Post by Mitra on May 29, 2011 15:52:45 GMT -5
Tuesday morning was the last time I milked Nellie in my last ditch effort to dry her off. She is due July 10th so this will give her only a 6 week break. I took a gallon and a half and left the rest. I'd say there was at least two gallons in there which made me very nervous. My plan was to stop milking completely unless she REALLY needed me to take some pressure off.
Since my DH is here (usually out of town) I decided that he should do all the up close Nellie monitoring. I know the mere sight of me can trigger her to letdown so I wanted him to do the udder checks for heat, hardness, and redness while she was in the stanchion. He's been doing it for the last 5 days and I have stayed completely away from the barn. I really miss her.
I reduced her grain, VERY SLOWLY, from 12lbs down to 3lbs over the last few weeks as part of the drying off process. I did not want to eliminate her grain entirely because she is such a big producer and milks straight off her back. I was very pleased that she was keeping her condition in spite of the huge reduction in her grain and the lesser quality hay (last year's first cut) we've been feeding.
Every time she goes in the stanchion, she gets her grain and about 1/8 of a cup of Vit C crystals. While she eats that, my DH checks her udder. He has also been taking her comfrey cuttings every day. So far so good! I have not had to relieve any pressure and her udder, while obviously still full of milk, looks the slightest bit floppier today. She has never bellowed once during this process.
She is such a good girl. Her main suffering point is that she is STILL trapped in the barnyard which looks like the "Before" scenes from the Wizard of OZ when Dorothy is still in Kansas and everything is sepia colored. Just past the barn gate is OZ. The green grass is dazzling, the fruit trees are in full bloom (lots of pinks and fuchsias) and everything shouts "SPRING"! She stands at the gate and stares and stares at the grass. Then she forlornly shuffles over to the hay feeder and takes angry disgusted bites of that hay. I feel terrible about the timing of this but I know that a few blades of that grass will make her produce more milk.
I would like to be able to let her out onto the grass next week. Does that sound possible? How long should her udder be totally floppy before I let her have access to the grass?
Since my DH is here (usually out of town) I decided that he should do all the up close Nellie monitoring. I know the mere sight of me can trigger her to letdown so I wanted him to do the udder checks for heat, hardness, and redness while she was in the stanchion. He's been doing it for the last 5 days and I have stayed completely away from the barn. I really miss her.
I reduced her grain, VERY SLOWLY, from 12lbs down to 3lbs over the last few weeks as part of the drying off process. I did not want to eliminate her grain entirely because she is such a big producer and milks straight off her back. I was very pleased that she was keeping her condition in spite of the huge reduction in her grain and the lesser quality hay (last year's first cut) we've been feeding.
Every time she goes in the stanchion, she gets her grain and about 1/8 of a cup of Vit C crystals. While she eats that, my DH checks her udder. He has also been taking her comfrey cuttings every day. So far so good! I have not had to relieve any pressure and her udder, while obviously still full of milk, looks the slightest bit floppier today. She has never bellowed once during this process.
She is such a good girl. Her main suffering point is that she is STILL trapped in the barnyard which looks like the "Before" scenes from the Wizard of OZ when Dorothy is still in Kansas and everything is sepia colored. Just past the barn gate is OZ. The green grass is dazzling, the fruit trees are in full bloom (lots of pinks and fuchsias) and everything shouts "SPRING"! She stands at the gate and stares and stares at the grass. Then she forlornly shuffles over to the hay feeder and takes angry disgusted bites of that hay. I feel terrible about the timing of this but I know that a few blades of that grass will make her produce more milk.
I would like to be able to let her out onto the grass next week. Does that sound possible? How long should her udder be totally floppy before I let her have access to the grass?