Post by mothership on Dec 14, 2007 14:32:35 GMT -5
I wish the perfect cow would just appear. You know, that quiet, sweet, gentle one, who stands patiently to be milked by hand and leads willingly. The one that will adapt easily to life here without a herd. Like someone's beloved family milk cow that they don't need anymore because they've raised up one of her heifers as a replacement. Yeah, that one. She's hiding.
Anyway, my choices at this moment in time are this, and I'd love any opinions you all would like to give:
A Jersey dairy that's about an 8-hour drive away (which I mentioned in an earlier thread) has two cows he's willing to sell right now, both only producing out of 2 quarters. He says they're healthy, and he'll keep them if a family cow buyer doesn't come along, but they're harder to milk by machine (because of being 2-tit cows, as he says) so he's willing to let them go. One he's sure is bred, the other not sure yet, both in milk currently, both less than 5 years old (he didn't remember their age exactly). Neither is trained to lead right now, but he says he'd do that for us. He says they've been easy to work with, but they're only accustomed to being handled as much as is required to bring them in for milking and hook them up to the machine. I have reservations about them being that young and already having lost 2 quarters, fearing future predisposition to bad mastitis (I actually forgot to ask him if on the phone if they lost those quarters due to mastitis, I'm just assuming, I need to call him back and clear up all the questions I thought of after hanging up - maybe they were born with a blind quarter or two). Also because they're so far away, we can't visit and get to know them before deciding or bringing one home. We'd probably only be able to get there one time, it means on over-nighter. I'm also concerned they would be challenging to handle because they've always just been part of a herd, not raised and handled with the idea of being a family cow.
There is a Dexter heifer I've found out about that is much closer, the seller says she has been raised with the intention of being a family milk cow, imprinted at birth, handled extensively, very cooperative and gentle, leads easily and ties quietly. She's very pretty. She has horns, but the woman says she's never yet shown any indication of wanting to use them, has shown no aggression towards people. Am I crazy for considering this kind of option as our first cow? We'd have over a year's wait until we could milk her, assuming she gets in calf without complication, but that would give us plenty of time to get to know her prior to calving. In the thread I started about what kind of cow people would start with if they could choose, some said a first-calf heifer would be your last choice, and now I find myself considering just that. In this case, all the gentling and basic training is already done, but there's still the unknown factor of fertility and whether she'll go loony with post-partum hormones and go all wild on us.
There might also be the possibility of a Jersey heifer that I think has been handled and trained in a family cow type of situation. I don't know more than that yet (trying to find out more), but she's also much closer than the dairy source I mentioned above.
Don't one of you just want to sell me that perfect cow and ship her here to CA?
Anyway, my choices at this moment in time are this, and I'd love any opinions you all would like to give:
A Jersey dairy that's about an 8-hour drive away (which I mentioned in an earlier thread) has two cows he's willing to sell right now, both only producing out of 2 quarters. He says they're healthy, and he'll keep them if a family cow buyer doesn't come along, but they're harder to milk by machine (because of being 2-tit cows, as he says) so he's willing to let them go. One he's sure is bred, the other not sure yet, both in milk currently, both less than 5 years old (he didn't remember their age exactly). Neither is trained to lead right now, but he says he'd do that for us. He says they've been easy to work with, but they're only accustomed to being handled as much as is required to bring them in for milking and hook them up to the machine. I have reservations about them being that young and already having lost 2 quarters, fearing future predisposition to bad mastitis (I actually forgot to ask him if on the phone if they lost those quarters due to mastitis, I'm just assuming, I need to call him back and clear up all the questions I thought of after hanging up - maybe they were born with a blind quarter or two). Also because they're so far away, we can't visit and get to know them before deciding or bringing one home. We'd probably only be able to get there one time, it means on over-nighter. I'm also concerned they would be challenging to handle because they've always just been part of a herd, not raised and handled with the idea of being a family cow.
There is a Dexter heifer I've found out about that is much closer, the seller says she has been raised with the intention of being a family milk cow, imprinted at birth, handled extensively, very cooperative and gentle, leads easily and ties quietly. She's very pretty. She has horns, but the woman says she's never yet shown any indication of wanting to use them, has shown no aggression towards people. Am I crazy for considering this kind of option as our first cow? We'd have over a year's wait until we could milk her, assuming she gets in calf without complication, but that would give us plenty of time to get to know her prior to calving. In the thread I started about what kind of cow people would start with if they could choose, some said a first-calf heifer would be your last choice, and now I find myself considering just that. In this case, all the gentling and basic training is already done, but there's still the unknown factor of fertility and whether she'll go loony with post-partum hormones and go all wild on us.
There might also be the possibility of a Jersey heifer that I think has been handled and trained in a family cow type of situation. I don't know more than that yet (trying to find out more), but she's also much closer than the dairy source I mentioned above.
Don't one of you just want to sell me that perfect cow and ship her here to CA?