Post by erealpixie on Oct 16, 2016 17:50:01 GMT -5
I am a newbie and this is our first Jersey Heifer named "Butterscotch". We purchased her a couple of months back and she came with her heifer calf that is approx 2 months old (she is two years old and this is her first calf). We did not milk her right away after getting her as we wanted to have her tested first so we tested her for TB, Brucellosis, Jhones and parasites, she was negative for all of the above. We recently started milking her (we do not have a stanchion so we are just tying her to a post and giving her alfalfa/hay and a bit of organic grain at milking), well she is barely putting out 1 cup of milk (we separate the calf from her mama overnight and try and milk her in the am or we separate them during the day and milk at night). Her bag is very saggy and there is one teat that really only seems to work well, the rest are very hard to get anything out of. Being that her calf is only a couple of months old I wouldn't think she would be drying up already so I am not sure why she isn't having a good put out of milk. We are in quite a drought here so I am not sure if she is getting enough to eat (although we give her hay and alfalfa at night and she has free choice minerals available). She does not seem sick (although her eyes sometimes run or may have a clear runny nose but otherwise seems healthy). Her baby also recently has a large tennis ball lump on her neck (not sure if this is related just thought I would mention it, I have another post about the calf having the lump). My husband is the one milking her and he knows how to milk as he currently milks our lamancha goat that is giving out far more milk than our Jersey. Any ideas? Here is a pic of Butterscotch.....(the first photo is of right when we purchased her, the other photos were taken today).
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