80 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



better. By good luck I was able to buy cheap a 

 fine cow and a heifer out of a herd that was being 

 broken up by an estate sale. 



The cow came in fresh a month after I bought 

 her. She dropped a bull calf that, in the Victorian 

 phrase, we "altered" and raised for beef. Naturally 

 she was at the peak of productivity when the calf 

 was born. The general practice is to breed cows 

 once a year. Their period of gestation is nine 

 months. A month or six weeks before the calf is 

 born the cow is allowed to go dry, to conserve her 

 strength. Dependent on whether her calf is taken 

 from her immediately to be raised, or is left to 

 feed on its mother's milk and fatten for veal, the 

 cow will produce nothing for household use for 

 two to six weeks after the calf is born; for six weeks 

 to three months out of every year the milk fac- 

 tory is shut down. Hence the reason for buying 

 the heifer. For a steady, continuous flow of milk 

 into the home two or more cows should be kept 

 and bred alternately, so that as one is going dry 

 another is coming in fresh. 



No "family cow" is as big a producer as a dairy 

 animal: she is not pushed to produce. It is not 

 necessary, for since her product is used in place 

 of boughten milk the family are saving the top 

 retail price on it; success or failure does not hinge 

 on marginal performance. Milk records that are 

 to be made official are kept on all the milk a cow 



