Mango the Cow

This weekend Mango, our new Jersey heifer arrived on the croft. I’m so excited to finally have her here at the croft. She had to wait a week on Orkney Mainland because the ferry was cancelled last weekend. She’s settling in really well, and loves being stroked while she eats - she’s very soft!

When she arrived in the cattle trailer our neighbour drove her up to the croft, we got her out, and it was a quick dash to clean out the trailer, which was very mucky, and get it back to the ferry before it returned to Kirkwall. Then I put on a NoFence (virtual fence) collar, which trained her very quickly with audio warnings to where she can and cannot go. What a relief, as we are still in the middle of fencing the fields.

Mango is due to calve in April, and will be our family milk cow. We bought a Sheltand cow to milk last year, but the months came and went, and she never calved! We were really disappointed, but have learnt from our mistakes, and Mango has recently been scanned and confirmed in calf. We plan to calf share, also known as calf-at-foot-dairying, where the calf will stay with Mango, and we’ll just take what we need. As a Jersey she’ll be making more than enough super creamy milk for us and the calf.