Post by adelaide on Jun 15, 2010 10:23:43 GMT -5
Hi, I hope I am not asking an overly redundant question, but I have done so much research and asked so many people and everyone seems to have a different answer. So here is the issue.
I got Adelaide about 4 weeks ago and she calved 5 weeks ago. She has three good quarters and the last apparently lacks a hole in the teat. Anyway, she was milking about 3.5 to 4 gallons a day with most of that coming from the front two quarters. She was a bit thin, but she is a jersey and did just calf. For the past week and a half she has been slowly dropping off in her milk production. She has about 5 acres of pasture (although fairly mature at this point) I also feed her alfalfa/brome hay at each feeding. I was also giving about a half coffee can of grain, but have stepped that up to a full can of 16% mix. I have only stepped that up in the last day.
Also, when she first came to us she seemed perfectly comfortable with me and has kicked only a couple of times. I used to milk her out in about 20 to 30 minutes and get 1.75 to 2 gallons. Now I spend over 45 and get a gallon at the most and usually less. Her udder feels a little bit firm and warm, but it is hard to tell if there is any milk left. I follow a schedule and bounce her bag around a lot to try and get the milk to drop. She doesn't mind any of this and will let me milk her as long as I want, but eventually I just can't get anymore out.
Any ideas? More food? Would teat dilators help get the milk out? I may also get a calf to put on her and see if that helps.
Thanks in advance for any replies.
I got Adelaide about 4 weeks ago and she calved 5 weeks ago. She has three good quarters and the last apparently lacks a hole in the teat. Anyway, she was milking about 3.5 to 4 gallons a day with most of that coming from the front two quarters. She was a bit thin, but she is a jersey and did just calf. For the past week and a half she has been slowly dropping off in her milk production. She has about 5 acres of pasture (although fairly mature at this point) I also feed her alfalfa/brome hay at each feeding. I was also giving about a half coffee can of grain, but have stepped that up to a full can of 16% mix. I have only stepped that up in the last day.
Also, when she first came to us she seemed perfectly comfortable with me and has kicked only a couple of times. I used to milk her out in about 20 to 30 minutes and get 1.75 to 2 gallons. Now I spend over 45 and get a gallon at the most and usually less. Her udder feels a little bit firm and warm, but it is hard to tell if there is any milk left. I follow a schedule and bounce her bag around a lot to try and get the milk to drop. She doesn't mind any of this and will let me milk her as long as I want, but eventually I just can't get anymore out.
Any ideas? More food? Would teat dilators help get the milk out? I may also get a calf to put on her and see if that helps.
Thanks in advance for any replies.