Milk Help

Well, the good news is that taste wise, I couldn't tell that one quarter was producing the bad milk.... Bad news, they all were! The off flavor is way stronger in the cream, so skimming the milk helps as long as it is fresh, say 24-36 hours old. So, waiting on the CMT to check for mastits, but I'm thinking I'm not going to find anything and will have to live with off milk... Thanks for all the input guys...if anyone has a lightbulb moment, feel free to share...
wistful

I just remembered that we had 3 cows last fall that their milk did not last long at all. I was mentioning this to a rep from Select Sires and his first question to me was how long have they been open (unbred)? I didn't know. I called the lady I bought them from and she said it had been a year and a half since they had last calved and she thought they were bred back (which they weren't). The Select Sires rep said that was the problem......they were spoiled. He said a cow's milk supply will go south if not bred back. Their somatic cell counts go very high when left open too long. He suggested we dry them up and get them bred back. It was sad to hear but we didn't like the thought of a lot of slough-off cells in the milk.

Just something to think about.

Kelly

ilovejerseys,
You might be on to something! She calved in mid May last year, and isn't bred back. We wanted her bred last fall, but her cycles didn't work timing wise...the gal that AI's (select sires) was at fair one week, then on vacation, then we wanted to stagger freshening times with another cow (who ended up not taking the first time), etc... Her milk didn't get strong til about 4-5 months after she freshened. The vet did say to have her bred and that she may be fine next time around, but didn't say that being open so long could be the problem. Thanks a bunch!
wistful

This reminds me of another thread of bad tasting milk – ended up being mastitis. As Kelly said, however, there may be other causes of high SCC (somatic cell count), such as a long lactation? White blood cells are a type of somatic cell, and they release enzymes which break down the milk and cause bad flavors.

http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthr...5&page=1&pp=30

Your comment about the bad cream flavor reminded me of a quote I put in that thread:

DJ,
Thanks for the link. Since I'm new here, I hadn't read any of that. I am (still) waiting for my CMT kit to get here. I can't see anything in the filter, and though that doesn't mean there's no mastitis, I'm leaning towards the idea that sh'e overdue to be bred back. We usually have that done between 60-90 days, but it's been more like...um...250+ ! If her SCC is high due to that, it won't show up in a CMT test, will it?? How would I test that?
wistful

Ok, I know y'all are probably getting tired of me, but..., got the CMT kit today, tested her this evening, and she's completely clean. More good/bad news, I guess. Now if she'd just come in so we could get her bred... Any idea if that'll improve the milk taste now, or would we have to wait 'til next freshening?
wistful

I grew up and still live next to my parents dairy farm. My dad learned from his to test for subclinical mastitis by tasting the milk. It will be watery and salty. They actually now have a salt content test for subclinical mastitis! Infected milk shouldn't make you sick, but it will spoil quickly. Another suggestion is to bleach your milk pail, jugs etc.