Post by amgirl on Mar 24, 2005 11:34:55 GMT -5
Hi, I'm new on here, but I was wondering if anybody else could give me some tips?
I have a 10 year old Jersey cow that I've had for two years now. Clover was pregnant when I bought her from a organic dairy farmer down in Trout Lake. I was told that she was one of his best cows as far as production goes, but she was getting old and had problems with mastitis so he was willing to sell her. She did have problems with mastitis and still does, but she's gotten quite alot better over the past two years. She gave birth to a beautiful heifer two months after I brought her to our farm and was awesome as far as production went. Her record high was 8 gal. in one day! Not too bad for an 9 year old. Because I delayed on getting her bred again, I cont. to milk her for 360 days and she still gave a resonable amount of milk. I A.I bred her last year and she didn't come back into heat, so I assumed everything was fine and she had settled. After giving her a break of 3 months fro milking, I expectantly wited for her to give birth again last September..... but after 9 months nothing happened. After waiting almost two months more, I called up the guy that bred her (A Holstien dairyman up the road) and he came out and lo and behold, she was not pregnant. Evidently, she had a cyst in her left ovarie that made her look pregnant, but she could not settle. He brought her into heat again, bred her and gave her a shot of Cysterelin to help her settle and everything looked fine again. She never quite dried up completely when I assumed she was pregnant, so I started milking again and she's giving about 2 gallons a day. However, her milk has gone down in quality quite a bit since then and has started to not last as long and have a "barfy taste" as my Mom calls it. That taste will last a day or two and then everything will be fine again. I've noticed that she tends to do that when her heifer is in heat, so it might be hormonally related. I've checked feed (she gets Dairy 16 and good quality alfalfa and is on pasture 24/7) and that isn't the problem. I've chekced the pasture for weeds that might be making a bad taste in the milk and there's nothing there. Does anybody know anything about her condition? I keep trying to get ahold of a vet to check her out, but haven't succeded so far. Help!
I have a 10 year old Jersey cow that I've had for two years now. Clover was pregnant when I bought her from a organic dairy farmer down in Trout Lake. I was told that she was one of his best cows as far as production goes, but she was getting old and had problems with mastitis so he was willing to sell her. She did have problems with mastitis and still does, but she's gotten quite alot better over the past two years. She gave birth to a beautiful heifer two months after I brought her to our farm and was awesome as far as production went. Her record high was 8 gal. in one day! Not too bad for an 9 year old. Because I delayed on getting her bred again, I cont. to milk her for 360 days and she still gave a resonable amount of milk. I A.I bred her last year and she didn't come back into heat, so I assumed everything was fine and she had settled. After giving her a break of 3 months fro milking, I expectantly wited for her to give birth again last September..... but after 9 months nothing happened. After waiting almost two months more, I called up the guy that bred her (A Holstien dairyman up the road) and he came out and lo and behold, she was not pregnant. Evidently, she had a cyst in her left ovarie that made her look pregnant, but she could not settle. He brought her into heat again, bred her and gave her a shot of Cysterelin to help her settle and everything looked fine again. She never quite dried up completely when I assumed she was pregnant, so I started milking again and she's giving about 2 gallons a day. However, her milk has gone down in quality quite a bit since then and has started to not last as long and have a "barfy taste" as my Mom calls it. That taste will last a day or two and then everything will be fine again. I've noticed that she tends to do that when her heifer is in heat, so it might be hormonally related. I've checked feed (she gets Dairy 16 and good quality alfalfa and is on pasture 24/7) and that isn't the problem. I've chekced the pasture for weeds that might be making a bad taste in the milk and there's nothing there. Does anybody know anything about her condition? I keep trying to get ahold of a vet to check her out, but haven't succeded so far. Help!