cows this next year.