Selecting a house cow is usually a pretty personal preference. Some people want a lot of milk, so they would be looking at something like a Friesian. They give quite a lot, often more watery than creamy. Although having said that individual cows give different types of milk Me, I always liked a Jersey. Only the one bucket of milk with a very good cream content. Enough to make my own butter, have some buttermilk to use for cooking and good rich milk for the children to drink. Also had enough cream to make pure cream icecream. Kept the neighbours in milk as well. Any left over went to the pig. A housecow is a very good investment. She will give you all the milk, butter, cream you want plus she can raise a calf for meat at the same time.

Regardless of what cow you are going to buy, there are certain attributes that are the best “buys”. A good straight back, the saying is a square looking cow. However, you need to think of a rectangle more than a square with four feet. The udder is very important. After all, this is what you are buying. Preferably square (that word again) meaning it hangs evenly. Four teats, I know you are saying like right they all have four teats. Not so! Some have extra teats on the udder, not that they work, but they do get in the way sometimes of milking.

The next thing to consider is who is going to be doing the milking. If it is a man, then he will normally prefer a cow with good size teats as most men have larger hands. That means a bigger cow usually than a jersey as they usually have little teats. I have small hands, so the jersey suits me down to the ground whereas the others I have trouble getting my hands around. We had an AIS (Australian Illawarra Shorthorn) that we named Dolly after the singer. She was generously endowed and had teats like toilet rolls. She could feed her own calf and two others. Now that was a lot of milk!

Now the way not to do things!

When we first started out, I enlisted the aid of an old cocky (farmer). He was a Friesan man through and through and couldn’t understand why I wanted to buy “that jersey”. She was quiet and would just stand there to be milked. This was true, just not in a shed. Put a bucket of dairymeal in front of her and you could milk her anywhere in a paddock. Not great on rainy days! He wanted us to put the calf up for auction at the end of the sale. I asked how old the calf was and he said about a day. My mother’s instinct came to the fore. After giving birth, she was to lose her calf? No fear! We took cow and calf. This was a blessing because if you didn’t want to milk you could leave her with her calf and you didn’t have to worry. Good if you wanted to go away for a couple of days.

However, it was our first cow and the only ones I had seen were at the Royal Show in Sydney. They wore halters and were led around. So I gave Vic a headcollar and told him to put it on. He came back saying he didn’t think she wanted it on as she had tossed her head and him at least three times. She never wore a headstall.

Okay, lets get serious again!

Now as she had only just calved we need to leave her so that the sting went out of the milk. In our area they called this beestings. This can take about 5-7 days.

After that you can start milking your cow. Some come broken in to a head bale, some are not. All our cows used to just stand there munching their dairymeal. We didn’t leg rope them either. Some people tie the leg on the side you are milking back. We have had various cows and all of them have their own little habits. Quite a few would only milk on one side. After being threatened with a kick, I would try the other side to find that suited the cow. One we tied around the neck to start her, as she wasn’t broken in to milk. We didn’t have a bale, so we just tied her up and started milking. She messed up sometimes and put her foot in the bucket of milk but after awhile, she would keep it back. I always felt that it was better to lose a few buckets of milk than leg rope her. Interestingly enough, when we were doing some riding camps, a little lass offered to milk her for me. She was an experienced milker as they had their own cow. I said okay. Next she came back to say that Delilah (we called her that because she was so beautiful) kept putting her back leg up and moving her hands away from the udder. It wasn’t me, so no one else was going to get her milk!

They are all characters and like all animals each an individual with certain preferences.

Happy milking!

“ABOUT THE AUTHORS”: Vic & Rose Rushton are recognised as leading authorities on organic farming. Their web site http://www.rushton-enterprises.com provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on organic farming

No, I don’t mean lost in a pasture or stolen in the night, although those are bad things too. I mean passed on from this world, no longer here on the planet. If you like horses enough to spend a bunch of time with them, then chances are, at some point, you might have to deal with losing a horse too. A lot of riders start out with older horses. Some older horses are the best teachers of all.

Here is part of the process that can happen:

Step 1: Make extremely good friends with a horse that you take lessons on or lease or own. Spend countless hours over several years caring for them, feeding them, riding them, admiring their strength and beauty and wisdom.

Step 2: Get the phone call that they colicked severely while you were out of town and had to be put to sleep.

Step 3: Arrive to the barn the next day knowing that there will be no whinnying and nickering as you approach. Your friend is not there. You walk down the barn aisle needing to see the empty stall for yourself to believe that it is true. Today, there’s no buckets to fill, no stall to tidy, no coat and tail to groom, no hooves to pick, no hungry mouth to feed, no idle legs to exercise, no soft nose to breathe on your shoulder, saying, “Hey, hi.” The stall is empty and quiet. There is nothing more to do here.

Step 4: Experience many days, if not weeks, of loss and emptiness, sometimes as if someone kicked you in the stomach — or the heart. Your mind rolls backwards to try to find the memories, the pictures, the mementos of the good times, but you can’t think properly. Eventually, the pain will ease up, but nothing replaces the huge whole in your heart. You have lost a horse friend.

So, what can you do? Well, first of all, cherish the horses in your life while they are there. Take that photo, buy that halter or saddle pad you want them to wear, go to that schooling show or trail ride you wanted to try but were a little scared to, spend that extra time grooming or just staring at them. Enjoy them while they are there.

But what to do afterwards? No other horses are exactly the same. You cannot replace a lost horse, or dog, or person. But you can still have other horses in your life. Talk to other people who have lost horses, even if it is hard. Honor the horse you have lost. Maybe frame a nice picture of the horse and keep it near by. Remember or write down all that you learned and went through with this horse and thank the horse for his time. Keep something that belonged to the horse - maybe a horseshoe, a show ribbon, a lock of hair, something from the tack room. Remember that although the horse is gone from this world, part of them is still with you.

Visit other horses when you are ready. Find another horse you can ride. If you are still not ready, then visit the web sites on the Internet for grieving horse owners. Search on Horse Loss Support to get started. This might not have been a horse that you owned, but if you loved them and spent lots of time with them, it is the same thing. A part of them was yours.

How long do horses live? Well, that can vary just like anything else. Horses kept in good conditions with good medical and dental care and regular exercise and no other health issues seem to be living longer and longer. Most seem to live into their mid-20’s and many make it to 30 and over. Colic and further complications can often be the final decision-maker about when it’s time. No one can predict when it will be time.

Jennifer Allbright writes for http://www.NewtoHorses.com which provides information to new - comers on caring for, riding, and showing horses. The site offers a wide range of information from safety around horses and resources for horse items to specifics about dressage training and showing.

Goats are truly useful both when they are alive and even after death, offering meat and milk as the skin offering hide. A charity is involved in providing goats to poor people in Africa. The main advantage was that goats are easy to manage than cattle and have multiple uses.

Meat

The goat meat is called chevon, which is similar to that of lamb meat. However some believe that it has a similar taste to veal or venison, it just depends on the age and condition of goat. It could further be prepared in a variety of ways with stewed, baked, grilled, barbecued, minced, canned, or even prepared into sausage. Goat jerky is another well-liked variety. In
India, the rice=preparation of Biryani uses goat meat to produce rich taste in rice. In terms of nutrition, it is lower in fat and cholesterol. It carries more minerals and lowers the total saturated fats than any other meat.

Other parts of the goat including organs are actually evenly edible. Special delicacies comprise the brain and liver. The head and legs of the goat are smoked and used to make exclusive spicy dishes and soup.

Milk and cheese

Goats’ milk is more easily digested by humans and is mostly recommended for infants and people who face difficulty with cows’ milk. The cured prepared with goats milk is much smaller and more digestible. Moreover it is in nature homogenized as it lacks the protein agglutinin.

Goat’s milk when handled properly, from clean and healthy goats, in a best sanitary manner and cooled as soon as possible, the flavor is unremarkable and inoffensive. Further, it is required to separate the strong smelling buck from the dairy does, as his scent would rub off on them and would taint the milk. Goats’ milk is then used to make well-liked cheeses such as Rocamadour and feta; anyhow it could be used to make other kinds of cheese.

Fiber

Cashmere goats produce best fiber, Cashmere wool is one of the best in the world. Cashmere fiber is extremely fine and soft, and grows under the guard hairs. Cashmere goat has been particularly bred to create a much higher amount of it with fewer guard hairs.

The Angora breed produces lengthy, curling, shiny locks of mohair. The locks continually grow and could be four inches or even more in length. Goats do not have to be slaying to crop the wool that is instead sheared in the case of Angora goats, or combed, in the case of Cashmere goats.

In South Asia, Cashmere is known as pashmina (Persian pashmina = fine wool) and these goats are known as pashmina goats. Since these goats in fact belong to the upper Kashmir and Laddakh region, their wool came to be called as cashmere in the West. The pashmina shawls of Kashmir with their complex
embroidery are very famous.

Skin

Goat skin used today to create gloves, boots, and other products, which require a soft hide. Kid gloves are trendy in Victorian times, and are still made today. The Black Bengal breed, local to Bangladesh, offers high-quality skin. The skin also used in Indonesia as rugs and local instrumental drum skin named bedug.

Other parts of the goat are also evenly useful. For instance, the intestine is used to create catgut that is still the favored material for internal human sutures. The horn of the goat that signifies wellbeing (Cornucopia) in too used to make spoons etc.

Tamil Selvi is a SEO Copywriter of meat goat buyer He had written various articles in different topics on goat sales and livestock. For more information visit: meat goat buyer Contact her attamil@searchenginegenie.com.