Dairy Girl

Once upon a time, I had a boyfriend/unofficial fiance who lived in Southern California.  He turned out to be an abusive bastard and I eventually left him for Ba'al.  But while we lived together, his friends quickly decided to call me Cheese or Dairy Girl.  He and his friends were all lactose intolerant to one degree or another; of the entire group, I was the only one who regularly consumed milk and with great relish.

I am a farm girl.  I lived on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin until I was almost eight years old.  I vividly remember going out the the barn before bed for a before bed snack of milk no more than five minutes removed from the cow.  Problem is, most dairy cows are engineered to do nothing more than produce enormous amounts of milk for a relatively short number of years.  The average Holstein (the black and white cows that are the primary provider of milk in this country) only produces for about ten years.  Some smaller breeds, like Gurseys, Jerseys, and American Shorthorns live longer, produce richer milk, but need fairly rich forage to do so.  Colorado has anything but rich pasture land for cows of this nature.  

Our dreams of a self-sustaining farm actually got their start a year or so ago when we learned about the Dexter breed.  Dexters are rare and endangered and are classified as a miniature breed.  Most stand no more than four feet tall at the shoulder.  Most are red in color although we've seen some that are black and white.  They produce a large amount of milk relative to their size (around 10 gallons a day) and can do so on poor, scrubby forage.  They don't need grain (unlike Holsteins) to produce well.  They are also a duel-purpose breed.  They can be used for meat as well as milk.  Where most breeds, in our sort of climate need an acre per animal, Dexters can flourish on about a half acre each.  So they pretty much seem to be the ideal breed for us.  

We also want sheep.  We think we're going to raise Navajo-Churros; a breed native to the American Southwest.  As with many breeds that are now rare or endangered, NC's are duel purpose.  They turn out six pounds of wool per animal or more, they fill out well for low fat meat production, and the ewes are good milk producers.  The ewes also give birth easily with little intervention and are generally good mothers.  They tend to produce twins or triplets which helps us build a herd and make some money selling lambs to other farms.

Now any farm that has cows and sheep needs a good herding dog.  And we've got one picked out.  We want a Canaan Dog.  They are from Israel, developed from the wild dogs native to that region.  They're medium size, tough and hardy, and bred to herd, being loyal and protective.  They excel in field competition.  Ba'al wants to do the training since he would like to show the dog in herding and field competitions.