Post by rd200 on Jul 30, 2015 15:40:02 GMT -5
My first lactation Jersey her production is down the past few weeks. She's almost 4 months into her lactation now. At first, the calf was on her 24/7 and I would milk her in the morning and still get 1.5-2 gallons without separating. I didn't need to separate because I don't need more milk than that.
Then my sister wanted to start making cheese so I started separating the calf every few days to get more milk in the morning for cheesemaking. After a 10-12hr separation (most of the time 10hrs) I'd get 3-4 gallons.
Well, about a month ago I started noticing that the calf was taking ALL of the milk she produced because id go out to milk and there would be nothing there to milk. Id milk her and get 2 quarts if I was lucky. Which was rather convenient because then I didn't HAVE to milk her everyday since we didn't need that much milk. So the calf has been doing a great job of keeping her completely empty the past 3wks. And she isn't holding it up for me either when I milk. Her udder is soft & empty. The calf really is taking all of it.
I started separating them again more regularly about a week ago. And now have consistently gotten 1.5-2gallons TOPS after a 12 hour separation. That seems quite low compared to what I was getting and only being 4 months into her lactation.
So, did I mess up by leaving the calf on her all the time and not separating consistently that now she's just not producing as much as she was???
I guess it doesn't bother me that much but I'm going to be weaning the calf in another month or two so I guess I'll have more milk then.
Just thought this was interesting as I assumed that with the calf taking all the milk, that her production would stay about the same...??