Post by nsanders on Oct 12, 2015 13:42:37 GMT -5
Hi Everyone!
We are not new to animals (we have chickens, beef cattle, pigs, etc.) but some friends of ours have a neighbor who milks jerseys, just got injured, and needs to sell his animals ASAP. So, this Thursday we are picking up his 3 jerseys, in milk, and all his equipment. We already had the "Keeping a Family Cow" book, so we re-read it and are quickly trying to learn as much as we can!
1) The man we are purchasing from mixes his own feed (which is corn and soy based) and buys everything in bulk. The 3 cows are together getting 30# a day, and he only has about 100# of feed left to give us when we pick them up. Our local feed mill where we get feed for our other animals has a non-GMO corn/soy dairy ration that we would like to use. We know it is wise to slowly transition to new feed, but we don't have a lot of "old" feed left to make the transition. Since the basic feeds are similar since they are corn/soy based, do you think a quicker transition would be safe? I'd welcome any suggestions!
2) One of the cows is due to calve in January. The man has already begun to dry her up, so we will continue that process. There are lots of opinions on whether to feed grain during the dry period. The cow would have free access to pasture and medium-quality grass hay...no legumes. We were thinking just leaving her on a pound or two of dairy ration just to keep her used to coming to the barn since it's a new place...does that make sense? What about the whole "anionic salt" thing to prevent milk fever?
3) Our other animals get kelp and Redmond animal salt free choice for their minerals. Is this sufficient for dairy cows? Just trying to simplify as much as possible for now!
Thanks for all your help!
We are not new to animals (we have chickens, beef cattle, pigs, etc.) but some friends of ours have a neighbor who milks jerseys, just got injured, and needs to sell his animals ASAP. So, this Thursday we are picking up his 3 jerseys, in milk, and all his equipment. We already had the "Keeping a Family Cow" book, so we re-read it and are quickly trying to learn as much as we can!
1) The man we are purchasing from mixes his own feed (which is corn and soy based) and buys everything in bulk. The 3 cows are together getting 30# a day, and he only has about 100# of feed left to give us when we pick them up. Our local feed mill where we get feed for our other animals has a non-GMO corn/soy dairy ration that we would like to use. We know it is wise to slowly transition to new feed, but we don't have a lot of "old" feed left to make the transition. Since the basic feeds are similar since they are corn/soy based, do you think a quicker transition would be safe? I'd welcome any suggestions!
2) One of the cows is due to calve in January. The man has already begun to dry her up, so we will continue that process. There are lots of opinions on whether to feed grain during the dry period. The cow would have free access to pasture and medium-quality grass hay...no legumes. We were thinking just leaving her on a pound or two of dairy ration just to keep her used to coming to the barn since it's a new place...does that make sense? What about the whole "anionic salt" thing to prevent milk fever?
3) Our other animals get kelp and Redmond animal salt free choice for their minerals. Is this sufficient for dairy cows? Just trying to simplify as much as possible for now!
Thanks for all your help!