We Bought TWO Milk Cows (Plus a Kitten :)

Ready to go on chores with me?

No, I'm going on chores. I'll go on chores.

We're here to see a man about a cow, a couple cows, and this morning we're gonna do that. Looks like Daniel's bringing them in. Good morning, Jeff.

Hey, how are you?

You doing okay? Yes, sir. So last night you told me, uh, somebody told you once the key to keeping a family together is going camping together. Can you tell me more about that? Oh, well, it was a marriage conference when I first got married.

And Darius Smalley. And he just said they had researched a ton of families that once their children got older, they still were, you know, just a tight family. One of the key things they saw between all of them is that they went camping together as a family. And I thought that was pretty cool. And he said that the reason they figured out was because camping is like you're forced in a small in tight quarters, and you're forced to stick together, and you rub each other wrong, and you learn how to go through really difficult situations together and still remain in relationship, still stay in relationship.

Oh, you have to work together, you have to problem solve together, you're raw and with each other and rubbing each other wrong and working through that stuff. I was like, that's the farm. Yeah, so I see us doing that every day. So that's really big. Because when you first started saying that, I was like, Well, maybe we got to go camping. And then I'm like, oh, okay, this is what it is about camping. I'm like, okay, we're doing this every day. Exactly. Good morning, y'all. Up and at 'em, ready to go? Yes, sir. You just gonna do 4 at a time?

Yep, this is the dip. Uh, it's just the detergent I showed you yesterday. Yeah, basic H water mix.

Okay.

And she's wiping with a wet rag and a dry rag.

Okay.

So half of it's wet, half of it's dry. And certain times of year when it's muddier, you know, you got to use a whole rag per cow.

Yeah.

This time of year, usually we can get 3 or 4 cows on one rag.

Now it's time to pick out a cow. What I'm looking for— I'm looking for a big build. I'm I'm looking for short legs. I'm looking for hardy. I'm looking for big teats because we hand milk. I'm looking for a cow that's not gonna kick while it's getting milked. I like the type, the size of her teats.

Oh yeah, she's a beauty.

So we're looking for something that's hand milkable.

This is what we do. We use machines.

This is pretty, not too loud. How long generally do cows go until they start getting in trouble into old age? Sickness and stuff like that.

It really depends on how you manage them and their health. I've heard of some cows on dairies like this where they don't have too much stress, once a day milking, stuff like that, that'll go up to 20 years.

20 years?

You're pretty much guaranteed with most of these cows to get up around 10 years old.

Okay, yeah, and that's where we're at with both of ours.

This one is like the color 4 or 5. Yeah, now see, I will say she's got, um, you can grab her teeth if you want. They're, they're They're not all the way down, you know, to 3 fingers. Um, and yes, her legs are a little longer, but she's available.

This one here, look, she's tall, isn't she?

Yeah, this one here is a nice one. She's actually had 2 sets of twins.

Oh nice.

Wow, she's got some pretty nice teeth.

Yeah, those are—

you can get a hold of it.

And those are the back ones, so the front ones are even bigger.

Front ones are, yeah, they go, they go all the way down to here. The front ones, they come all the way down.

How old is she?

She is, um, 8, I believe. I mean, most of these ones with nice-sized teats is because of their age, you know? Okay, like they get up past 5 years and their teats automatically grow. Their teats, their udders, their milk production. I would say for us, like peak milk production and teats is probably around like 5 or 6 years.

Next up, they just come, don't they? Oh, the stragglers don't want to be milked. You know, you're pointing out some of the best ones for you. Some of these are even some of the more— yeah, there's— I can tell there's, there's Crazy Eyes. Mom.

Yep, Crazy Eyes.

She has funk. Oh yeah, Summer. I knew that was, uh, some— Summer is Aunt Flossie because that one's named Autumn.

Autumn.

Yep. So you're just sticking with the seasons on those? Yeah.

The other one I have for sale actually. She's dry right now, so she won't be in here. Okay, right here. Yeah, that's her sister.

Okay, yeah, I see that. A lot of people who might see this are going to say, well, these cows look thin, and— but you're pointing to me like that one right there, you're saying that's your best cow.

And it depends on the time of year and the forage. Yeah, but— and these are all coming off the hay like just a month ago, so they're putting— they're starting to put on their summer weight.

Yeah, by the end of fall they're all going to be rippling with that.

Yeah. You know, and some of them do it faster than others, especially the older ones. Yeah, a dry cow like this, like this, she's pretty well filled out. Yeah, look, see, her tail's almost buried in fat there. Yeah, and that's because she's been dry for a couple weeks.

Yeah, so dry cows, she's from the Flossey line, I think.

Yeah, I don't really want a dairy cow that's going to be too heavy on the rear because it's always going to impact milk production. Ah, okay. The lighter they are on the rear, the more they can put into that udder. Nice, nice.

Daniel, you do this every morning? You ever get sick of it? All right. What do you do for fun after this is over? You sound like my dad. Oh my word, there were a lot of choices. And actually, during it, I was thinking, oh my goodness, how am I gonna pick one? Sure, I took a picture of a few. But oh my word, how am I really going to decide? Nothing is really standing out. Then I saw a couple. I think it might have been the very— almost the last two. My gut ignited and my heart sung, so to speak. All right, Rebecca, we came to see a man about a cow, and it's time. We need to have a discussion. So my heart sung at the end. We've seen a lot of beautiful cows. It's hard to go wrong here. They're grass-fed genetics, like truly grass-fed hardy genetics. He doesn't sell any cold cows, but like cows that should be dead. I had this one. This one's not officially for sale, but he'll put a price on anything. So I'm voting for her big time. Okay, Rosie. And we're gonna pay— we're gonna pay out our nose. That's Rosie. Whoa! Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Love at first sight. You know, dark underbelly, she's got a light upper belly. We have to think about that too. We're in show business, so we need a good fat cow. Josh, what's the name of this one? I wrote 7, but she's actually 6. So is that towards the end?

That is Honey. She's—

that's right, Honey. I'm thinking Honey's for sure, and we like Rosie. These cows, uh, were hefty looking. They were light in color, so they're not going to be too hot out in the sun. They had great teats and seemed just like good personalities and just great producers. We came to our father's farm to get a couple of cows, and we, we got that.

Hooray!

We also got a kitten. Look at this. Look at what she tricked me into getting. What's her name?

Sabina.

Sabina? Sabina. You like that name? She came to me and said, I gotta get a cat. She said, Mom wants one.

I said, okay.

We also got friends, got to spend a lot of time with them, got to get to know them. We're encouraged by them. We also come away from encouragement for parenting and creating family. So it's interesting, we go to see a man about a cow and we go away stronger as a family. That's what I love about this life journey that we're on. See you, Tim. Thanks for showing me around. Proud of you.

It's good to have you.

You're doing good. Daniel, you did good. Proud of you getting that grill, cooking everybody meat. John, good to meet you. You're doing good collecting those eggs. Kim, thanks for having us.

Thank you for coming.

God bless you. You and Jack are doing a great work. Thank Thank you. So are you. Thank you. Good inspiration. Samuel, see you, buddy. Brother's got a hug. Brother's got a hug. Josh, see ya. Thanks again, man. Hey, brother's got a hug.

God bless you.

Yes, real good.

Are you gonna come?

Jack, Kim, any parting— any parting words of wisdom on how others can cultivate a family like this that sticks around?

I know it's a simple thing, but you know, for us it's, it's really having that right relationship with the Lord. So to not have that right relationship with the Lord, it's gonna be next to impossible to have a right relationship with all the members in your family.

You got to learn to delight in each other.

Yeah, and overlook stuff and make a safe, peaceful environment for people to be in. All right, cool. Yeah. Grant you, grant you peace, perfect, perfect peace, courage in every endeavor. Lift up your eyes and see his face and his grace forever. May the Lord mighty guide you, God bless and keep you forever.

We are home!

We are home!

How many days in a row?

Uh, it was 8 for me.

8 we've traveled? It was 8 for me, 7 for you.

Oh my word.

Whoa, you've cleaned up in here! Wow! Jonah! Jonah! What? I'm so proud of you, man. You did such a good job.

Mom, look at this guy.

I go away knowing I want to have more fun as we work. I also want to take time to have fun. Okay, I got a surprise for you guys. It's good to have fun on the farm while we work, but it's good to have fun fun. Mom snuck and got this at Target today. I'm going to give it to the oldest to unwrap it. OK? Let the oldest do it. Go ahead. Everybody can see.

A soccer ball! A soccer ball!

That means we're going to go play soccer together right now.

Yay!