Post by Tammy on Oct 11, 2009 7:41:28 GMT -5
Thanks Tammy,
Even if she were drying off because he calf wasn't needing milk anymore, isn't it possible for me to reverse that?
Some folks have had success with bringing a cow back into production. It is certainly worth a try. However, if the calf has been on her and she has still continued to dry off, I would think that it's just her body saying "it's time". A calf nurses frequently and this stimulates production. I hope I am making sense because I am short on time and last time I tried to write something in a hurry, I caused a big misunderstsanding! So, forgive me if I am not making sense.
In other words, my suggestion would be "if" she is drying herself off to see if you can get an extra milking in there. (Say three times a day instead of two). However, that's a lot of extra work. My idea is that this would be similar to the calf nursing more often and calling for an increase in production.
Do you know if this cow typically was dried off around five or six months into lactation?
When we bought our mini Jerseys, they had never been milked and were older cows. They had been used to raise their babies for three months and then dried off. We almost did not buy them because we were afraid that every time they were lactating, at mid lactation, they would start to dry off since their bodies had become accustomed to that routine. We were fortunate. One of the cows will continue to make milk until we dry her off eight weeks before she calves. The other one will start to dry herself off even though we are milking twice a day. She will get down to about 3/4 of a gallon per milking when she is around six to seven months into her lactation and then typically about a month before we would dry her off anyway, she just decides it's time and goes ahead and dries herself off.
Each cow is different.
We also had a standard size Jersey that went down due to an illness or injury (we are not sure which) and could not be milked for a little over a week. She of course did not dry off completely but her production went way back. We were able to work her back up to about 3-4 gallons of day but she is capable of producing a whole lot more than that.
It's definitely worth a try to get your girl back into production if she is drying off.
Tammy