Post by bluebar23 on Jul 29, 2019 11:12:38 GMT -5
Lissy is due in a month, and we are curious about calf sharing this lactation. This is not something I have ever done/considered in the past.
Lissy (Brown Swiss) is 6 years old and came from a commercial dairy. When her calf was born last summer we bottle-fed. However, there were some older heifers who were initially in the pasture with her (who had nursed from another cow before weaning), and when they showed interest she seemed perfectly willing to let them try to nurse (we quickly separated, as that is NOT what we wanted!). And she has the classic Brown Swiss temperament... calm, loving, mother to everybody, etc. (We can't keep heat-detection stickers on our heifers because she licks them off!) So, I think she would take her own calf no problem, even though she's never done it before.
One of the reasons I've never been interested in calf sharing is because I don't want to deal with the let-down issues (and corresponding sanitation issues, since we milk by hand). But I think I remember someone on here saying they've had good luck calf sharing without let-down issues with cows who came off commercial dairies... was it maybe you, suzorse?
I would be open to bringing the calf into the milking area and tying it (haltered) by her head while we milk. But last year we were able to separate her calf with absolutely no drama/anxiety. We kept it penned in a corner of her stall for a few days, then moved it to a pen that shared a fence with her pasture. And neither was ever upset. Although I imagine the bonding is probably different if the calf is allowed to nurse!
My main (only, really) motivation for doing this is to give us a little more flexibility in our schedule. We love milking and don't mind doing it (I actually get a little anxious without it while she's dry!), but we live FAR away from all our extended families, and as DD gets older we'd like to be able to make an occasional weekend trip, beyond the short window allowed while the cow is dry (which doesn't always work well for other people's schedules). We have had zero luck finding a relief milker... we haven't actually found a reliable person to farm-sit even while the cow is dry, but there's a much great possibility of finding someone who can refill water tanks than someone we can trust to milk.
Lissy peaked for us last year at 7gal. I know one calf won't take all the milk the entire lactation, but at some point the calf will be big enough and her production will be low enough that we'd be able to do something like separate the calf overnight when we want milk the next morning, but leave the calf on 24/7 when we don't, right?
How would this work? What am I not factoring into the equation? (Calf will be 1/2 angus and is destined for freezer camp.)
Lissy (Brown Swiss) is 6 years old and came from a commercial dairy. When her calf was born last summer we bottle-fed. However, there were some older heifers who were initially in the pasture with her (who had nursed from another cow before weaning), and when they showed interest she seemed perfectly willing to let them try to nurse (we quickly separated, as that is NOT what we wanted!). And she has the classic Brown Swiss temperament... calm, loving, mother to everybody, etc. (We can't keep heat-detection stickers on our heifers because she licks them off!) So, I think she would take her own calf no problem, even though she's never done it before.
One of the reasons I've never been interested in calf sharing is because I don't want to deal with the let-down issues (and corresponding sanitation issues, since we milk by hand). But I think I remember someone on here saying they've had good luck calf sharing without let-down issues with cows who came off commercial dairies... was it maybe you, suzorse?
I would be open to bringing the calf into the milking area and tying it (haltered) by her head while we milk. But last year we were able to separate her calf with absolutely no drama/anxiety. We kept it penned in a corner of her stall for a few days, then moved it to a pen that shared a fence with her pasture. And neither was ever upset. Although I imagine the bonding is probably different if the calf is allowed to nurse!
My main (only, really) motivation for doing this is to give us a little more flexibility in our schedule. We love milking and don't mind doing it (I actually get a little anxious without it while she's dry!), but we live FAR away from all our extended families, and as DD gets older we'd like to be able to make an occasional weekend trip, beyond the short window allowed while the cow is dry (which doesn't always work well for other people's schedules). We have had zero luck finding a relief milker... we haven't actually found a reliable person to farm-sit even while the cow is dry, but there's a much great possibility of finding someone who can refill water tanks than someone we can trust to milk.
Lissy peaked for us last year at 7gal. I know one calf won't take all the milk the entire lactation, but at some point the calf will be big enough and her production will be low enough that we'd be able to do something like separate the calf overnight when we want milk the next morning, but leave the calf on 24/7 when we don't, right?
How would this work? What am I not factoring into the equation? (Calf will be 1/2 angus and is destined for freezer camp.)