(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.)
More milk cows
Cows are no trouble at all if they have what they need: plenty of grass to graze, hay during the winter, a little grain at milking time, minerals, plenty of fresh water, good fences, shelter, and no predators.
I should tell you that I obtained more milk cows and there’s a reason for that. Once I weaned the calf, my Jersey’s milk production started to drop until she was giving half a gallon of milk a day. This happened over a few month’s time. She was about 8 months post-calving when she decided she was “done”. She was not yet “bred back”, although she had been artificially inseminated (A.I.) a couple of times. I kind of panicked, as I had read that a cow who dries off and is not bred may have hormonal issues that prevent them from becoming pregnant again. I was also dismayed at not having milk for the house. I contacted the farmer who I purchased her from to see if he had any more milk cows and he had a beautiful Guernsey cow who had just calved a bull calf. She was also A2/A2, health tested, and was a registered Guernsey. He sold her to me for the same price, and delivered her to me. She was not as sweet and good-natured as the Jersey, terrified of her new surroundings, and man was she a kicker! To make matters worse, I had her calf banded (castrated) on the trailer before he got off. She lost her mind hearing her calf bawling, and the bull calf never forgave me for that.
The good news is that the new cow had grown up with my Jersey and they quickly reunited and had one another to console. The steer calf (once castrated, a bull calf is called a steer) was a wild one. He didn’t trust me or anyone else. I can understand why. I was never able to “gentle” him until right before he was headed to the butcher. I cried a little at his trusting eyes as he was loaded on the trailer. It sucks to be a steer.
My new cow was in no mood to be milked – also a “first-time freshener”. She was very large and she tried to kill me a few times with her “kickers”. I did what I had done with my Jersey – calmly, methodically, called her in to milk twice a day with a grain bucket, locked her in the head gate, and slowly trained her to milk. There was a lot of spilled milk. It didn’t take long for her to stand still and realize that no one wanted to kill her, she got a treat, and she actually felt better after being milked out. She learned that once milked, she would be reunited with her calf.
Meanwhile, I continued to call the A.I. guy out to inseminate my Jersey on each monthly heat cycle. She didn’t take. After 5 tries, I called the vet who assessed that my Jersey had a uterine infection. This can happen if the A.I. person doesn’t follow strict cleanliness protocols for insemination, but it can also happen because the “poop chute” is very close to the cervix. Stuff just happens y’all. The vet treated my Jersey with antibiotics. We discussed my options. Several people told me to “cull” (send to the butcher) my Jersey. I wasn’t going to do that. The vet, Lord bless her, called around and found another farm who had an A2/A2
Jersey cross bull. The farmers were willing to take my Jersey for a couple of cycles to see if she could get pregnant via “live cover”. The farm owners had a “closed herd” and were very hesitant, but willing. A great Christian family who truly wanted to help me. I had the vet draw blood and we sent it to the labs to verify that my Jersey was disease-free as a first step. Then, I called a neighbor who had a horse trailer who was open to me hiring him to transport my Jersey to the other farm. By this time, that cow had become a very expensive cow. I paid a small sum to the family who owned the bull, and there she stayed for 3 cycles. They would send me pictures of her out with their bull. She seemed very content and was well taken care of. We brought her home and I waited a couple weeks. I called the vet and asked her to come out and do a pregnancy check via ultrasound. My Jersey was 3 months pregnant. Woohoo!!
Now back to the Guernsey… She had a mishap while my Jersey was off with the bull. She had bedded down on a fire ant hill, is the best we can come up with. Her entire udder became inflamed to a scarlet red. At first I thought it was mastitis and had the vet come out to treat her for that, but the milk was still looking great and testing clear. It had to be something else – I could only conclude it was the ant hill. She refused to be milked and I completely understood. I learned that she can kick forward, backward, and sideways with those long, strong, legs and hooves.
There is such a thing as an “anti-kick bar”, but try getting that on a kicking cow. There are other methods as well. Some take the tail and tie it up to a nearby post – there’s something about the tail being lifted that prevents kicking. Some have taken a rope or strap and tied it around the midsection of the cow, similar to the anti-kick bar it supposedly prevents kicking. Milking her became impossible so I turned her out with her calf who was big enough to take all the milk. She stood perfectly still while that calf nursed but I could see her wince. Calves, and especially little boy calves, aren’t so gentle with their mothers. He would smack that udder with his head until she let down enough milk to satisfy his hunger. The household was without milk again. After a few weeks, her udder healed and I went back to training her to be milked. I would repeat to myself, be calm, be methodical, be consistent. Soon, she was milking like a dream. Whew.
As the saying goes, one is none, two is one, and three might get you there. I bought another milk cow and she was more expensive than the first two. I purchased her while my Jersey was off with the bull, not knowing if she could get pregnant, and while my Guernsey’s udder was healing. We wanted milk that bad.
How now brown cow? I purchased a beautiful registered Brown Swiss, also A2/A2, disease tested and disease free. She had just had a bull calf and I didn’t want to deal with another calf. The seller was willing to keep the bull calf since she had other milk to give him. I had to hire transport since the cow was coming from an adjoining state. This was her second calf; she was well trained, halter broke, easy to hand or machine milk, and very sweet. Whew. No kickers to deal with. No training a first time freshener, and no calf to deal with.
Are you counting the thousands of dollars I’ve spent by now? All for the sake of milk?!! Milk cows are addicting.
Of the three milk cows, the latest one was a dream. She’s the kind of cow who comes when called, walks right in to be milked, lets her milk down since she knows the drill, and then wants a hug. Wow, what a difference. Worth every penny. She only tried to kick me once because she determined that I had not given her enough grain. Well, she had a habit of wolfing down her grain, choking on it, and then vomiting, so I would give her a little grain at a time to prevent that. But, she would get anxious if her feed pan got empty. It was actually pretty funny. She did learn to not gulp down her grain and choke. And she never tried to kick me again.
The above describes my adventure with purchasing and training milk cows. Many would have given up at this point, but I doggedly continued. The Jersey ended up pregnant. The Guernsey healed. The Brown Swiss was solid. The Guernsey’s steer calf, at almost a year old, just went to the butcher. And both the Brown Swiss and Guernsey are pregnant, along with the Jersey’s first calf. Huge progress. But, what now?
Not only had I dumped a lot of money into cows and equipment. And we had a rotten year for rain and the pastures were becoming overgrazed. I had to bring in hay all year long. I pay $80 for a round bale, delivered. That many cows go through a round bale a week. Plus the cost of grain had gone up significantly, and while my cows are “grass fed”, the ones in milk need grain at milking time and especially if they are also feeding a calf. I only feed non-gmo grain, so the cost was getting too high for my comfort.
After much gnashing of teeth, and now that my original Jersey was pregnant and her heifer calf was also pregnant, I decided to sell the Guernsey and Brown Swiss. I really needed to get costs under control. I had done the hard math and it wasn’t working.
If you are a “thinking person”, you may have just gone without milk and stuck it out with the first cow. But, I didn’t. Or, I’m not a “thinking person”. LOL. Either way, I found myself in a situation that had become unaffordable. I absolutely hated parting with any of my cows. I had a delightful little herd of four lovely milk cows, beef in the freezer, tons of frozen butter in the freezer, and a nice list of “milk customers”. I did the hard math on selling excess milk, which is a labor of love. I was selling at a loss, truth be told. Making myself face the financial truth of raising dairy cows was painful. I was able to find a wonderful family for the cows I was willing to part with, but first they had to be bred, then pregnancy tested, and disease tested to ensure I could sell them for what I paid for them. Alternatively, I could sell them at a loss, but I wasn’t willing to do that.
In the next few weeks, two of the dairy cows, bred and disease tested, go to their new home. I will probably cry at their departure. But, I am looking forward to a small “milking break” for a few weeks before my Jersey calves. Two months later, her heifer will become a cow as she calves for the first time, and the cycle begins anew. Honestly, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.