Longhorn Cow Milk

Milking a Texas Legend

Ami is a pure Texas Longhorn, registered with the CTLR. I think everyone was laughing a bit when I told them I would milk her. Everyone we have told either shakes their heads like I am crazy, or tells me to get a Jersey cow. But why not milk the cow you have? If Longhorn meat is so far superior to other commercial cows, what about the milk? Surely it must be good too, to produce such lively, long-lived, healthy and strong cattle. So we have been milking Ami for a couple weeks now, and I can tell you that it has been a pleasure and a learning experience. I feel more satisfied in this than I could possibly have imagined.

No one else must have imagined it. I did a Google search on the task:

Search Terms:

1. "Longhorn Cow Milk" - Zero Results
2. "Milking a Longhorn Cow" - Zero Results
3. "Milk a Longhorn Cow" - Zero Results

Well, maybe anybody looking into this in the future will find this post and read that it CAN be done.

Today we drank our first cold glass of Longhorn milk, and it was sweet, tasty and refreshing. I'm not a milk drinker, but I can tell you I enjoyed that glass of milk. Next week, Lord willing, I will make some soft cheese to spread on some crackers.

You know, the world really doesn't understand why we do what we do, and why we want to live a simple, homesteading, separatist life and provide for ourselves by God's Grace. They will not understand the pure pleasure in getting milk from a cow that no one thought you could milk. The world wants us to go to a grocery store to get pastuerized milk in cartons, and to be two or more steps removed from our food. But since we here believe that the Longhorn Cow is the most perfect small homesteading animal God has created, it only makes sense that we would milk her and enjoy the product of His goodness. Sure we may never get 2-3 gallons a day, but you know what? We don't need 2-3 gallons a day, and not many people do.

Michael Bunker