1st November 2007 Gertude the Calf Blog

Gertrude has been growing
She is now about - ear to ear - 40cm
Height approximately 93cm
And length - even more approximately 140cm

These measurements are approximate, have a look at the video to see how she is - and to see that measuring an excitable and lively young calf like Gertrude is actually very difficult - particularly with other calf friends running about and a large tape measure..

Choose the video format to suit your system to have a look at how Heather got on chasing Gertrude to produce these measurements!

Gertrude's diet is now a mix of Calf pellets with the following type of ingredients;

Barley, dark grains, wheat, malt residual, wheatfeed, extracted rapeseed meal, molasses, sugar beet pulp, sunflower meal, limestone, salt, fish oil, mineral and vitamin premix, high C16 protected fat (GM free), dical, covotek 650 (permitted flour). This is all in one feed. This provides up to 70% of daily dry matter.

Calves up to three months get approx 2 kgs per day
Weaned calves approx 4 kgs per day.

There is an automatic feeder for the milk - and the calves quickly learn to get their own drinks.The machine recognizes the calves by an electronic tag so that the Jerseys get 5 litres per day and Holsteins get 7 litres per day. The amount is spread over a 24 hour period and reduces as they get nearer to being weaned off. Holsteins weaned at about 10 weeks old and Jerseys are weaned at 12 weeks.

The ground area for the calves is covered with fresh straw. It has been treated with ammonia to ferrment the straw for feeding to the cows and also prevent bugs in stomach when feeding it to the calves.

Ruth - Gertrude's mother - on the 1st November Ruth produced 16.7 litres of milk. She was not well for a little while, but is now doing fine.

August 2007 - The Farm Visit

Anastasia Philips from Surrey was our delighted winner of the "win a cow" on-pack competition. With her family she spent a day at Mackie's to choose her cow, and was also given a guided tour of the farm and ice cream dairy along with a tasting session in the NPD kitchen.

Anna got up close to the young stock to choose her cow. After much deliberation she picked calf no.30, or perhaps no.30 picked Anna.

Anna with sister Sophie in the ice cream dairy.	Tasting the Mackie's range in the New Product Development Kitchen

Gertrude
Anna has named her calf "Gertrude". This was a popular name in the early 1900's but is not quite so common now. Gertrude is an excellent choice and certainly better than no.30 - it means "spear of strength", derived from the Germanic elements ger "spear" and þruþ "strength". Saint Gertrude the Great was a 13th-century nun and mystic writer. This name was also used by Shakespeare for the mother of Hamlet.

You may enjoy a look at a larger than life Gertrude cow at this link - www.ohiobarns.com

Anna's Cow

Gertrude's mother is one of the milking cows at Westertown - and has been renamed "Ruth" by Anna. She was born on the 14th August 2003 and has produced almost 5,000 litres of milk so far. She is currently producing about 15 litres a day.

If you have any questions about Gertrude then please email mackies@mackies.co.uk