milk in February

Some folks as us why we bother milking all-grass cows in late winter, when commercial grass dairies typically take a vacation.   The answer is simple.  1)  Mowing services.  We continue to rotate our cows over the pasture in winter because there is still grass for them to eat, pasture we've stockpiled for this purpose since July.  This tall grass has to be sheared before spring so the sun can reach the new growing tips.  If the cows will give us free milk for the trouble of squeezing, we're happy to  accept.     2)  Eggs.  In the winter when insects and worms are scarce, our chickens lay more eggs because we feed them clabber and curds from our spare milk.        3)  Bacon.  Waste buttermilk and skim milk added to the pigs' ration fills out their diet of scraps, pumpkins, mangel-wurzels, potatoes, and waste hay.         4)  Milk, butter, yogurt, kefir, sour cream, cream cheese, and any other dairy food we may desire.              And, finally, 5) We milk cows in February so we can milk them in April, when the grass comes in and the cows' production goes back up and they once again give milk generously.