Milking cow?? How to tell when she'll calve??
 

HI I've not been on here a whole lot but I figured you all would be the ones to ask. LOL.

We bought a 6 year old Jersey/holstine milking cow in Oct and we were told she'd calve in late April. So we have plans to dry her up in the next 5 weeks. Week 5 she'd be dry. That way she'd get 60 days before the earlist the calf could come. Or so we thought. Yesterday she started to have strings(clear) out her back end and today there is a red spot the size of a quarter on her back end. Her back end also looks bigger. She has dropped her milk production in the last 10 days or so but we also went from feeding sweet feed mix and alfalfa pellets covered in molasses to just the alfalfa with molasses. And we started a new round bale. The drop in milk didn't bother us as she was going to be dried up anyway. But now I'm wondering if she's getting ready to calve on us and that was a sign. We've both been around lots of calving but not with a milking cow. Are there different things to look for?? Should we start drying her up now?? Is there any point to drying her up if she'll likely calve soon?? Besides colostrim? How fast can you dry up a cow?? We were going to take a few weeks at it.

This is not a good time for a calf and I really hope I'm wrong or she'll be one to have signs forever and finally calve. It was -15 C here this morning and she is under a roof with walls on both sides, one open end. But still. We though April was early. This will be her 5th calf?? I think?? Dh will remember. No I think it's 4th. Anyway she's not new to this. Do they (like most humans) get faster as they have more calves. I know peoples labours get shorter the more babies they have. Do cows??

Thanks


BarbG

Was she preg checked, or did they just run her with a bull and asumed she was preg?


When ours was preg I say stringers for about a month but no blood. That is usually a sign of heat ending.

Could be wrong on this, but something just doesn't sit right.

if she was not preg tested, you can do it the old fashioned way, if you "bump" her belly on the right hand side infront of the back legs, and hold your fist there, you should be able to feel the calf bounce back on to your fist, dont bump her hard , just push so that if there is a calf inside it will swing and return to your fist,
as for the strings and red spot, unles i could see it i would not be able to tell you, tho it sounds like shelby said, coming off heat

There wasn't any blood. Just a red, opening up of her back end. Dh says it's gone now so I'm wondering if it was just the way she was laying. She looks bred to both of us. But I will try that bump spot. I'm pretty sure I've seen the calf move when I'm milking. She often shifts her weight after I see the calf move like it's uncomfertable. I know how she feels, being 8 months pg myself.

She was not preg tested but she has very moody, or so we were told, swings when in heat and they stopped after she was with the bull. And we've only had one moody time while we've had her and that was after she'd gotten into too much corn. Dh put a couple bags of corn on her 'stall' (it's her 24x12 area under a roof, though she has about a acre total) and then put more straw on top and she dug thru and got a belly full. We want to put pigs in that area this summer when we kick her out and the corn was for them. Thanks

BarbG

You mentioned drying her off. How much milk is she giving each day? Are you milking TAD or OAD?

We have a 6 year old that is due 4/22 and we also noticed a small amount of clear jelly strings last week and all is well.

The hardest part of your situation are those un-answered questions of "if and when."

I usually notice clear stringing a month or so before calving. (especially when they are laying down) The red spot you are seeing could just be the pressure of the calf pushing outward on her vaginal opening. I've noticed this almost everytime a pregnant cow is laying down when they're beginning to be "heavy bred".
On the issue of milk production dropping. I'd probably have her preg checked before I decided it was the pregnancy causing it. Some cows are very tempermental on their rations and the small change in her feed could have caused it. If whe is bred, you'll probably want her to have at least a sixty day rest period before she gets started again. Good luck on the bumping. (It's a fine art!)

lol at " fine art" i guess it just came natural to me, my grandfather could do it, my dad could not, i can, same as devining for good water, it is something i can do.

Might be that she is bred then, but I would still have her preg checked before drying her off.

You said she got a belly full of corn, because of this I would definately get her checked, I have heard that something like eating too much corn, (because of corn being a fast burning feed) may cause them to slip the calf.
Don't know if it's true or not so hopefully someone will chime in on this. And maybe it only applies to newly bred cows.

DH can do it too, but I haven't got a clue. LOL

We saw our first mucus on Nov 2 and Heart calved on Dec 29th. If she isn't giving much milk, I would just stop milking and check her udder every day for awhile to make sure there aren't any issues. Or you could dry treat her with Tomorrow.

Rachel

We are milking 2x a day. We were getting 3 to 3.5 gallons a day before and now we are getting 2.5 to 3 gallons a day. 3 gallons only if dh milks morning and evening. I swear the cow likes him better. I normally milk mornings and dh eves. I think the slow down was the feed myself because she dropped a gallon the 1st two days and then slowly went 1/2 a gallon up. But like dh says we also started a new bale and it may not be as nice as the last one. This one seems to have more weeds and she may just be slowing down because she is heavy bred and getting ready to stop before the next calf.

I don't think she slipped her calf as she's right beside my house and we would have seen something. She didn't have any discharge at all afterwards.

We really want her to have a 60 day, at least, 'time off' before she calves. It'll probably be more, just to be safe, as we have a 2 week peirod when they told us she was due.

I don't think I'd even worry about it if we had bred her. But we bought her bred and who knows what kind of records they kept, or how far away the bull was (ie. Could she just jump a fence or did they have to haul her)

Anyway tomorrow I'll see if I can do this 'fine art' and we'll see from there.

Franismilker. Thanks for the info. I really think that she's just heavy bred. I'm just wondering how bred. This week or next month or April. She hasn't come into heat since we got her and she LOOKS pregnant. LOL. Our neighbors wife, her hubby runs 60 head and has for 40+ years, took one look at her and said. "she'll never make it til April." Dh and I have our fingers crossed that she will.

So there is no way to tell when a milking cow is going to calve except thru keeping dates and watching her back end?? Will her milk change at all?? Like the taste or anything?? I don't want her to calve while we are milking her but I'd like to have some warning if she is. (like I said it gets COLD here at night and dh is working crazy hours, though I guess I could aways put her in with the chickens if it gets to -40C again. LOL) As it is all we can do is what we've already planned. Slowly dry her up and hope she gets 60 days before calving. And hope they had their dates right. Thanks again for your help.


BarbG

We really want her to have a 60 day, at least, 'time off' before she calves. It'll probably be more, just to be safe, as we have a 2 week peirod when they told us she was due.


I know you are probably getting sick of hearing this from me, but
If you have a vet preg check her , they can give you a better idea of how far along she is,


I swear I will not post it again, :)

or call the place you bought her and ask them if she ran with the bull or was taken to the bull, if she ran with the bull what was the first date she was with him, if she was taken to the bull (or AI ) what date was it, any dairy farner worth his salt should know the date of service

LOL. Ok Shelby I hear you. Actually I would just need to call my brother and get her to preg test her. He did it for years at our local sales place. Like 10 years. Do you need a squeeze to preg test. Or will her sturdy milking stanchion work?? We don't have a truck running (insured) right now or a trailer so hauling her would be hard. Also the vet charges $150, I believe, just for showing up. So we'd really not do that unless we really have too.

Robin that's a good idea too. They weren't dairy farmers really. She was their only cow and I suspect 1st cow. They did keep her last years calf for meat. And I do remember their name. Thanks maybe I'll do that tonight.. or talk dh into it. :)

Have a great day all. BarbG

Her milking stantion should work okay for him.

OK So I did the calf bump thing. LOL. I'm not sure if I did it right or if I have the 'touch' but I sure felt something. Then yesterday I was milking, leaning on her side because her back teats are a bit close together and it's easier to reach from the side, and BOOM I get kicked in the head. I was like "WHAT THE". Then I realized... my calf kicked me. LOL. It did it a couple more times. Bindy, our cow, even looked back as if to ask me why I was making her calf mad. LOL. So she does have a calf in there. And the strings are gone. So I'm probably just a worry wart. Nothing new there. Thanks for your help.

BarbG

If the calf is kicking you while your milking, I'd say it's time to dry her up. I couldn't feel Heart's calf move/kick until less than a month before she calved. She did have a very small heifer calf though.

Rachel

WOW really?? Thanks. I didn't think it was all that abnormal. Just surprised me. LOL. I want to dry her up soon anyway and this will be one more thing to tip the scales. Our human baby may come anytime now and I'd rather not have too worry about getting someone to do the milking and a babysitter for the kids.

Have a great day.


BarbG

We bought our Shamrock supposedly open but she was bred. We had no idea when the due date was. Besides watching the stringing and the relaxation of the rear end, I checked her teats (mind you she was dry). When they were filled with milk, she calved in 24 hours. Did the same thing with the next calf. Now I wish my beef heifers did this!!! I checked one at 9AM and nothing. The darn thing had a calf at noon! My neighbor says with beef cows, you can tell they are ready when they lay down and push!

I am due on the 6th of March with our fifth and am glad I had the time to get Heart into her routine before he/she comes. It will be just one less thing to worry about how she is behaving with whoever ends up milking her while I'm in the hospital.

Neat. I'm due with our 4th on the 29th of feb. Well that's MY dates. March 5th is the ultrasound date. Bindy is going to calf late april when dh will be home for breakup and baby. So he'll be doing all the milking until he goes back to work in the summer. Nice timing for us.. baby and calf. :) Have a great day!!

Hope you have a great 6 weeks before baby and that all goes well.

BarbG