House Cow.

[Jameshenry]

I can remember milking our jersey house cows before going to school back in the 80's, had two or three different ones over the years if i remember right, used to rear a couple calves on them at the same time,

 

[yellowbelly]

Last house cow we had was in the 60's.
I can still remember what happened to her - she went out one windy Saturday night and gorged herself on that much lush clover that she 'blew up'. I remember watching, as they hoisted her up with some block and tackle, so the slaughterman, that lived in the village, could 'dress' her

 

[spin cycle]

I have a house cow....she does a mean lasagne though

she reads that and you'll be the 'beef' in it

 

[Blaithin]

I have one. For the most part she just raises calves for me. I’m not interested in OAD or TAD milkings. Especially in winter. But whenever I have the time and inclination I’ll pull the calves for the night and milk a bit. Would never ever in a million years use her milk all by myself.

 

[Yale]

.

Funnily enough, just last week we had a ewe with twins who had so much milk her lambs couldn't get it out quick enough. So we milked her out and had about 4 litres which Birgit bought in and made into a sheep milk Quark. And it was delicious. Am currently eating some rhubarb cheesecake made from it.
]

This is what got me thinking.

I have an ewe in a pen at the moment with its small lamb and I’ve been taking a good half a litre from her to give to other lambs.

I was looking at the milk wondering if I should take a jug to the house and try it in my tea.........or do something else.

How do you turn it into quark?

 

[Greenbeast]

I have one. For the most part she just raises calves for me. I’m not interested in OAD or TAD milkings. Especially in winter. But whenever I have the time and inclination I’ll pull the calves for the night and milk a bit. Would never ever in a million years use her milk all by myself.

Yes I'm wondering if ours can raise some of our veal calves to save me a job making up milk for them

 

[yellowbelly]

Would never ever in a million years use her milk all by myself.

You don't have to drink it all you know.....

......just sayin'

 

[honeyend]

I am going to have a go at this. My neighbour was brought up on a smallholding with a house cow, so she would like one for her children. I have bought a couple of Kerry cows in calf so I am going to give it a go, they are a small dairy cow.. Shetlands are popular with smallholders as they produce a good sized calf to went put to a larger breed that grows quickly, and you can milk them.
https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/livestock/cattle/multiple-suckling-with-shetland-cattle/

 

[Muck Spreader]

We have a house cow but in the end we couldn't be bothered to milk her, but she has an excellent role as the heifer group trainer.

 

[Yale]

Like the locking head yokes.

@Muck Spreader

 

[primmiemoo]

This is what got me thinking.

I have an ewe in a pen at the moment with its small lamb and I’ve been taking a good half a litre from her to give to other lambs.

I was looking at the milk wondering if I should take a jug to the house and try it in my tea.........or do something else.

How do you turn it into quark?

How to turn it into quark?

Take two neutrinos, one strange ...

Heat helps, as does vigorous shaking.

 

[MOG]

How to make quark... hmmm. easy if you have the ingredients. Otherwise not quite so straightforward! An Aga/Rayburn helps too

You will need at a minimum
Cooking thermometer
Couple of large pans (the one your milk is in should be able to fit in the larger one)
A starter culture (this is the tough one!> Not sure where you get this from now. We had some frozen that was about 8 years old!) Possible that some soured cream might work, but not sure.
Some rennet (again we had some rennet substitute from Waitrose for making junket. It was also about 6 years out of date)
A sieve and some cheese cloth/muslin

1. Heat your milk to 63 degrees C for 30 minutes to pasturise it
2. Cool milk to 30 degrees and place in a water bath on side of AGA
3. Add bacterial culture and allow to stand at constant 30 degrees for next 2 hours
4. Add some rennet (a drop for every 5 litres)
5. Stand again at 30 degrees until set (this took 24 hours with our old rennet but with new stuff may only take a couple of hours)
6. Slice up the solid curds and pour into the cheese cloth in a sive and allow to drain. Hang up cloth and continue to drain for some time until dry mass remains.

Enjoy your quark!

 

[Derrick Hughes]

No point producing it it's cheaper in the shop and who wants to go out in the rain to milk a cow

 

[Tim G]

No point producing it it's cheaper in the shop and who wants to go out in the rain to milk a cow

Not everyone wants to drink chalk and water from the supermarket.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Been thinking about this and I've come to the conclusion that my dad did a lot of stupid things back then. I remember in 1976 when there was a severe drought, he would pump water from the river to the cattle which were in a field on the other side of the road. Why didn't he just let the cows into the field that had the river at the bottom of it???

Does it run in the family?

 

[Wendy10]

Been thinking about this and I've come to the conclusion that my dad did a lot of stupid things back then. I remember in 1976 when there was a severe drought, he would pump water from the river to the cattle which were in a field on the other side of the road. Why didn't he just let the cows into the field that had the river at the bottom of it???

At the risk of going off subject, I think a lot of Fathers did things the hard way, mostly, I think in retrospect, because they had someone else to do it for them! Me

 

[Chasingmytail]

Yes I have Lola the Jersey. Throws good calves so really she is the most profitable cow on the farm. I hand milk every morning shes not a great producer I get about 7 litres which is enough. I make yogurt and have tried cheese but that went wrong. Use the cream, made a tiny pot of clotted cream, butter, Made amazing icecream too. The major problem is the amount of daily milk. At the mo I'm using a bit a bit on the pet lambs. I have a friend who takes a lot. The plan is to make more cheese however I need to sort out the problem with the going off so assume I have bacteria issues which can be sorted by pasteurising.

We calf share, it suits us and workload its worked well twice. Also means not drowning in milk and the calf can be strong and easy to maintain for a good few months.

We wanted raw organic milk and this was the only way. We messed up - the bull was firing blanks so she isn't in calf so waiting for another AI attempt. She is very stubborn and bossy.

 

[Chasingmytail]

No point producing it it's cheaper in the shop and who wants to go out in the rain to milk a cow

You cant compare white water with nutritious raw milk. We have ruined milk but doing everything to kill off any good bacteria. Also the road miles, processing, welfare etc.

In most cases its undercover and its done in 20 mins.

 

[Chasingmytail]

There are some cracking forums - this one is American and really good they are brilliant at house cows and being more sustainable. http://familycow.proboards.com/

One that's great for cheese are these vids from Australia excellent information - https://www.youtube.com/user/greeningofgavin

All the cultures you get from Goat Nutrition - both on the net and Ebay. Freeze what you don't use.

 

[MOG]

@Chasingmytail If you need some hints on cheese making you should talk to my wife. She can make it in her sleep

Only up this side of Abergavenny too so not a million miles away.