Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Cows and Elephants!







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  1. Gene JohnstonMay 25, 2010 at 8:43 AM

    Top photo: The title of this post, the part about the elephants, is a bit misleading. There are no elephants in Guatemala that I'm aware of (althought there is a zoo in Guatemala City). But, they do have a thing called elephant grass, and this picture shows it. I think it is the same grass they are experimenting with in Illinois, it grows 12 feet tall and can produce the most tonnage of forage of any grass known. It may have originated here in Guatemala. The farmer in these pictures was feeding a chopped version of elephant grass to his cows, it may have come from this field on the edge of Zaragosa. I saw it as we were leaving town. I think it is harvested by hand, carried to the cow pens, and put through a small gas-powered chopper. I saw the chopped version of elephant grass that the farmer was feeding to his cows, and it looked like good forage, like corn silage without any grain in it, and the cows had access to all of it they wanted. The cows also get a pellet supplement once a day, hand fed, for protein.

    Next down: This is a young heifer belonging to one of the dairy farmers in Zaragosa, Arturo Melendez. She is a product of an A.I. sire from Select Sires in Ohio, and Arturo is very proud of her, she's going to be his biggest cow. She is due to calve in 5 months, and Arturo told me she's going to have a heifer calf. "You sure?" I asked through an interpreter. "Yes," he said. "See her tail, how it sits to the left?" "OK," I said, unsure of his point. "Well, when a cow's tail sits to the left, she will have a heifer calf. It works every time." I'm skeptical, and I tell Arturo that I am going to call him up in 5 months to find out for sure. And I tell him, "If it is a heifer calf, I will come back here and buy you a steak dinner. But if it is a bull, you have to come to Iowa and buy me a pork chop dinner." Arturo laughs heartily when that is interpreted, and he says, "Good, you will be coming back to Zaragosa soon."

    Bottom photo: This is Arturo and his milk cows. He has 5, a big herd here, with 3 Jerseys and 2 Holstein crosses. He only milks once a day, in the morning, they give about 10-15 liters a day. Some dairy farmers in this community milk twice a day, some just once.

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  2. MegMay 25, 2010 at 2:58 PM

    So how much does it cost to get a milking cow or heifer down there?

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  3. Doug BerryMay 25, 2010 at 5:14 PM

    When we milked cows as a boy, we always milked twice a day - the cow would dry up or give a lot less milk if milked just once a day.

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