Our Calving Detector...

Daisy & Mabel earlier this spring.
I was in the garden last night, when all of a sudden I heard Daisy start hollering, then come tearing down the hill, around the barn, and out into the bottom pasture. She ran over to the fence, bellowing, and calling for "her" baby. I just thought she all of a sudden remembered Clover, and was having a short little fit wanting her again (even thought it's been a month since Clover got weaned).

This morning DH comes in with the milk bucket...and I could see right away he didn't have as much as we've been getting. It seems Daisy is still having a fit, and was even holding up her milk this morning.

DH even took her over to Clover, but I guess Clover wasn't to interested in her anymore, guess she has been away from her "Mom's" long enough she doesn't want the milk so much. LOL Daisy was a little calmer after seeing "her" last calf, but she was still hollering a little so that wasn't the whole problem.

DH then proceeded to tell me that Daisy was like this a couple weeks before Mabel had her baby (Clover) so he figures Honey is within a couple weeks of giving birth. That is of course if that really is what is wrong.

So guess we have a calving detector on our hands. Course it's not real precise...but least we know she is getting closer! LOL

Course that means my butter making will now make a sharp drop...a little sooner than I expected. I was just about ready to start gathering enough butter to try making some ghee...*sigh* story of my life. LOL Now we will be lucky to keep us in fresh butter, having extra will probably not happen as much if Daisy keeps this up.

Thankfully I was able to stock pile a little more than normal in the last month so least I do have extra in the freezer now. Hopefully once Honey calves and gets past her colostrum stage, we will pick up a little once again...maybe not as much as we have been, but more than we will till then if Daisy keeps holding it up on us.

The problem we are going to run into now, is IF Daisy really is going to calve in September (we still haven't had her checked to see if she is carrying a calf...so much to do, so little time) trying to get Daisy to let "her" calf go to the other "mom's" for milk and dry herself up to get ready for her own little calf could be a big pain. Hopefully she will do it on her own like Honey & Mabel did, but with as much as she loves being a "mom" I have my doubts. LOL

What fun this farming thing is...so much to keep us entertained and learning new things all the time!