2/24/23 Please welcome Decade Lissa to our farm. We call her Lissa for short. Lissa was purchased from a local dairy here in the Upstate of SC who have about an 75% grass based operation. They do grain their cattle and before making a purchase I discussed with the genetics manager of the dairy about converting Lissa to full grass. I was assured that Lissa should make the transition without difficulty. We provide all the necessary essentials for Lissa to thrive but when animals are raised from generation to generation with these grain based supplements the transition can be very hard. We will monitor Lissa and if the decision needs to be made to give an organic cattle dairy ration we will notify all customers prior to that happening.
One of Lissa’s strong points is that she is DNA proven Purebred A2/A2 Jersey cow. Lissa calved on 4/11 and gave us a sweet little Red Angus/Jersey heifer. Lissa came bred but when we decide to breed her again we will be artificially inseminated with a more grass based standard Jersey bull’s sperm. Our goal is to reduce the need for grain in future offspring and as well reduce the stature without sacrificing the milk quality in future cows born here. Lissa is currently 100% grass fed and our desire is to be able to maintain her on grass and produce offspring who can be fully managed on grass without any need for grain.
Lissa is producing about 2 gallons of delicious milk per day currently. Please see our milk share page for details on purchasing milk from our farm.
UPDATE 2/8/24: We have added New Country Organics Dairy cattle rations to her milking time. My monthly feed order will be around the 28th of this month so starting in March we will add the supplemental feeding.
UPDATE 04/29/24 We have decided to sell Lissa to a family who does not mind the organic grain. We have set her price @ $3500 firm. She is currently open (not bred) giving three(3) gallons of milk daily. She is sound in all four quarters and has never had mastitis. She is machine milked but her teats are long enough to be hand milked. We will be putting Lissa in with a live beef bull at her next heat. We have attempted to artificially inseminate her twice unsuccessfully so live cover is my next option. She is cycling without incident so I believe live cover will be the best choice at this point.
UPDATE 5/15/24 We will be drying Lissa off at the end of this month. She is currently open and if we do not find the right buyer for her we will breed her back to a Grass fed Beef Bull from a neighboring farm.
Update 06/13/24 We have decided to prolong Lissa’s lactation just a bit longer. We have removed the organic dairy rations and added just pasture grass and 2 buckets of Chaff hay daily. Lissa is maintaining about 2 plus gallons a day on a once per day milking schedule. Her condition is stable (no weight loss) still sound in a four quarters ( which I check very often). We have not bred Lissa as of yet. We have a dear friend with organic Grass fed bulls who is willing to lend one but still not 100% sure. I might attempt another AI before I totally give up. We are still open to selling Lissa to the right family.