Clover Creek Welcomes First Calves of the Year

Clover Creek Cheese Cellar welcomed the first two calves of the year on the morning of Friday, March 8, to their 126-acre Ojala Farm in Williamsburg.

Cheesemaker Anthony Rice, said their cow Mikaela gave birth to twins, a boy and girl.

“The boy is Maldon and the girl is Mezcal,” he said.

When naming the calves, they like to have the first letters match the mother’s.

Rice said they had a calf guessing contest to see who could predict whether Mikaela would give birth to a boy or girl.

“We have twins – a boy and girl so we thought well that’s not an option we thought of — guess everyone wins that question,” he said.

The calves will be fed twice a day with their mother’s milk.

Then in about two months the calves will be weaned and start eating grass.

Rice said they have fields across the creek for calf pastures and a big tank at the top of the lane that gravity feeds.

Inside the tank is waste from the cheesemaking process.

“Only about 10% becomes cheese and the rest is left over liquid called whey,” he said.

They will save that and feed it to the calves.

The liquid has some sugar and proteins that do not get into the cheese.

“It is almost like a sports drink for the calves — they love drinking it,” Rice said.

Because Clover Creek is seasonal, once their cows start having babies is when they are able to start making cheese again, he said.

Rice said they currently have about 59 cows due to give birth within the next two months.

The goal is to have all of the cows have their babies in March, April and May.

That way in May and June, they will have grass when it grows the best at a time when cows need the highest amounts of food.

“That is when they are producing the most milk,” Rice said.

He said any day now there could be more calves at the Clover Creek farm.

Rice said the Clover Creek has about 70 cows that are made up of Fleckvieh, Milking Shorthorns, Jerseys, Linebacks, Norwegian Reds and a few other breeds.

“We found the best ones for our system is what is called a dual purpose breed — so they are designed to be both for meat and producing milk,” he said.

They have found the dual purpose cow breeds grow the best on being pasture raised.

“We have nice healthy cows and they give enough milk that we can make decent cheese out of it,” Rice said. “We are not looking for the quantity, we would rather have the quality.”

He said their main concern is the proteins and fats in the milk.

Their cows are grass fed and move frequently to different pastures to prevent them from overeating in one location, and eat dry hay during the winter months.

He said they work to make sure the cows live as stress free as possible and antibiotic-free as possible.

“It is amazing what sunshine and fresh air and them being able to exercise can do,” Rice said.