The birth of Ultima to Feliz, half-sister of Trish (they were from the same bull) and second of our future 1/2 Brown Swiss 1/2 Jersey herd! She looks almost identical to Trish, but there are a few subtle differences. Trish is pretty like her mom Liberate, while Ultima is has distinctive facial features unlike Feliz. She also is much more like Feliz in temperament; she's more excitable, and we had a lot more trouble when we were first teaching her to lead. It took her a solid week to get the idea, whereas Trish led easily three days after being born. It will be interesting to observe them as they grow up!

Ultima with Shalom at 10 days old.

We feared that Liberate lost her quarter last lactation (a month after we purchased her) from edema. When Trish was born, we realized that her quarter was certainly not "dead," being full of milk. However, when we tried to milk it nothing came out. We tried to avoid edema this lactation by feeding grass hay, but she still had a little, and we tried our best to eliminate it quickly.
In the 5 days before we took her to WSU, it didn't get any better despite much massaging, Uddermud, and frequent milking. We took a milk sample to Potlatch vet to make sure it was not Staph. We squirted a mix of essential oils into the teat to prevent mastitis while trying to get rid of the edema. The Smicks loaned us their trailer, and we took her to WSU hoping they could save the quarter. Instead the ultrasound revealed that scar tissue prevented milk from coming out, and there was no mastitis at all to cause swelling/edema; the quarter was just engorged.
When dad suggested to the vet we might cull her, the vet (same vet that did her bowel blockage surgery) said, "I'm in love with her. If at some point you want to get rid of her, WSU does buy dairy animals for students to work with." Dad said we would let them know in July when the grass was done. The vet said to stop milking the quarter and never milk it again and the pressure would cause the milk producing cells to be eliminated (along with any risk of mastitis), and that she may produce nearly as much with three quarters as she would have with four!
She is astonishing us with over 8 gallons of milk per day (she overflowed the bucket with 4.7 gallons in one milking), and we hope it will go up to 10 when she gets on spring grass!

Meet Trish, daughter of our gentle giant Liberate and the first of our future herd composed of 1/2 Brown Swiss and 1/2 Jersey cows. She's growing fast, and she's adorable. We are teaching her to lead, and she is doing very well. She has beautiful conformation, and in temperament she already resembles her calm, nonchalant mother.

On January 12th, Quinta gave birth to an adorable, small, half Murray Grey bull calf. His moo is like the bleat of a lamb, and his personality is friendly and playful. We were on letter S of the alphabet and had recently finished reading the Lord of the Rings, and so Samwise was chosen almost unanimously, with dad wanting to call him Shrimp.
An aside note is, we decided that we would let Samwise spend his first day with Quinta, letting her lick him off and letting him get his first drink from her, as opposed to taking him away from her immediately. We decided we would do this for all of the births going forward.

Meet Rosey, the second calf of our cow Jewel and the second female calf born on the property. She is half Red Angus, hence her color. Adorable, sturdy, and energetic, she is already bigger than Pranky, who is nearly 3 weeks older than she is.

Quintessential:

1. 1. Of, relating to, or having the nature of a quintessence; being the most typical.
2. 2. Of the nature of a quintessence; purest; most characteristic.

Quinta: Fifth, in Spanish and possibly Latin
On November 1st, Grandma and Papa brought us Quinta, a 3/4 Brown-Swiss x 1/4 Jersey four year old cow, from the Zach's in Vale Oregon. She is due to calve in early January. She is a very calm, sweet cow, with perfect conformation, almost identical in size to Feliz, with a shorter head. Besides needing a hoof trimming, she was perfect! We are excited to introduce her as our fifth addition to our small dairy herd.

In early October, we bought a full Jersey cow, who we named Nosey because of her twisted face. On October 16, she gave birth to Pranky, who was supposed to be a girl... there was a 90 percent chance that he would be a girl. With a little trouble we got her into the stanchion, and she is now giving us about 4 gallons of creamy milk per day. Pranky is living up to his name, jumping and racing around his little pen.

Kyra did it all, with kiddo support - design (Youtube assisted), Costco canopy amputation, chicken wire install, bottom boards, metal, etc. A canopy top was added, then suspended feeder and waterer. Josh said if chickens were to be done, Kyra would have to own it, and she did before chicks arrived!