Post by thystledown on Jan 2, 2018 10:42:12 GMT -5
The new Guernsey freshened on the 28th. My excitement has turned to concern. She's giving NO more milk than the Jersey and she's twice her size. Well maybe not twice her size, but this is a huge Guernsey--think big Holstein vs standard Jersey. I separated cream for the first time today and only got a pint of cream from 6 liters of milk (vs a quart or more from the Jersey for that amount of milk). The vaunted golden Guernsey milk is not as golden as my Jersey milk. Looks white to me. I had to special order extra large inflations. We had to put in new extra long milking stanchion for this long cow. She had to be pasture bred by her former owner (I read they have a long reproductive tract that makes A.I. difficult). Now, I can sit on a 5 gallon pail to milk her instead of the short strap-on stool, and if I were hand milking, I could do it with this cow--large easy to milk teats up high. No way anyone would want to hand milk my Jersey. Hand cramp guaranteed! Not to mention back ache. But I machine milk. I'm feeding her twice the grain I ever fed the Jersey and it may not be enough. The udder appears beautiful when viewed from behind, but the claw does not hang level when milking. The front is much lower. This is a problem for milking out evenly. I don't know how to read the appraisal report, but she scores an 84.5, so I think she's a reasonable example of a Guernsey. My A.I. tech assures me I will love making cheese from this cow. I don't know. I never had my Jersey tested, but we suspect she's high protein because I can make super thick raw milk yogurt. So this cow will have to be exceptional I suspect to better that. Time will tell. Anyway, since I accidentally let the Jersey go open last year, she won't milk again until fall. So I'm feeling like I should be grateful to have milk. Only I'm thinking a cheap Jersey holstein cross would have done as well for half the cost. And this is a lot of work if I'm not going to get the cream. The number one thing I do is make butter. I didn't expect anything to make as much cream as a Jersey, but I did expect more than I'm getting. Hoping she's holding up or something--but she does seem to be milking out correctly. Oh, and I'm milking twice a day which I don't generally do. Just thought I'd share.