Show & Tell Friday -- Raw Milk & Baby Calves

I began a quest for eating healthier when our oldest was little and needed breathing treatments every month (very much like Baby Boy now). I have learned much in the past eight years but yet it is still hard to change old habits of what I "know" or grew-up with. At that time I leaned heavily toward dairy being a problem with asthma and I believe to some extent it still is. One thing we changed is the milk we drink.

When our twins we were babies I began drinking rice milk and avoiding dairy especially because my babies all seem to be colicky when I would have dairy so I found alternatives for at least 3 months.  I didn't care for that however and then I found out about goat's milk and how easy it is to digest and such. That was something I needed for myself as I have been lactose intolerant since early on in my marriage but some things affect me more than others. We drank that for awhile (although my husband wouldn't as it tasted too "gamey") and then I found out about drinking raw milk from the cow and was able to find an organic farm that we could buy a share in (the "legal" way to buy it in our "dairy state") and then buy our milk from each week. The milk is thick and creamy and I never have problems digesting it. I also buy raw milk cheese in bulk from a co-op that works well for me too. It is about a 20 minute drive but then so is almost everything for us. I am not going to go into all the benefits of drinking raw milk but if it interests you you can read more HERE.

This week when we went to the milk farm we saw a calf that had just been born and was still wet. We were able to observe the care of newborn calf. We watched him get dried off, get his ear tag, get a shot of selenium (as I was told our area is deficient of that trace mineral). They attempted to give him colostrum from a bottle which he was too stubborn to take so ended up being intubated. I wasn't sure I wanted to watch that but found out that cows do not have a gag reflex and the tube goes down easily.

The calves on this farm are not secluded in little huts but progress from one pen to the next outdoors learning the ropes so to speak as they are pasture fed and roam the fields. We also watched 6 calves get moved from the barn to the outdoors and they were so giddy and skipping around it was fun to watch. There have been 88 calves born since the beginning of March so we see new ones each week. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera this time but here is a picture of them resting from a few weeks ago. I think the brown and white is so pretty!

For more Show & Tells visit Mary at Raising 4 Godly Men