New to Cattle

[gcreekrch]

For most of my high school days my step father was hospitalized for 3 or 4 back surgeries and I had to support the family ( no insurance in the early 1960s )

I kept a flock of laying hens and 2 cows that were a cross between Guernsey and Jersey - - - I sold eggs and whole milk, skim milk and cream.

Poured it thru a filter and put it in the frig - - - don't think you could get by like that now without going to jail but I was able to keep food for 2 younger sisters and a younger brother - - - we had waiting list of people willing to drive quite a ways for the whole milk and the cream. Bought a Sears electric churn and started selling real butter.

We didn't sell butter, but we milked a cow for years and sold the raw whole milk. I had laying hens that I raised from day olds, and sold eggs. I had a regular milk and egg route. We put the milk in gallon glass jars. Mr. FH made a wooden milk carrier with a divider in the middle. We had an electric seperater, and the homemade butter we used ourselves. On occasion I did take buttermilk to the hospital if the doctors called because someone had taken antibiotics for a long stretch of time.

The best milk cow we had was Shorthorn and Holstein. We called her 'Blue'.
Her milk was delicious. We had a couple of Guernsey; Guernsey x Shorthorn; Holstein and even a Black Angus cow throughout the years.

Selling milk and eggs bought our groceries and probably more in those
years. That would have been from 1965 to 1982. It didn't matter that we
hand milked a cow those years, we couldn't afford to go anywhere anyway!

The worse part of the whole thing was cleaning that doggone separator.
It had all those discs and of course, the only dishwasher we had was me.
I wouldn't wish that job on anyone. :wink:

Looking back, those were good times, when we all worked hard. We never thought we were poor, because everyone was in the same boat. We had
ice skating parties on the creek and BBQ's where everyone got together. I guess we had more TIME then...or our priorities were different. Anyhow,
I wouldn't mind going back to those days with a couple exceptions.

There was an elderly couple who ranched in this area for many years. They had no children, only one hired man, and ran about fifteen hundred cows on close to twenty thousand acres. It was kind of a survival of the fittest sort of operation, but they ran small framed Angus cows and got by better than you'd think. They never branded their calves, and didn't vaccinate or castrate. Each fall some neighbors would help gather cattle and send the calves off to the sale barn. They also had a couple milk cows, a feathered flock of chickens, and a multitude of dogs, cats, and three-legged fawns. The lady peddled milk and eggs around town, and my grandmother was one of her customers. Even though they had a good big ranch and lots of beef cows in their favor, this lady one time told my grandmother that if it wasn't for selling milk, cream, and eggs, they just wouldn't be able to survive. :roll:

I know her sister. :wink: