Lifespan of a Jersey cow?

southerngurl · #21 12/14/10, 06:27 PM

Alright, we just got back from seeing her.

She looks in good condition, was fine to be milked. I milked her and she milks easy. She didn't bat an eye at me milking, and I milk a lot different than the usual milker did(read slower..., I'm just used to goats and they don't take as much strength).

She seemed a bit soft in the pasterns to me and standing a little camped under I thought. But seemed happy, bright eyed and all that. I wonder if the pasterns would be stronger with a better mineral. She is only getting one of those red mineral blocks, so chock full of iron. Knowing our area she has to be copper deficient. She also gets no alfalfa, which for me with goats is like a mortal sin, I would think with cattle they would need that calcium rich forage too?

She is eating 12 lbs of grain a day, does that seem right? If I scale it to goat production, I would be feeding her 6 lbs of grain a day- plus alfalfa pellets though.

I don't have a head gate, but they said she does fine if you just tie her up which is what we would have to do for now.

Her udder seems a bit floppy to me, but not horrible. Her udder floor was two or three inches above her hocks after milking, I didn't pay attention prior to milking

Obe-Willow · #22 12/14/10, 08:09 PM

I have a friend that has a Jersey cow that is 28 years old and just calved about 18 months ago to a bull calf (it was not by their choice, the cow got in with the neighbors bull without their knowledge and they found out when she started to bag up). I am not sure about her calving history but I believe she has calved every year or every other year until she was 20 years old. When she got bred to there neighbors bull they did not even realize she could still cycle! I would never have believed that Jersey's could live that long but my friends family has owned the cow since she was 2 1/2 years old.

cowkeeper · #23 12/14/10, 11:39 PM

http://www.thisisjersey.com/2009/02/...-in-the-world/

Here's a Jersey said to be 37 years old! ck

willow_girl · #24 12/15/10, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by southerngurl

Alright, we just got back from seeing her.

She looks in good condition, was fine to be milked. I milked her and she milks easy. She didn't bat an eye at me milking, and I milk a lot different than the usual milker did(read slower..., I'm just used to goats and they don't take as much strength).

She seemed a bit soft in the pasterns to me and standing a little camped under I thought. But seemed happy, bright eyed and all that. I wonder if the pasterns would be stronger with a better mineral. She is only getting one of those red mineral blocks, so chock full of iron. Knowing our area she has to be copper deficient. She also gets no alfalfa, which for me with goats is like a mortal sin, I would think with cattle they would need that calcium rich forage too?

She is eating 12 lbs of grain a day, does that seem right? If I scale it to goat production, I would be feeding her 6 lbs of grain a day- plus alfalfa pellets though.

I don't have a head gate, but they said she does fine if you just tie her up which is what we would have to do for now.

Her udder seems a bit floppy to me, but not horrible. Her udder floor was two or three inches above her hocks after milking, I didn't pay attention prior to milking

Sounds good to me! I wouldn't worry too much about her pasterns. She's not going to be standing around on a concrete floor all day, right? And even noticeably lame cows will heal up on dirt (two of my girls were lame when I bought them).

12 pounds of grain sounds OK; I used to give my Dawnna (Jersey) about half of a 5-gallon bucket while I milked her. She's getting hay, too, right?

southerngurl · #25 12/15/10, 11:32 AM

Yep, she's getting hay.

southerngurl · #26 12/15/10, 12:35 PM

Any reason I couldn't move her to once a day milking or would that + a move cause a lot of drop in milk production? I know she will drop some.

willow_girl · #27 12/15/10, 01:53 PM

I would think that would cause a pretty big drop, although it probably wouldn't hurt her this late in her lactation. What about putting a calf on her?

southerngurl · #28 12/15/10, 02:29 PM

That's one thing I didn't ask about, if she will take other calves. But I don't think they have tried since they've had her really.

southerngurl · #29 12/15/10, 06:57 PM

Looks like we're getting a cow Friday. Hope this goes well ha!

We'll be keeping her in the round pen until her testing comes back. Her purchase is conditional on it coming back negative.

He said they've never tried putting another calf on her, we'll see on that. He did say his daughter would milk her when we are out of town so we have that to fall back on if she won't take calves.

willow_girl · #30 12/15/10, 11:16 PM

Congrats! Keep us posted. I'm betting she'll work out just fine.