Brand new Jersey cow owner - have a few questions
May 6, 2020 8:04:13 GMT -5
treatlisa, talithathecow15, and 1 more like this
Post by justinandacow on May 6, 2020 8:04:13 GMT -5
About me
- lived in the city all my adult life
- work in tech
- moved out to a couple acres in central Texas in July
- got a bunch of animals (chickens, ducks, bees, a pot bellied pig, goat), garden, microgreens growing
- goal to be a "net food exporter" from this little "ranchette" by the end of the year
About Sarah (my Jersey cow)
- began her life in a dairy
- was bought/acquired/something by someone that works near/with the dairy
- i found the "cow guy" on craigslist
- he tested for for A2 (homozygous)
- i bought her and drove her home on Saturday (5 days ago?)
- he was at the "Cow guys's" place for ~ 1 month, being milked maybe once a day I think, on odd hours because he was only sometimes there (from my understanding, not like, great perfect info)
- 2 years old, had her first calf, is in milk now
- cow guy said he's the gentlest cow he's ever worked with/been around - just would call her from across the field, she'd come, he'd plop down a bucket, sit on the ground and milk her
- also according to cow guy she's never had a halter on her
About Sarah's home
- Fenced in about 1/2 acre
- Lots of bamboo, mostly wooded/shaded in general (she LOVES eating the bamboo)
- Currently shared with the pig & goat
- Have mostly built a milking stand/stanchion for her (outside, basically a deck at the moment)
- Will put up a shelter for her, but a "barn" or "structure" is hard due to city permitting, etc etc etc
- Plan to have a proper barn by the winter
OK! So!
I'm learning to milk and own a cow. Huge adventure. Read a couple books, watched a couple youtube videos. I accidentally let her out of the pasture yesterday morning and she wandered around our land for a few minutes before starting an adventure down the street - a neighborhood kid brought me a rope and we had about an hour total adventuring around the city (me having no idea what to do, and neighbors kind of terrified of just the situation, kind of terrified about coming close due to the coronavirus I'm sure, and generally just a hilarious time).
(My arms hurt so badly right now)
Current milking situation. I drop some hay on the feeder of the stand (that she can access the back of), and she munches on hay for awhile while I sit on the ground (squat, kneel, whatever) and milk her into my bucket. Only a couple of "cow stepped in the bucket so far". I'm REALLY looking forward to finishing the stand so she can walk in there.
I'm milking twice a day (7pm, 7am) and this morning I got about 6 lbs of (amazing) milk, and the last couple have been between 8-10.
One quarter (front left) gives almost no milk, and that quarter of the udder is smaller than the others.
She's SUPER cooperative (so patient with me learning all this) and I've gotten her milked "dry" the last three times. Before, she would decide she was done with me and wander off.
Questions:
- Should I keep milking her twice a day? Will milk production come up if I do? 10-15#/day is MORE than enough for our family right now (we're already overflowing with milk) but I want to keep her healthy/etc
- Should I be concerned about the quarter that doesn't produce much?
- How long will my arms and hands hurt this much?
- Should I halter train her? Or just get like a collar?
- I have her ear tag numbers and such, is there any information to be gleaned from that (all I can tell is that she was born in Texas)
- Anything else? Do you see anything that's like, "Oh, if only he knew this, his life would be so much better!"
Thanks!
- lived in the city all my adult life
- work in tech
- moved out to a couple acres in central Texas in July
- got a bunch of animals (chickens, ducks, bees, a pot bellied pig, goat), garden, microgreens growing
- goal to be a "net food exporter" from this little "ranchette" by the end of the year
About Sarah (my Jersey cow)
- began her life in a dairy
- was bought/acquired/something by someone that works near/with the dairy
- i found the "cow guy" on craigslist
- he tested for for A2 (homozygous)
- i bought her and drove her home on Saturday (5 days ago?)
- he was at the "Cow guys's" place for ~ 1 month, being milked maybe once a day I think, on odd hours because he was only sometimes there (from my understanding, not like, great perfect info)
- 2 years old, had her first calf, is in milk now
- cow guy said he's the gentlest cow he's ever worked with/been around - just would call her from across the field, she'd come, he'd plop down a bucket, sit on the ground and milk her
- also according to cow guy she's never had a halter on her
About Sarah's home
- Fenced in about 1/2 acre
- Lots of bamboo, mostly wooded/shaded in general (she LOVES eating the bamboo)
- Currently shared with the pig & goat
- Have mostly built a milking stand/stanchion for her (outside, basically a deck at the moment)
- Will put up a shelter for her, but a "barn" or "structure" is hard due to city permitting, etc etc etc
- Plan to have a proper barn by the winter
OK! So!
I'm learning to milk and own a cow. Huge adventure. Read a couple books, watched a couple youtube videos. I accidentally let her out of the pasture yesterday morning and she wandered around our land for a few minutes before starting an adventure down the street - a neighborhood kid brought me a rope and we had about an hour total adventuring around the city (me having no idea what to do, and neighbors kind of terrified of just the situation, kind of terrified about coming close due to the coronavirus I'm sure, and generally just a hilarious time).
(My arms hurt so badly right now)
Current milking situation. I drop some hay on the feeder of the stand (that she can access the back of), and she munches on hay for awhile while I sit on the ground (squat, kneel, whatever) and milk her into my bucket. Only a couple of "cow stepped in the bucket so far". I'm REALLY looking forward to finishing the stand so she can walk in there.
I'm milking twice a day (7pm, 7am) and this morning I got about 6 lbs of (amazing) milk, and the last couple have been between 8-10.
One quarter (front left) gives almost no milk, and that quarter of the udder is smaller than the others.
She's SUPER cooperative (so patient with me learning all this) and I've gotten her milked "dry" the last three times. Before, she would decide she was done with me and wander off.
Questions:
- Should I keep milking her twice a day? Will milk production come up if I do? 10-15#/day is MORE than enough for our family right now (we're already overflowing with milk) but I want to keep her healthy/etc
- Should I be concerned about the quarter that doesn't produce much?
- How long will my arms and hands hurt this much?
- Should I halter train her? Or just get like a collar?
- I have her ear tag numbers and such, is there any information to be gleaned from that (all I can tell is that she was born in Texas)
- Anything else? Do you see anything that's like, "Oh, if only he knew this, his life would be so much better!"
Thanks!