A Moo-racle for Kookie!–10/24/2022

I started out this article wanting to tell you all about our busy October, but there is so much to tell. I decided to let this article be just about my favorite cow, Kookie. Gosh I love her.

On October 2nd, Kookie, our moo-triarch, was injured out in the pasture. We’re still not sure exactly what happened, but one evening I went out to get her for milking and she could not get up. We suspect that since she had been in heat, one of the other cows likely mounted her and hurt her back. Yes, they do that. Cows are weird.

If you’ve had cows you know, this is a very serious situation for a cow. Even on their best days, watching a big, oxy, uncoordinated cow rock back and forth until she can get her legs under her, is an impressive thing. Andy’s experience with cows throughout the years told us that she was probably not going to be coming out of this, but we had to try.

Being a small farm, we do have the luxury of taking our time and doing things with our cows that the big dairies likely would not have the time to try. Also, our cows live out in the pasture, not in a slippery barn, and the sod turf lends itself to being a better situation for this type of healing.

So, here’s some shots of poor Kookie in her predicament:

In the pictures you can see the hip clamps we used to lift her. These don’t hurt her, but allow us to lift her without trying to get her onto a sling, which could possibly hurt her udder too.

The above pictures were from the first evening. We had to actually lift her twice that night, the first time she fell down as soon as we unhooked the clamps. We lifted her again and let her stand for a bit with assistance, and then when released, she was able to slowly make her way to the feeder. We did hand milk her a little bit, but not completely.

The second day, we lifted her for morning milking, but didn’t want her to walk into the barn, even though she was moving much better after we got her up. If she were to fall in the barn, there would be no way to get her up in there. So, while Andy milked the others, I had my first hand-milking session with Kookie. Let me tell you, her four gallons felt like ten!

We had to milk her because if we didn’t she could develop mastitis, her supply would start to dry up, and it would also be very uncomfortable for her, being the high-producer she is.

By evening milking, Andy was off in the chopper and I was on my own. Thinking we might be doing this a while, I came up with a better plan! After Emily and I lifted her up with the tractor again, I ran an extension cord out to her bale feeder, hooked up our spare pump, and had her milked out in 10 mins. Boom!

Side note- all of this milk had to be fed to our calf, Kutie. We would never take a chance adding it to our herd share milk, since it hadn’t been collected in ideal conditions. It’s likely that the machine milk would have been fine, but hand milking into an open bucket in the pasture, we just don’t have the correct equipment for. Also, I’m not the best hand-milker. Better safe than sorry! Our work with the Raw Milk Institute helps us gauge these risks.

On day three, I brought the kids to school and fully intended on hauling my milking equipment back out to the pasture to milk by the feeder again, but when I got home, happy day, Kookie had gotten up on her own and was standing in the barn! Andy, with all his experience, could NOT believe it! We were so overjoyed! Our dear Kookie was on the mend! Here she is in all her glory that first morning-

She continues to do well and we haven’t seen any more evidence of injury. She came back into heat again a couple days ago, and I held my breath as I watched Klara Bell jump on Kookie’s back, but she handled it fine. I just don’t know what I would do without Kookie.

When we brought Kookie and Kaloha home in 2020, they were the very first milk cows I would ever call my own. I had helped Andy milk in the parlor at the big farm before, but they are up on a platform and you are down in the pit. You don’t really have to be around the cows, you are basically looking straight at their udder and there’s a kick bar and such- you don’t have to be close to them. Our set up was a lot different.

My dad made the trip with me down state to meet the cattle hauler half way from Pennsylvania. The cows had already been on the truck for 12 hours, with 10 to go so I used the portable set up I used at the bale feeder above, to milk them both at the barn we met at. Good thing the truck driver knew what he was doing, because my dad and I had no idea! I had watched youtube videos, but had never attached the machine myself when we left to go get them. We left at 5 in the morning, got there at around 4, milked and headed straight back home. It was about 20 hours on the road, no stops except for gas, bathroom and snacks, oh, and one flat tire on the trailer. I was so glad my dad was with!

We knew we would need very docile cows for me to learn with because I was a beginner, and we scared to death of them for about two weeks! In my barn, we have to be right in the stall next to the cow to clean them and attach the milker. I knew I wanted to have the herd share, and was so determined to make it work.

The cow ‘guy’ we dealt with could not have picked two more perfect cows. Kookie and Kaloha taught me everything I needed to know, and were so patient with my fumbling hands. Losing Kookie at such a young age was just not an option for us. I would have lifted her twice a day for a week or more if that is what it would take (as long as she wasn’t suffering).

Thank God for Kookie!