Post by tabitha on Aug 7, 2010 16:18:15 GMT -5
Our heifer is due in 4 weeks, and I have not been milking for 18 months! I have had a lot of time to think about my approach with Jocelyn. So this post, I suppose, is just me thinking out loud and asking opinions and suggestions.
Jocelyn is very, very tame- too tame, sometimes. She is also young and pretty feisty from time to time. Still she lets me touch her anywhere, even lifts her back legs for a scratch around her udder. She leads well, although in the heat recently she has been moving pretty slow and shaking her head at flies.
I intend, from the very start, to milk without offering grain or other ration. I have felt in the past that this adds to what can be a power struggle- the cow behaves until she is done eating, or she will not behave until you feed her. With a heifer I have a blank slate- Jocelyn doesn't know that I could be giving her grain in the stanchion.
I have a simple head stanchion and hope to put her in it, empty, and sit down and milk. After milking is done (which I am fully aware could take awhile for the first weeks) I will lead her back to her stable and feed her.
What are your thoughts? Have any of you milked in this way? It seems graining or feeding at milking is very common. I did it, too, but I want to get away from it.
We are also not keeping the calf. Not at all. After it is standing and has some colostrum, it is going to be bottlefed until its new owners pick it up, hopefully by the third day. I will milk Jocelyn and bottle feed it. I want to get the separation over immediately.
I used to be 'into' share milking, or at least having a calf for back up. I have had plenty of time to think about it, and am sure I don't want to go that way again.
I would love to hear what techniques you use to train- ho do you deal with manuring, peeing? and so on. I do not expect kicking will be an issue, but if it is I am prepared to tie her feet.
Jocelyn is very, very tame- too tame, sometimes. She is also young and pretty feisty from time to time. Still she lets me touch her anywhere, even lifts her back legs for a scratch around her udder. She leads well, although in the heat recently she has been moving pretty slow and shaking her head at flies.
I intend, from the very start, to milk without offering grain or other ration. I have felt in the past that this adds to what can be a power struggle- the cow behaves until she is done eating, or she will not behave until you feed her. With a heifer I have a blank slate- Jocelyn doesn't know that I could be giving her grain in the stanchion.
I have a simple head stanchion and hope to put her in it, empty, and sit down and milk. After milking is done (which I am fully aware could take awhile for the first weeks) I will lead her back to her stable and feed her.
What are your thoughts? Have any of you milked in this way? It seems graining or feeding at milking is very common. I did it, too, but I want to get away from it.
We are also not keeping the calf. Not at all. After it is standing and has some colostrum, it is going to be bottlefed until its new owners pick it up, hopefully by the third day. I will milk Jocelyn and bottle feed it. I want to get the separation over immediately.
I used to be 'into' share milking, or at least having a calf for back up. I have had plenty of time to think about it, and am sure I don't want to go that way again.
I would love to hear what techniques you use to train- ho do you deal with manuring, peeing? and so on. I do not expect kicking will be an issue, but if it is I am prepared to tie her feet.