Guest guest Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 > This would be a wonderful offering to the Deities: Here a 4 families > engaging in cow protection and working their own patches of land. A goal > could be to have one month per year in which the Deities are fed only with > produce and grains produced by the oxen. This is what we are aiming for at Madhuvan at least. Right now we have two families sharing two cows, one of which is milking. In the morning I take care of them and in the evening one of the older kids takes care of them. We are getting two more fully paid up cows also in a few days, both Milking. The other family have had their cows for about 8 years, and are now joining the Madhuvan project. When we get the two new cows, I will take Kalindi who is not giving milk (shes about 8 years old, but was bred for meat, and stopped milking some years back) and one of the new milking cows. I need as much gobar as I can get for the land so I am very pleased to have them both. I have been taking care of these cows personaly now for about 9 months, and getting more and more happy every day. In summer I take them on a half kilometer walk to the fenced grazing lands. The new cows we are getting were owned by one 'Friend of Krsna' whose father owned a dairy business, somehow she fell in love with these two and asked her father to spare them from slaughter. But now her father is retiring, so she set up a trust, and has a whole bunch of her friends paying into it to maintain these cows when they come to us. They are giving an upfront lump sum to help pay for them and some materials for a shelter. As it is, many of the old cows at New Vrajamandala have died off, and now there are only 3 cows giving milk and Rupa the 9 year old ox. We have vast amounts of grazing land. The Temples cows are still looked after by Bhakta ALberto, and as you probably noticed (a notice on the conference from BHakta Michi) he had some nice success producing a music CD to help fund the cows. The Madhuvan project is seperate from that. We are building a goshalla at Madhuvan now, working every afternoon. In the mornings at about nine, after I finish all my emails, I go to milk lila then on to Madhuvan where I am building a strawbale yurt, at the same time as preparing raised beds for vegetable growing, and shifting the fence so the cows wont feast everyday on the growing veggies. Its a lot of work. In the afternoons we cooperate to create the goshalla. Right now we are sharing the cow facilties because we are only two families, and so when one family goes away the other takes care of the cows. But the aim is to have the cows eventualy housed at our own places. The place I am building is on a small hill. I am planning to have the cow shed at the bottom of the hill, and then between that and the yurt, a greenhouse all connected. The warmth from the cows and from a compost heap will heat the greenhouse and also insulate the yurt, so we can grow some more exotic requirements such as ginger, and maybe some citrus bushes. Ultimately Madhuvan can handle up to 12 families. We envision that each will have its own vegetable plot, but we will work together to grow grains, cloth, and oil crops. We do have a vision for how to have sustainable cow protection here, but I dont have time right now to get into much more at this moment. Your servant Samba das Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 Samba (das) SDG wrote: >>That way, the milk production would level out over time. A good milker in >>Florida should be able to milk for at least 2 years. >> >> > >One cow here Lila, is about 9 years old she last calved 5 years ago, and she >gives 5 litres of milk a day! Not a lot but enough for two families, 4 >adults two teenagers and two kids. > That's pretty amazing. We had a Brown Swiss cow, Visaka, who gave milk for many years at Gita-nagari on just one lactation. I think it was about 3 gallons per day. Derek or Balabhadra might know the figure. What breed is Lila? One thing that I found was that usually milk after the first year was not so good for hot milk. Better for curd and other things. Do you notice a change in the quality? ys hkdd > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 > One cow here Lila, is about 9 years old she last calved 5 years ago, and she > gives 5 litres of milk a day! Not a lot but enough for two families, 4 > adults two teenagers and two kids. > We had the idea at NV of breeding a cow, it spending the first year of lactation in the temple goshalla giving milk for the Deities, then go to a householder. If you bred one cow a year, plenty for the Deities and 4 or more milkers out in the community with families. Incidentally, sounds suspicuously like a plan what you have going there in Spain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 > That's pretty amazing. We had a Brown Swiss cow, Visaka, who gave milk > for many years at Gita-nagari on just one lactation. I think it was > about 3 gallons per day. Derek or Balabhadra might know the figure. > > What breed is Lila? Shes a Pardo Alpina, at least thats what she is here, I dont know if there is another name, or how that translates. She is the happiest and mellowest cow I have come accross. I have not milked many cows, but she always stands peacefully to be milked, and most of the time the milk starts flowing before I can start, much to my distress. > > One thing that I found was that usually milk after the first year was > not so good for hot milk. Better for curd and other things. Do you > notice a change in the quality? I will try to find out of there has been a change, but I dont think so. Her milk is delicious. It is a little greenish in colour after you take out the cream, its a little disconcerting, although not greatly so, but it tastes really good, and is excellent for anything. YS Samba das Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 > > > One cow here Lila, is about 9 years old she last calved 5 years ago, and > she > > gives 5 litres of milk a day! Not a lot but enough for two families, 4 > > adults two teenagers and two kids. > > > > We had the idea at NV of breeding a cow, it spending the first year of > lactation in the temple goshalla giving milk for the Deities, then go to a > householder. If you bred one cow a year, plenty for the Deities and 4 or > more milkers out in the community with families. > > Incidentally, sounds suspicuously like a plan what you have going there in > Spain. You know, we dont really have any hard and fast plans, just a lot of Srila Prabhupadas books, and we are going to just try to follow what he wants, and see what works. We are going to try to be very very careful, and to really discuss *a lot* a bit like the Amish, before we start to take on lots of cows or any big commitment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2004 Report Share Posted January 11, 2004 Change in the taste of the milk- been living with cows for seven years now, I do not think I have seen any change in the taste of a particular cow's milk after few years. But yes, the taste do change when there is a change in the fodder given especially in case of stock fed cows. There are certain legumes which cause the taste to change. y/s Jai Chaitanya Samba (das) SDG [samba.SDG (AT) pamho (DOT) net] Wednesday, January 07, 2004 10:21 PM Noma Petroff; Cow (Protection and related issues) Cc: Kalavatidevi108 (AT) aol (DOT) com Re: Developing a cow-herd friendly community > That's pretty amazing. We had a Brown Swiss cow, Visaka, who gave milk > for many years at Gita-nagari on just one lactation. I think it was > about 3 gallons per day. Derek or Balabhadra might know the figure. > > What breed is Lila? Shes a Pardo Alpina, at least thats what she is here, I dont know if there is another name, or how that translates. She is the happiest and mellowest cow I have come accross. I have not milked many cows, but she always stands peacefully to be milked, and most of the time the milk starts flowing before I can start, much to my distress. > > One thing that I found was that usually milk after the first year was > not so good for hot milk. Better for curd and other things. Do you > notice a change in the quality? I will try to find out of there has been a change, but I dont think so. Her milk is delicious. It is a little greenish in colour after you take out the cream, its a little disconcerting, although not greatly so, but it tastes really good, and is excellent for anything. YS Samba das ----------------------- To from this mailing list, send an email to: Cow-Owner (AT) pamho (DOT) net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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