Post by elnini on Apr 16, 2023 7:26:43 GMT -5
I need KFC ideas/thoughts/suggestions.
Background
My jersey, Belle, is 6 years old. She calved with her 4th calf on the 22nd March. She's had no troubles at all with previous calvings.Never had mastitis, milk fever or any kind of sickness. Her previous calf is an angus x heifer with three chins and a lovely temperament, who was weaned last November because Belle was getting thin and she was 10 mths old. Belle is currently a perfect weight.
She was with the bull 2nd May 22 to 5 May 22 and 10 July 22 to 22 July 22. I must be calculating wrongly because that makes calving dates circa 8 Feb 23 to 11 Feb 23 or 18 April 23 to 30 April 23. The calving date is either a month early or a month late for one of those sets.
The calf had lovely teeth, is a decent size and well built (angus dad). He mastered stairs at 36 hrs old so is well co-ordinated. I am guessing he's not early... But Belle had shown no signs of impending calving, hadn't even made up. I had given up on the earlier date and was waiting to see her make up for the end of April.
When I went to milk her the day she calved she had nothing but about 2 litres of what looked liked tomato soup. The calf hadn't latched on, probably luckily, so I gave him a couple of feeds of frozen colostrum and a top up of Kwik Start colostrum replacer. After that I fed him calf replacer and then her milk as it started to clear. He didn't latch on for five days, I had to teach him and that was an exercise and a half... included her stepping on my instep while I was fartknuckling sitting at her udder poking his face and a teat together.
Anyway, I milked her three times a day and after about a three days the milk started looking like milk, getting less pink each day. After 9 days the milk would set without a pink line under the cream. But it still strained slimy and was salty til about two weeks in. Now it's perfect. At no time did she act like she was in pain, have a temp, pus, strings or heat or lumps. If you hadn't seen the bloody whatever it was you'd think cow and calf were perfectly healthy and a normal calving. There was no off behaviour or demeanor from her at all.
He's drinking like a machine now, clears the two front quarters nicely and I get approx 8 litres milking OAD. I don't mind that her production is down, the evening milking was at 9.30pm after coming home from work at 9.15 each night and I was only getting 1.5 litres. I think if I pushed for more milk she'd raise production a bit, but I'm ok with what I am getting, which covers the house, the dogs and cats and pigs. I hand milk, and did last lactation, she prefers that to the machine.
So, what could have happened, why was the calf a month late and what could happen next lactation ? Should I do anything at dry up ?
Background
My jersey, Belle, is 6 years old. She calved with her 4th calf on the 22nd March. She's had no troubles at all with previous calvings.Never had mastitis, milk fever or any kind of sickness. Her previous calf is an angus x heifer with three chins and a lovely temperament, who was weaned last November because Belle was getting thin and she was 10 mths old. Belle is currently a perfect weight.
She was with the bull 2nd May 22 to 5 May 22 and 10 July 22 to 22 July 22. I must be calculating wrongly because that makes calving dates circa 8 Feb 23 to 11 Feb 23 or 18 April 23 to 30 April 23. The calving date is either a month early or a month late for one of those sets.
The calf had lovely teeth, is a decent size and well built (angus dad). He mastered stairs at 36 hrs old so is well co-ordinated. I am guessing he's not early... But Belle had shown no signs of impending calving, hadn't even made up. I had given up on the earlier date and was waiting to see her make up for the end of April.
When I went to milk her the day she calved she had nothing but about 2 litres of what looked liked tomato soup. The calf hadn't latched on, probably luckily, so I gave him a couple of feeds of frozen colostrum and a top up of Kwik Start colostrum replacer. After that I fed him calf replacer and then her milk as it started to clear. He didn't latch on for five days, I had to teach him and that was an exercise and a half... included her stepping on my instep while I was fartknuckling sitting at her udder poking his face and a teat together.
Anyway, I milked her three times a day and after about a three days the milk started looking like milk, getting less pink each day. After 9 days the milk would set without a pink line under the cream. But it still strained slimy and was salty til about two weeks in. Now it's perfect. At no time did she act like she was in pain, have a temp, pus, strings or heat or lumps. If you hadn't seen the bloody whatever it was you'd think cow and calf were perfectly healthy and a normal calving. There was no off behaviour or demeanor from her at all.
He's drinking like a machine now, clears the two front quarters nicely and I get approx 8 litres milking OAD. I don't mind that her production is down, the evening milking was at 9.30pm after coming home from work at 9.15 each night and I was only getting 1.5 litres. I think if I pushed for more milk she'd raise production a bit, but I'm ok with what I am getting, which covers the house, the dogs and cats and pigs. I hand milk, and did last lactation, she prefers that to the machine.
So, what could have happened, why was the calf a month late and what could happen next lactation ? Should I do anything at dry up ?