Post by suburbanfarmer on Dec 15, 2011 9:59:00 GMT -5
Hello, I am having a problem that I just cannot figure out. I recently borrowed a cow to cover for my cow while she is on maternity leave. The new cow's milk tasted good for the first week or so, but then we started to notice that it just wasn't lasting that long. This was durring the time we transitioned down to OAD. Then it got more and more noticable so we tried milk from each of the teats before milking. There was clearly one teat that tasted "off" . We increased our milkings back to TAD and cleared up the off taste right away. We sent in a sample of the milk to the lab and it tested really well. 0 colliform, 0 e-coli, and a total bacterial count of 70. We also did the California Mastitis test and that was negative. We called the vet out and he gave her a complete physical and she passed with flying colors. He took a culture of the milk (we had also sent one in a few days prior) and a stool sample (she has been having loose stool that we attributed to her diet change). Both cultures and the stool sample came back negative. Her appetite is great. Her overall health and attitude seems fine. We are now tasting the milk from each quarter before we milk and it all tastes good. The only problem is that the milk is still just not lasting more than 3-4 days!!!! It is still drinkable, but clearly has an off flavor. Her prevous diet consisted of mostly grain and some hay. Her diet now is fresh green grass, alfalfa and some grain while being milked, and some grass hay out in the field. We boil our pails and strainers before milking and run the jars through the dishwasher and then put them in the oven. I just can't figure out why the milk is not lasting and it is driving me nuts!! I am worried that if I can't figure it out I will have to return the cow to the dairy and be out of milk until April when my cow calves. I have never had any problems with my other cow or her milk in the 2 years I have had her and I have always milked the same way and she came from the same dairy. Please help I am loosing my mind about this!!!!