For Sale: Blossom,Jersey Family Milk Cow

It is with mixed feelings I write this blog post; partly I know we are making the right decision for our farm, but partly I will miss Blossom when she leaves.  Yes, it's time for old Blossy to find a new home.  She has been a great milk cow for almost nine years, but I want to keep her daughter from last year in addition to Buttercup (her daughter from 2012), so someone needed to go.

AJCA Registered (grade) Jersey Milk Cow, exposed to to A2/A2, polled Jersey bull

Asking $1,000

Video at bottom of page.

 Blossom is an excellent example of the old-fashioned Jersey cow.  She is well-built, medium sized, and has a perfectly even, very strong udder.  Her feet are (and always have been) excellent.  Temperament is fairly calm and steady, though she is the top cow in the herd and will put the others in their place if necessary.  Usually very easy to handle; always submits to people.  Stands perfectly for milking.  Has nice long lactations of 18 months - 3 years, depending on how quickly she's bred back.  Generally she produces 2 or even 1 1/2 gallons per day when she first freshens, then levels off to 1 gallon - 3/4, depending on the grass.  Her milk is extremely rich and it is not uncommon for there to be 25% or 50% cream per gallon, especially in the spring.

Blossom is most likely bred to Grady, our A2/A2, polled mini Jersey bull.  (I will confirm pregnancy by a blood test as soon as possible.)  Usually has heifers.  (Out of 5 calves, 4 have been heifers, and 3 of the heifers were polled.)  She is a wonderful mother and willingly nurses other calves as well, so we have occasionally used her as a nurse cow when we didn't want to have to milk 2 cows.  (Putting the other cow's calf on her and allowing her to nurse both, and just milking the other cow.)

I have milked Blossom in many ways.  We used to tightly restrain our cows in a stanchion and only feed a couple times while milking, and she tolerated that.  I've walked up to her while she was grazing on a tether rope and milked her in the field.  I've dumped her hay on the ground at a neighbor's, called her, turned her loose, and milked her while she ate, without tying her up at all.  I've tied up to a tree in the pasture, or the fence, or even just backed her in a corner or set some feed down in front of her, and she stands for all of it.  Currently we are milking her almost always tied loosely to a post of the fence because we have only one stanchion and use that for Buttercup.

Buttercup, Blossom's oldest daughter.  NOT for sale.

Buttercup, by the way, is Blossom's oldest daughter and has inherited her mother's good temperament, plus her sire's.  She is even easier to milk than Blossom, and is also a better producer.  Based on her and the bloodlines of the bull I bred Blossom to last year, I am keeping Blossom's heifer from October to replace her.

Only cons about Blossom:  Her udder is tough, so it takes a bit more muscle to milk her by hand than most other cows.  I've been milking her by hand for about 9 years now and have developed some pretty good muscles from it.  Good exercise.  :)

She tends to get skinny in the winter.  Not too bad if you feed decent hay (horse quality coastal is what we feed) but she's not the kind of cow you can turn loose in a patch of cactus and dried-up grass and expect her to gain weight.  She puts her energy into making milk, not fat.

She has horns and she knows it.  Never has she intentionally used her horns on any person that I know of, but she will keep order amongst the other cows and occasionally will give my dogs some trouble.  Not a problem 95% of the time.  Not once has she injured a person or another animal, beyond a few bruises, and these incidents always occurred in high-stress situations, such as penning all the cows in a small area or trying to drive her away from a new calf.

She is almost 11 years old.  Should still have several years of productive life left.

Overall, Blossom is a safe, well-broke, healthy family milker.  She is bred to a bull from really good bloodlines and has never had a problem carrying her calf full term and calving, so this is a 2-for-1 deal.

Here is a completely raw, unedited video taken while Justice and I milked at the neighbor's.  By the way, we got off to a slow start this morning and were milking late, so you actually get to see Blossom slightly out of her comfort zone.  This is a good example of how she stands 95% of the time.