Post by martita on Jun 26, 2011 11:25:35 GMT -5
Hello!
In one of my previous posts I wrote that people around here have some pretty strange beliefs about cows:
They told us that Monica's milk would go bad once she was bred. They also said that if she jumped over the stream right after the deed, she wouldn't be bred (!?). They had also told us that if we didn't breed her during her first heat after calving we would never be able to breed her and that if we weaned Paco she would stop giving milk.
I mention this because now it is really hard for us to sort out what is true, since we are very inexperienced.
Monica, our jersey was giving about 2 gallons of milk OAD pretty consistently. A couple of days ago she dropped to about a gallon and a half. The man who helps us out with her said that this was normal, because it has started raining, and that affects milk production.
We have a fairly long rainy season, from May or June to August or September. We have been leaving Monica out in her pasture 24/7 since Winter ended. We figured it was ok for her to stay out in the rain, but maybe we were wrong. We were considering building her a shelter out in the pasture, though she does have some woods she can go into. The guy said it wouldn't make any difference.
So I guess I have two questions.
- Does rainy weather actually make a difference in milk production?
- Do we need to keep Monica out of the rain?
During these months it rains pretty much every afternoon and sometimes all through the night. No crazy storms or anything, just a pretty steady rain.
Thanks for your input!
In one of my previous posts I wrote that people around here have some pretty strange beliefs about cows:
They told us that Monica's milk would go bad once she was bred. They also said that if she jumped over the stream right after the deed, she wouldn't be bred (!?). They had also told us that if we didn't breed her during her first heat after calving we would never be able to breed her and that if we weaned Paco she would stop giving milk.
I mention this because now it is really hard for us to sort out what is true, since we are very inexperienced.
Monica, our jersey was giving about 2 gallons of milk OAD pretty consistently. A couple of days ago she dropped to about a gallon and a half. The man who helps us out with her said that this was normal, because it has started raining, and that affects milk production.
We have a fairly long rainy season, from May or June to August or September. We have been leaving Monica out in her pasture 24/7 since Winter ended. We figured it was ok for her to stay out in the rain, but maybe we were wrong. We were considering building her a shelter out in the pasture, though she does have some woods she can go into. The guy said it wouldn't make any difference.
So I guess I have two questions.
- Does rainy weather actually make a difference in milk production?
- Do we need to keep Monica out of the rain?
During these months it rains pretty much every afternoon and sometimes all through the night. No crazy storms or anything, just a pretty steady rain.
Thanks for your input!