We’ve been on the hunt for a milk cow for a while. When we were turned on to Mini Jerseys, we knew that was the perfect breed for us. They only get about three-feet tall and they only average about 2-3 gallons of milk a day. That’s perfect for us. The problem with Mini Jerseys is they are SUPER expensive and VERY hard to come by. We had a line on one who was older and in milk and bred! You can count on a cow producing into their early teens, but you just never know if it will actually happen, so you’re taking a chance buying a cow who is nine or ten years old. We hoped she would have a baby girl, then we could use that little one as our milk cow for a long, long time. Turns out the cow wasn’t bred, so we didn’t end up getting her.

With all the Mini Jersey cow people now looking around for us, we finally found one who was healthy and spoiled and only four years old. Perfect! However, she had a two-month-old calf on her, and the baby needed to come too. Mmm….okay. I’m not even going to tell you how expensive that was, but let’s just say, I could have put a nice, fat down payment on a new car. Fortunately, one of my cow-people wanted the heifer after she was weaned, so we just got to have her here until she’s weaned and play with her and spoil her but not have to pay for her.

So, here’s baby April!

Check out this milk mustache!!!!

April was born April 2, 2023, hence her name. She’s curious and friendly and the cutest little cow ever! Look at these baby teeth. 🙂

I’m trying not to fall in love with her, but how can you not?

She’s staying with us until she’s old enough to live without her momma’s milk. Young cows don’t have the stomach to get all their nutrition from grass until after they’re four months old. They need momma’s milk and some grain until then.

She was so little when she arrived, but within a month (thanks to momma’s good milk) she had grown big enough to be used as a chin rest by her momma.

I really don’t want another cow besides her momma right now, so I’m not keeping her, but I’m sure going to miss her when she goes to her new farm. 😦

She’s a little beauty!

For those of you who know Jerseys and are interested in her stats: she’s A2/A2 homozygous polled, paint/fawn Miniature Jersey. Her dam is Kristoff’s Belle and her sire is Rocking Robin’s Romeo.

Though we’re not keeping her, we do have sexed sperm from her daddy to artificially inseminate her momma shortly. So next year, we’ll have another girl from her momma. I’m sure she’ll be just a cute as April.

I might have to keep that one.