Guernsey vs Jersey: a bit disappointed
Jan 20, 2018 18:06:07 GMT -5
sdmilkmaid, trina b, and 2 more like this
Post by thystledown on Jan 20, 2018 18:06:07 GMT -5
At this point the cow has two calves (locked up from 5 p.m. til 7 a.m.) and I'm getting 2 gallons OAD. That's fine. I have to keep the calves off her for an hour after milking or she kicks them off and not gently, so I presume that is a clear sign she doesn't have any more milk after I milk. The milk and cream are white. Yes, she is on hay in NY in January, but the Jersey always had yellow cream all winter on the same exact feed. Also, I get a much lower yield in making cheese. With my Jersey, a full pot (about 4.5 gallons) would fill one large mold and one small mold, and with this Guernsey I get just the one mold filled with the curds. As I said before, the skim milk from mechanical separating is very thin and watery. I feel from both of these pieces of evidence that the Guernsey has much less solids than the Jersey--not just less cream. Finally, I always told people that I would run the cream separator for 1.5 gallons of milk with the Jersey. I got enough cream for that to be worth having to clean the separator and all its little parts. Not so much with the Guernsey. 2 gallons is my minimum to run with the Guernsey milk, and I won't for making butter until I run out of the Jersey cream in the freezer. The Jersey cream is very yellow and makes a better looking butter than the white Guernsey cream. So I will only separate for fresh or cultured heavy cream purposes. For drinking, the Guernsey milk is tops. It tastes better than any milk I have ever had. Many people do not like the Jersey milk unless it is skimmed--too greasy from the high fat content. But we don't drink much milk. Butter and cheese are my main uses. And I don't sell milk. Either milk works just fine for raw yogurt--showing that it is not the protein content (as once speculated) of my Jersey milk that gives me thick raw yogurt (incubated at 110 straight from the cow and not pasteurized or heated in anyway first). The Jersey will give 1.5 gallons of milk OAD while nursing two calves; The Guernsey gives 2 gallons OAD while nursing two calves. The Guernsey is gentle and slow moving. The Jersey is gentle but fast moving (and her temperament is much sweeter than any of the heifer calves she has produced). The large teats of the Guernsey make putting on a machine challenging even with wide bore inflations--have to compress the teat to stuff them into the inflations. The Jersey is closer to the ground requiring one to curl up more or bend over more to milk on the level. The Guernsey would be much easier to hand milk by far--both for height and larger teat size. Also, the larger teats seem to do better in this cold weather. I had real problems with the nursing calves through the winter on the Jersey and I have had none with the Guernsey. Her large teats seem to handled the wet and cold much much better. No chapping so far, and we have had plenty of sub-zero weather. So my bottom line is that if I were cow shopping and had the time and opportunity to be choosy, I'd read pedigrees and at least look up the bulls and whatever I could find on any of the dams looking for high fat and high protein or high cheese merit on either breed. I want to warn people that Guernsey's do not necessarily produce the golden milk that is hyped for them. And they eat a lot more than Jersey's (any Jersey) due to bigger size, but a well bred Jersey produces more for the amount of input (proportionately more). So I would still choose Jersey cows. But for someone who wants to sell milk or has a family that drinks lots of milk, or is new to cows and wants gentle or easy to hand milk--well those claims for the breed held true for this cow. I'm glad I got her, but I understand why there is a big push for a smaller, more economical old-style Guernsey that is smaller, but retains the nice temperament and other advantages, and less like the Holstein that many breeders tried to compete with in the commercial realm. Sorry for repeating some info here, but wanted to do a final summary all in one place.