Post by thystledown on Jan 31, 2023 12:18:45 GMT -5
We had a discussion on here last year or so about the age of weaning dam raised heifers and how it is done on farms that do this commercially (probably in NZ). It was alarming. It said fat calves/heifers would not milk well, and they were weaning at 3 months. The consensus on here was that these problems did not seem likely in a family cow scenario, but none of us had the numbers of animals to speak conclusively on it. Also some felt that bottle raised are easier to tame and break to milking. I've now been milking my first dam-raised heifer since September. She was a calf share on my now deceased Heiferlump. She's a registered Jersey. She got separated from her mom nights from an early age but left with her days until time to dry her mom off for her next calf, so 9 months or more. She was very fat with rolls under her chin. She ran with the beef herd after weaning until a couple weeks before she freshened for the first time. She's been fine. Easy to catch in pasture--stands with her chin up for me to hook the lead onto the pony halter she wears full time, even though she knows I'll be taking her away from her calf overnight. She milks a half gallon more than her mother did her first lactation (same time of year) and her bottle raised mother was 3 years old when she freshened the first time. Had no problem training her to milk (I use DeLaval bucket milker). Have not been kicked. She's pretty respectful, though I had to belt her across the nose with the lead rope one day because she thought we should play (she freshened a couple months shy of 2 years old). Calf sharing apparently seems normal to her as that is how she grew up. She didn't give us any trouble about leaving her calf and I get good let down and milk out (much to the calf's displeasure!!) She also carries a heavier coat. Her mother had trouble maintaining condition and was always cold in winter. I ended up having to blanket her mother in her last few years. I'm hoping this girl will maintain her condition better, but too soon to tell. Anyhow, no temperament/behavior issues or loss of production in my limited experience in this one case. Production did start low! I was very worried getting only 5 qts OAD with calf shut up at night. But it jumped up in a couple months and exceeded her mother's 1st lactation production in the same time frame as I said (though her mother ended her life at 6 gallons OAD with two bull calves on her). Anyway, I'm glad that my experience matched the consensus on here for family cows. It made sense that fat, healthy, robust dam-raised calves should produce well, have longer lives with good health, etc. It always made me sad that when I sold my nice fat weanlings to their show homes, the first thing all the new owners did was put them on starvation diets to make them thinner for the show ring (not a fan of shows for several reasons, but the calves bring lots more money sold to such homes). So far so good with my dam-raised Jersey.