Post by twistedtimbershomest on Feb 9, 2023 12:39:49 GMT -5
As many of you know from my other thread, we lost our Jersey cow yesterday. My husband and I and our 4 kids, can't imagine going back to grocery store milk and raw milk is illegal to buy here in Canada. So we are already considering getting a replacement milk cow sometime in the future. Here is a story and some potential cows, I'd love honest opinions about them with that little info I can share.
Last spring I started my search for a family milk cow. There weren't many listed so I put up a wanted ad on Kijiji (like Craigslist). I had a few people message me. One was a guy named Tim who said he had a few dairy heifers that were supposedly bred when he bought them but he was waiting to get preg checked. He sent me some pictures of them and I have to say, I fell in love with one of the Jersey girls. A few weeks later he contacted me to say that the vet checked them and, unfortunately, they were all open. So he got duped by the guy he bought them from. But the vet who checked them said they were such healthy, wonderful heifers, that he wanted to buy one once they were actually bred. I was pretty sad but eventually someone else messaged me that they were selling their bred Jersey, Maggie. She ended up being our cow for almost 7 months. Gave us a healthy bull calf and 3.5 months of delicious milk, and almost a month of health issues and heartache.
After Maggie passed away yesterday my husband suggested I message Tim again and see if he ended up getting those heifers bred and still had any available. I did that and he called me right back. He was sad to hear about our milk cow and said "are you that girl I warned about getting reject cows from a dairy?" Yup, that's me. So he said the vet actually had just been out this week and checked his girls. He was planning to get them all ultrasounded, but the vet was only able to palpate them before being called to an emergency c-section. So he has a Jersey who is due in 2-3 weeks... He's likely keeping her. He has a Jersey/Brown swiss that the vet estimates is due in April/May. A Jersey/ayreshire also due sometime in the spring. And the Jersey I fell in love with in the pictures last year.... Open or early bred. He thinks she slipped her pregnancy in November or December and has been with a bull, so could be pregnant but could also be open. He said she is the absolute sweetest cow and everyone's favorite, but it's too bad she lost her calf. Said she may have slipped on the ice or been knocked by another cow. He said he has lots of people already interested in these girls and that's without even listing them. The vet still wants to buy one because he still says they're very healthy nice quiet girls.
So here are pictures of the ones he sent me yesterday that he's willing to sell me.
First 3 pictures are the brown swiss/Jersey girl. He said she looks like she'll have nice big handmilking teats and is a quiet girl.
Next 2 are Jersey/ayreshire who is also bred, but looks really small to me. He said she's a nice quiet cow too.
The last 3 pictures have the pure Jersey heifer who I think is so lovely and he said is definitely the most friendly. But is either open or early pregnant and would be due fall...
Thoughts on these girlies? None of them look very pregnant to me, but maybe it's because I'm thinking of when my cow was due how huge she was. Also maybe the brown swiss and ayreshire are bigger framed ( but look small in pictures) he says the brown swiss is a big girl... So more feed required, I assume. I'm guessing a mix would be hardier though. I know nothing about Ayreshire so I'm looking for any and all feedback on all these ladies.
Thanks!
Last spring I started my search for a family milk cow. There weren't many listed so I put up a wanted ad on Kijiji (like Craigslist). I had a few people message me. One was a guy named Tim who said he had a few dairy heifers that were supposedly bred when he bought them but he was waiting to get preg checked. He sent me some pictures of them and I have to say, I fell in love with one of the Jersey girls. A few weeks later he contacted me to say that the vet checked them and, unfortunately, they were all open. So he got duped by the guy he bought them from. But the vet who checked them said they were such healthy, wonderful heifers, that he wanted to buy one once they were actually bred. I was pretty sad but eventually someone else messaged me that they were selling their bred Jersey, Maggie. She ended up being our cow for almost 7 months. Gave us a healthy bull calf and 3.5 months of delicious milk, and almost a month of health issues and heartache.
After Maggie passed away yesterday my husband suggested I message Tim again and see if he ended up getting those heifers bred and still had any available. I did that and he called me right back. He was sad to hear about our milk cow and said "are you that girl I warned about getting reject cows from a dairy?" Yup, that's me. So he said the vet actually had just been out this week and checked his girls. He was planning to get them all ultrasounded, but the vet was only able to palpate them before being called to an emergency c-section. So he has a Jersey who is due in 2-3 weeks... He's likely keeping her. He has a Jersey/Brown swiss that the vet estimates is due in April/May. A Jersey/ayreshire also due sometime in the spring. And the Jersey I fell in love with in the pictures last year.... Open or early bred. He thinks she slipped her pregnancy in November or December and has been with a bull, so could be pregnant but could also be open. He said she is the absolute sweetest cow and everyone's favorite, but it's too bad she lost her calf. Said she may have slipped on the ice or been knocked by another cow. He said he has lots of people already interested in these girls and that's without even listing them. The vet still wants to buy one because he still says they're very healthy nice quiet girls.
So here are pictures of the ones he sent me yesterday that he's willing to sell me.
First 3 pictures are the brown swiss/Jersey girl. He said she looks like she'll have nice big handmilking teats and is a quiet girl.
Next 2 are Jersey/ayreshire who is also bred, but looks really small to me. He said she's a nice quiet cow too.
The last 3 pictures have the pure Jersey heifer who I think is so lovely and he said is definitely the most friendly. But is either open or early pregnant and would be due fall...
Thoughts on these girlies? None of them look very pregnant to me, but maybe it's because I'm thinking of when my cow was due how huge she was. Also maybe the brown swiss and ayreshire are bigger framed ( but look small in pictures) he says the brown swiss is a big girl... So more feed required, I assume. I'm guessing a mix would be hardier though. I know nothing about Ayreshire so I'm looking for any and all feedback on all these ladies.
Thanks!