FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: LOUISE

Boy have I been crazy busy lately with the county fair, and now getting ready for the Princess Kay competition and packing for college.

Louise, I'm pretty sure she was a gift from heaven to make my county fair great. She was born on March 3 of 2012 and I showed her as a spring calf. Because she was so young and I had 3 yearlings to train as well, I only worked with her twice before the county fair. But immediately, I fell in love with her. She was just the sweetest little thing.

When Tuesday of the fair rolled around, it was show time, and she did a great job in the ring and she got an Award of Excellence (my first ever in dairy.) And her net merit was 967, earning Grand Champion Genetics (my first ever dairy champion plaque.) Then when showmanship came, I had a hard decision to make, I had four heifers there. My oldest one, Beatrice, threw me to the ground in the ring so I was for sure not going to take her. And then Bobbie Jo has trouble standing still, so I was not going to take her either. So it was down to Vanessa or Louise, I had used Vanessa in showmanship the day before for open, but she had gotten tired and stopped walking half-way through. So I figured Louise was small enough that if she misbehaved I could handle it. Much to my surprise, she was perfect!!! And we placed 3rd out of 19, (the best I have even done in county dairy showmanship!)

Louise and I with the Champion Ribbon.

She is just a born show cow that made my fair a great one.

Louise and I with our Award of Excellence along with Wishing and Laura and their Blue Ribbon.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: GRANDMA

At the ripe old age of 12, grandma cow just had her 10th calf, and her first heifer, and that is why she is my featured cow of the week. In her lifetime, she has produced 232,153 lbs of milk with 7,767 lbs of fat and 6,453 lbs of protein. She is the oldest cow on the farm, but doesn't show it. Her udder still is not the lowest on the farm and she moves pretty good for a cow of her age. The only thing is she moves a little slower because she knows we will let her go nice and slow.

A cow living to 12 is becoming more and more rare. But grandma cow is still doing well. Her ear tag number is 93, and we have heifers coming into the barn now after their first calf at 370s. And she still produces well, her last lactation produced 28,847 and she peaked at 117. Her average milked produced in a day is 81 pounds since she was 2 years old.

Her sire is Convincer and the sire to her newest calf is Toy Story. We were so happy when we found out that she had a heifer, having a cow with such great longevity is a fantastic grate.