Mrald Isabella

I am really excited to add this beautiful little girl to our herd…the whole way from Washington state.  Isabella is a well built little cow with great depth & width, and an exceptionally nice udder.  Not to mention a really fun personality!  She leads well on halter, and was shown several times, taking Reserve Grand Champion Female as a yearling heifer at the 2011 Puyallup Spring Fair.

Izzy was trained to milk on her first lactation, and is doing wonderfully with our milking routine here.  She has beautiful, rich creamy milk, with a nice hint of yellow color to it.  She has fit into my herd quite nicely & is established as one of the leaders of the herd.  She has adapted well to grass-fed management, and is able to gain & maintain good condition on forage alone, which is quite important to me.

Izzy is a significant foundation cow for my herd and she is definitely one of my favorites.  She has given me a wonderful replacement heifer that I am retaining & I just can’t keep everybody!

Milk Production

Isabella peaks around 3 gallons a day, and drops quickly off to about 2 gallons.  Though that is lower production than I want, the quality of her milk makes up for it & she is well worth milking.  Her milk is fabulously sweet & creamy, and testing at the end of her first lactation revealed a 5.9% butterfat content and 3.7% protein.  Izzy has been hand- and machine-milked, and is absolutely rock solid in the stanchion…no fussing or kicking.  She share-milks without issue (See my Jan 2016 blog post to learn about our share-milking routine).

Calving History

• 6/14/12 – black steer calf (born at Emerald Park Farm)
• 10/28/13 – “Shortie”, dun heifer by Rainbow Hills Comet
• 9/3/14 – “Porter”, black steer by Belle Fourche Rousseau
• 10/4/15 – “Moonshine”, black heifer by Euchee Creek’s Red Lamont