Post by nitaree on May 31, 2014 3:27:22 GMT -5
Hi, I and my family and animals, quite a menagerie really are from NSW in Australia.
I have 2 Jerseys, one is Ivy who I have had for about 4-5 years. She was just in calf but not lactating when I got her. First calf she had so much milk that I also over the course of the lactation raised her calf and 5 other Holstein steers as well as milking. Didn't get her back in calf until she was dried up and she had her next calf last August 2013. I was heavily pregnant at the time so she just fed her calf for the first few months before we got to milking whereupon we discovered that one quarter was not getting touched at all by the calf and seems to have sub-clinical signs of mastitis, but will explain more and pics in another thread on this. Since she has been feeding a Holstein calf and now is (fingers crossed) just back in calf and sharefeeding a couple of other calves who also drink on other girl as well.
Second girl is Suzie, who we have just got from a local dairy as a cull, she is going to be our milker for the next few months until Ivy calves again (Ivy will be dried up hopefully in about a month to give her time to sort out the mastitis issues).
We also have Ivy's calf, a steer, who's dad was an angus - he is destined for the freezer - called him Casey which we joked stood for Casserole!
Also have a Holstein steer calf, now weaned who was raised by Ivy as well.
We now have four young calves, some on bottles (milked from cows) and some feeding on cows - 1 Holstein (to be steered soon) 1 Holstein/Jersey cross (also to be steered), 1 fullblood Jersey bull calf who we are hoping to leave as a bull for the time (hoping that he will be old enough to get the milkers in calf before turning nasty and he will probably be freezer material again hopefully before he starts getting nasty) and we then have a nice little purebred Jersey heifer calf who I am bottlefeeding with the hopes that she will be a milker in 2 years time.
Other than that we have the usual sheep, dogs, cats, birds, chooks etc.
Going to go and do a thread on Ivy in Family Cow regarding her mastitis issue with pics.
Cheers,
Nita
I have 2 Jerseys, one is Ivy who I have had for about 4-5 years. She was just in calf but not lactating when I got her. First calf she had so much milk that I also over the course of the lactation raised her calf and 5 other Holstein steers as well as milking. Didn't get her back in calf until she was dried up and she had her next calf last August 2013. I was heavily pregnant at the time so she just fed her calf for the first few months before we got to milking whereupon we discovered that one quarter was not getting touched at all by the calf and seems to have sub-clinical signs of mastitis, but will explain more and pics in another thread on this. Since she has been feeding a Holstein calf and now is (fingers crossed) just back in calf and sharefeeding a couple of other calves who also drink on other girl as well.
Second girl is Suzie, who we have just got from a local dairy as a cull, she is going to be our milker for the next few months until Ivy calves again (Ivy will be dried up hopefully in about a month to give her time to sort out the mastitis issues).
We also have Ivy's calf, a steer, who's dad was an angus - he is destined for the freezer - called him Casey which we joked stood for Casserole!
Also have a Holstein steer calf, now weaned who was raised by Ivy as well.
We now have four young calves, some on bottles (milked from cows) and some feeding on cows - 1 Holstein (to be steered soon) 1 Holstein/Jersey cross (also to be steered), 1 fullblood Jersey bull calf who we are hoping to leave as a bull for the time (hoping that he will be old enough to get the milkers in calf before turning nasty and he will probably be freezer material again hopefully before he starts getting nasty) and we then have a nice little purebred Jersey heifer calf who I am bottlefeeding with the hopes that she will be a milker in 2 years time.
Other than that we have the usual sheep, dogs, cats, birds, chooks etc.
Going to go and do a thread on Ivy in Family Cow regarding her mastitis issue with pics.
Cheers,
Nita