Would you like to blog about farming? Would you like to read a blog about a calf from the day it is born as she moves into the dairy herd and becomes a mature calf?
This could be the best of both worlds – you could sponsor a calf and I would write monthly blog posts about it from the day it is born. ?One of the rewards in my fundit crowdfunding campaign towards the self publication of my book is for just that – you could sponsor the best dairy calf in the Garrendenny herd in the spring of 2014, choose her name, come and visit for a day to meet her, have lunch and afternoon tea with us, bake scones with us, even bring in the cows to be milked and see them being milked in the parlour. ?You can also read about your calf on a monthly basis and share her story with your friends.
Our farm is in Co. Laois, in the south east of Ireland. We milk 90 cows and calve down about 140 each year (90 cows and 50 heifers). Some heifers are sold to other farmers and some are kept in the herd. Your sponsored calf will be one of the best calves in the herd and will be staying until her life comes to an end. Our cows are British Friesien so most of them are black and white and some are a dark red colour. (My favourites tend to be the dark reds). They are a lovely dairy breed – give plenty of milk and will have a calf each year.
The style of writing, of course, is up to the person who pledges ?1000 for this reward. What I am thinking of doing, just to give you an idea, is to write it from the perspective of the calf as she grows into a cow. Suppose she is named Gertrude – we will read Gertrude’s thoughts as she struggles to her feet soon after birth, what she thinks of her comrades, if she likes her large yellow earrings to her first taste of grass at a couple of months. We’ll read about how she grows, enjoys new experiences, makes new friends, wonders what the farmer is doing as he injects her with vaccinations, meets her first boyfriend, has her first calf and her first experience of being milked at 2 years of age. ?She will be one of our top EBI calves in 2014 and will have the potential of being a ‘bull-mother’ which means one of her bull calves may have the potential of being sought by one of the AI stations for his breeding abilities (just like Garrendenny Lucifer last year). ?She’ll give her own opinion on all the happenings amongst her comrades, the grass she is eating, her favourite fields, her best friend, and everything else that a cow might comment on in her life.
The blog can ?last for as long as she remains in the herd which could be up to 8 years. It will be hosted by wordpress.com and a new post will be written each month complete with photographs – some of which will be of ‘Gertrude’ and others will be as if taken from her perspective.
Can I have a word in your ear?
If you would like to have a blog written about your very own sponsored calf, it is the top reward in my fundit campaign for my book ‘Would You Marry A Farmer? Confessions of an Irish Farmerette’. There’s only one of these rewards available so I can promise it will be 100% unique and original. The book will be brilliant too 🙂
