Post by epitts75 on Oct 6, 2010 7:31:40 GMT -5
If you didn't read my previous thread the situation is this: Some acquaintances bought 4 jersey cows, 2 in milk, one young heifer, one heifer bred to calve in the spring with her first calf. We found out about them through craigslist (they had advertised looking for someone to transport these cows so I called to see if there would be any milk). It turned out that we knew them from my husband teaching one of their daughters...he teaches high school. Anyway, they are new to cows, we have a few years experience with our one jersey, Molly. Molly was wild when we got her and we tamed her down, got some weight on her (she was very thin) and she was the picture of health when we sold her when we left our farm.
SO, these people are willing to let us do some milking in exchange for milk. They don't want to sell milk because they don't want to get into the legalities of it. They are really wonderful people, but I think may not realize yet what they have undertaken. The cows don't have names so I'll just refer to them in number order. #1 produces 5-6 gallons/day and she is very small. I have the feeling she may be a percentage mini, but they didn't know. She's thin, maybe bordering on very thin. If she were mine, my first priority would be to get her some excellent supplements (beet pulp, calf manna, alfalfa, some good minerals, in addition to the grain they are giving her. They are concerned about over-graining and prefer grass-fed. This is definitely not the cow that can be grass fed if she looks like that WITH grain. Anyway, they don't want to spend the money on supplements. I am trying to communicate this kind of thing with them without being obnoxious or pushing my beliefs on them. However they are new at this and do appreciate my opinion to some extent. But it does seem apparent that they don't want to spend money on supplementary feed.
I was thinking that I would offer to buy some supplements for her since we'll be getting milk and don't want to take money for it. I know they are nervous of grain and you just never know what a person is thinking. I definitely don't want to scare them into cutting me off by being too pushy. Any ideas on how I could handle this or ideas that I haven't thought of? FYI, the other three cows seem in very good condition and probably don't need anything extra at this point.
SO, these people are willing to let us do some milking in exchange for milk. They don't want to sell milk because they don't want to get into the legalities of it. They are really wonderful people, but I think may not realize yet what they have undertaken. The cows don't have names so I'll just refer to them in number order. #1 produces 5-6 gallons/day and she is very small. I have the feeling she may be a percentage mini, but they didn't know. She's thin, maybe bordering on very thin. If she were mine, my first priority would be to get her some excellent supplements (beet pulp, calf manna, alfalfa, some good minerals, in addition to the grain they are giving her. They are concerned about over-graining and prefer grass-fed. This is definitely not the cow that can be grass fed if she looks like that WITH grain. Anyway, they don't want to spend the money on supplements. I am trying to communicate this kind of thing with them without being obnoxious or pushing my beliefs on them. However they are new at this and do appreciate my opinion to some extent. But it does seem apparent that they don't want to spend money on supplementary feed.
I was thinking that I would offer to buy some supplements for her since we'll be getting milk and don't want to take money for it. I know they are nervous of grain and you just never know what a person is thinking. I definitely don't want to scare them into cutting me off by being too pushy. Any ideas on how I could handle this or ideas that I haven't thought of? FYI, the other three cows seem in very good condition and probably don't need anything extra at this point.