Post by buxombeefcowdairy on May 2, 2007 14:07:22 GMT -5
I'll try to make a long question short, but bear with me here:
I had intestinal surgery 2 years ago and recently discovered that raw milk is digestible for me, and keeps my gut happy. Fortunately, I live on an Angus seedstock ranch with 250+ Angus cows, so availability isn't a problem, and I have quite a few choices as to which cow to dairy.
Soooo...the main problem with simply milking one of my tame cows (I have 3 or 4 that had 'special needs' as calves, leaving them gentle) is that they have their own beef calf to raise, and we keep detailed records, including weaning weights, that require that calves be treated as a contemporary group. In other words, if I milk Tibbie, I take away from her bull calf, so his weaning weight cannot be compared with the other bull calves' weaning weights, and he has less accurate genetic information when we sell him.
I have been through 3 'dairy cows' this spring. The first cow, Petunia, lost her calf, and this was a top producing 'Pathfinder' cow. I milked her for 2 1/2 weeks, at which time a heifer calved who didn't have enough milk for her calf. I grafted the calf onto Petunia and figured since it was a graft, the weaning weight could not be considered anyway, and I could just keep the calf away from the cow for 10 hours or so when I needed more milk.
Then a gentle older cow lost her calf, so I milked her instead for a little while. This cow was old and stifled, and pretty uncomfortable, so I let her dry up when Rita Mae calved and lost her calf.
Rita Mae is another exceptional producer in our herd, she gives me about 2 gallons a day, her teats are easy to milk out, she doesn't swat her tail and dance in the chute...but she won't let down unless I give her oxytocin, in the vein. She DID let down, three days in a row, without any problems, and then she just got cranky and kick-ish and grumpy about the whole process. She does not have any heat in her udder, or mastitis, but it did happen when I started to let her out into the pasture with the other cows during the day. I think she had to kick a few calves away, and just figured she'd kick me off as well.
I've handled the kicking problem with a Kow-Kan't-Kick, but she just will NOT let down. I've since gentled her and halter broke her. I've tried giving her goodies while I milk, lots of curry-comb time, etc. My last cow, I put oxytocin on a gauze in her vulva and she absorbed and let down that way, but Rita Mae has to have it IV- subQ used to work, but doesn't any more. I don't get it.
Will she eventually let down if I just give it a couple of weeks, or will she dry up? (If she doesn't let down, I get less than a gallon a day. HELP!
I had intestinal surgery 2 years ago and recently discovered that raw milk is digestible for me, and keeps my gut happy. Fortunately, I live on an Angus seedstock ranch with 250+ Angus cows, so availability isn't a problem, and I have quite a few choices as to which cow to dairy.
Soooo...the main problem with simply milking one of my tame cows (I have 3 or 4 that had 'special needs' as calves, leaving them gentle) is that they have their own beef calf to raise, and we keep detailed records, including weaning weights, that require that calves be treated as a contemporary group. In other words, if I milk Tibbie, I take away from her bull calf, so his weaning weight cannot be compared with the other bull calves' weaning weights, and he has less accurate genetic information when we sell him.
I have been through 3 'dairy cows' this spring. The first cow, Petunia, lost her calf, and this was a top producing 'Pathfinder' cow. I milked her for 2 1/2 weeks, at which time a heifer calved who didn't have enough milk for her calf. I grafted the calf onto Petunia and figured since it was a graft, the weaning weight could not be considered anyway, and I could just keep the calf away from the cow for 10 hours or so when I needed more milk.
Then a gentle older cow lost her calf, so I milked her instead for a little while. This cow was old and stifled, and pretty uncomfortable, so I let her dry up when Rita Mae calved and lost her calf.
Rita Mae is another exceptional producer in our herd, she gives me about 2 gallons a day, her teats are easy to milk out, she doesn't swat her tail and dance in the chute...but she won't let down unless I give her oxytocin, in the vein. She DID let down, three days in a row, without any problems, and then she just got cranky and kick-ish and grumpy about the whole process. She does not have any heat in her udder, or mastitis, but it did happen when I started to let her out into the pasture with the other cows during the day. I think she had to kick a few calves away, and just figured she'd kick me off as well.
I've handled the kicking problem with a Kow-Kan't-Kick, but she just will NOT let down. I've since gentled her and halter broke her. I've tried giving her goodies while I milk, lots of curry-comb time, etc. My last cow, I put oxytocin on a gauze in her vulva and she absorbed and let down that way, but Rita Mae has to have it IV- subQ used to work, but doesn't any more. I don't get it.
Will she eventually let down if I just give it a couple of weeks, or will she dry up? (If she doesn't let down, I get less than a gallon a day. HELP!