I have my ketosis answer and my new....
Dec 20, 2010 16:56:36 GMT -5
Shawn and ropergirl2006 like this
Post by pipergrey93 on Dec 20, 2010 16:56:36 GMT -5
cow! Eunice II is being delivered in an hour! She's a beautiful heifer due the 2nd of July (no milk around here for a while, but I feel in love ).
There is a dairy 25 minutes from here. The grandfather, his son, and then his son own/operate it. I fell into 90 lactating jerseys! WOW, what a sight. And NOT ONE was overweight or underweight. NOT ONE that I could see and I drooled over them until it was embarassing. I'm sure these poor fellas are still talking about the nut-job that blew through their place today. ;D
Anyway - I had the grandfather and grandson with me and I was picking their brains about ketosis. When I asked them how they dealt with ketosis, they both replied that it was rare that they had to deal with it! RARE! They also said that a 9 gal peak was pretty average anymore with dairy jerseys - so they are all heavy producers.
They told me that they start feeding the diary mix (they mix themselves and I WILL be getting and sharing the recipe) 3 weeks prior to calving and at calving they will be at the level they need to be throughout lactation (approximately 6-8 standard co-op scoops a day).
Also, I'm starting to realize that we should probably always ask and differentiate between modest, moderate, and heavy producers when tackling this ketosis problem. Eunice was in perfect condition, but was also a heavy producer (9 gal peak). NO WAY should I have cut her grain back thinking it was no big deal since she was such a great weight (my goal was to hopefully have her produce less).
I think this was exactly what took my girl out. And now that I have seen almost 100 head of obviously VERY healthy jerseys, which seldom get ketosis, I have to assume the grain is the key to keeping these heavy producers on an even keel. While they feed 6-8 scoops a day, Poor Eunice was down to 2-3 a day. I wrongly assumed that if she was a good weight, the feed was sufficient.
I have asked the grandson to PLEASE join us at KFC. I told him he'd be a 'rock star' and that we really needed someone who had learned his grandfather's and father's lessons on jerseys. There's just no way that we can ever even approach that level of expertise with a handful of jersey's at a time, even if over a period of many years.
These were the nicest people. They patiently answered my MANY questions and you could tell they enjoyed helping me.
Poor things! They don't realize how serious I am that we need them here at KFC and how determined I am to share this generational gold mine with all my special friends here. ;D
There is a dairy 25 minutes from here. The grandfather, his son, and then his son own/operate it. I fell into 90 lactating jerseys! WOW, what a sight. And NOT ONE was overweight or underweight. NOT ONE that I could see and I drooled over them until it was embarassing. I'm sure these poor fellas are still talking about the nut-job that blew through their place today. ;D
Anyway - I had the grandfather and grandson with me and I was picking their brains about ketosis. When I asked them how they dealt with ketosis, they both replied that it was rare that they had to deal with it! RARE! They also said that a 9 gal peak was pretty average anymore with dairy jerseys - so they are all heavy producers.
They told me that they start feeding the diary mix (they mix themselves and I WILL be getting and sharing the recipe) 3 weeks prior to calving and at calving they will be at the level they need to be throughout lactation (approximately 6-8 standard co-op scoops a day).
Also, I'm starting to realize that we should probably always ask and differentiate between modest, moderate, and heavy producers when tackling this ketosis problem. Eunice was in perfect condition, but was also a heavy producer (9 gal peak). NO WAY should I have cut her grain back thinking it was no big deal since she was such a great weight (my goal was to hopefully have her produce less).
I think this was exactly what took my girl out. And now that I have seen almost 100 head of obviously VERY healthy jerseys, which seldom get ketosis, I have to assume the grain is the key to keeping these heavy producers on an even keel. While they feed 6-8 scoops a day, Poor Eunice was down to 2-3 a day. I wrongly assumed that if she was a good weight, the feed was sufficient.
I have asked the grandson to PLEASE join us at KFC. I told him he'd be a 'rock star' and that we really needed someone who had learned his grandfather's and father's lessons on jerseys. There's just no way that we can ever even approach that level of expertise with a handful of jersey's at a time, even if over a period of many years.
These were the nicest people. They patiently answered my MANY questions and you could tell they enjoyed helping me.
Poor things! They don't realize how serious I am that we need them here at KFC and how determined I am to share this generational gold mine with all my special friends here. ;D