In my last post, I shared what life looks like for a heifer on our farm. In this post, I thought I would take you through what a year in the life of one of our milk cows looks like. There’s a slight difference between our cows that live in our robot barn versus the cows that are milked in the parlor, but overall it’s very much the same for all of the cows here. 
So we left off on the last post with a heifer having her first calf. After she’s had a calf she is no longer considered a heifer and is officially a cow. After giving birth she will be given a calcium supplement to make sure she has everything her body needs. A cow that has just calved produces colostrum, a thick milk that is full of immune-building antibodies for calves. So while the cow is producing colostrum her milk is separated and pasteurized and stored to be fed to the newborn calves on the farm.
For the first 10 days after calving, we keep an extra close eye on our cows. They live in a smaller group during that time just to keep her environment as low-stress and comfortable as possible. While living in this group she is checked over visually and her temperature is checked daily. If a cow has any issues after calving we will give her treatment based on protocols that our veterinarian has put in place. Those treatments can range from something as simple as aspirin to a cow needing antibiotics.
After 10 days the cow normally moves out of the small group and into the main milking barn. Where obviously they are fed and watered and have a clean place to lay daily. At our parlor farm, this means she goes to the parlor three times a day, at specific times to be milked. At the robot farm, the cow chooses when to go to the robot to be milked.
Once the cow is about 50-55 days after calving she is checked by our veterinarian to make sure her reproductive system is recovered from calving and she is cycling as she should. Most of the time the cow has already started to have an estrus cycle again. Around 70 days after calving, the cow will be bred for the first time. About 30 days after that breeding, she will be checked for pregnancy by our veterinarian. If she isn’t pregnant she will be bred again, and if she is pregnant then she hangs out giving milk until she’s about 50-60 days from having her calf.
Once the cow is 50-60 days from giving birth, we do what is called “drying her off” and what that means is that we stop milking her and in turn, she stops producing milk. During this time she is called a dry cow and she lives in a pen with other dry cows. They are fed a different feed mixture than our milking cows and they pretty much just spend the last weeks of their pregnancy hanging out and relaxing.
As she gets closer to calving, within a week or so, we move her over to a pen that is bedded with deep straw. That’s where she will give birth and the cycle of life starts again.