Post by renees on Aug 27, 2011 11:47:51 GMT -5
Hello,
I've been lurking here forever, and soaking in all the great information. These boards are invaluable!
We live on a cattle ranch (Angus), and have had dairy goats for years. We have been planing to buy a milk cow for a few years now. Finally a Jersey came up on craigslist and we bought her last weekend!! I'm SO excited. She was a 4h project from a family who really knew what they were doing, so she is gentle and tame and just precious, but not spoiled. I kept her in for a week to bond, but DH finally threw her out to pasture to let her be a cow with the rest of the first calf heifers. She is 16 months and was AIed on June 18th so we are looking at a late March or early April baby.
Now for the questions!
Her teats are TINY I was not expecting this! We hand milk the goats, and I was thrilled to be moving to something with larger teats. Uh....?!! Is it even possible to hand milk? I have been looking at some of the pictures on here of your cows about to calve and it doesn't even look like you could get two fingers on their teats when they are packed with milk like that. Are we going to have to buy a milk machine? I have been watching craigslist for months and haven't seen a milk machine for less than $600.
Also, I'm not sure what the best plan of action is for next year, to breed or not to breed. We would like to have this cow (who has no name yet!) for her whole life. It makes sense to me to take it easy on her and not breed every year. However, I don't want to end up milking a miniscule amount the following year because I didn't breed her and she dries up on her own. What has your experience been with this? My plan for next year is to milk TAD as long as necessary then move to OAD and eventually separate the calf for 12 hours a day if needed. Once the calf is weaned I'd love to stay at OAD, but not if her milk production is going to drop to a quart or two. Talk to me, I need opinions!
And finally (for this post!) sexed semen. My MIL would love to have a heifer off my cow. If I do breed this spring, do you think it's worth it to go with the sexed semen? Now, if she miraculously has a heifer on her first calving, it wouldn't matter so much, because they would buy that one. If not, it would be the best timing for her to have a heifer from her second breeding. What has the cost difference been for those of you who have used sexed and non sexed semen? What is the total cost of the semen, shipping, and AI? We don't AI here, we have our own bulls and live breed only, but we live in CA in dairy country so there should be plenty of techs around here.
Looking forward to getting to know you all!
I've been lurking here forever, and soaking in all the great information. These boards are invaluable!
We live on a cattle ranch (Angus), and have had dairy goats for years. We have been planing to buy a milk cow for a few years now. Finally a Jersey came up on craigslist and we bought her last weekend!! I'm SO excited. She was a 4h project from a family who really knew what they were doing, so she is gentle and tame and just precious, but not spoiled. I kept her in for a week to bond, but DH finally threw her out to pasture to let her be a cow with the rest of the first calf heifers. She is 16 months and was AIed on June 18th so we are looking at a late March or early April baby.
Now for the questions!
Her teats are TINY I was not expecting this! We hand milk the goats, and I was thrilled to be moving to something with larger teats. Uh....?!! Is it even possible to hand milk? I have been looking at some of the pictures on here of your cows about to calve and it doesn't even look like you could get two fingers on their teats when they are packed with milk like that. Are we going to have to buy a milk machine? I have been watching craigslist for months and haven't seen a milk machine for less than $600.
Also, I'm not sure what the best plan of action is for next year, to breed or not to breed. We would like to have this cow (who has no name yet!) for her whole life. It makes sense to me to take it easy on her and not breed every year. However, I don't want to end up milking a miniscule amount the following year because I didn't breed her and she dries up on her own. What has your experience been with this? My plan for next year is to milk TAD as long as necessary then move to OAD and eventually separate the calf for 12 hours a day if needed. Once the calf is weaned I'd love to stay at OAD, but not if her milk production is going to drop to a quart or two. Talk to me, I need opinions!
And finally (for this post!) sexed semen. My MIL would love to have a heifer off my cow. If I do breed this spring, do you think it's worth it to go with the sexed semen? Now, if she miraculously has a heifer on her first calving, it wouldn't matter so much, because they would buy that one. If not, it would be the best timing for her to have a heifer from her second breeding. What has the cost difference been for those of you who have used sexed and non sexed semen? What is the total cost of the semen, shipping, and AI? We don't AI here, we have our own bulls and live breed only, but we live in CA in dairy country so there should be plenty of techs around here.
Looking forward to getting to know you all!