Milking Scotch Highland Cows?

The reason dual purpose is rarely seen is that it isn't in demand anymore. Shorthorns used to be of one variety, with few beef or dairy specific bloodlines. Now there are two separate breeds, the ox/milk Shorthorn and the beef Shorthorn.

The only issue with milking a Scotch Highland I would think would be you might get some hairy milk, but good luck. F1 hybrids are always great too.

Exactly, i have no idea what i would do with so much milk... I think i'd waste 90% of it at the end.. My Great Grandma always had Goats for milk, but the smell... i just can't do it. The cows in my opinion were just easier for me to handle.

Being in Ohio i like the fact they can handle the extreme cold, even though lately our winters haven't been bad. People said trimming of the hair was all that was needed to keep the hair out of the way. But with 10% butterfat maybe i might need to look into another cow. I was reading up on Dexter that could help with that...says 3,000 pounds of milk.

Only problem with Dexters is that some of 'em are so short I almost have to have 'em on a stand to milk... if you're not a tall person, should be no problem...

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Home is the hunter, home from the hill, and the sailor home from the sea...

My highlands were docile.....the ones we kept as breeders. the ones that were flighty, we put in the freezer. I had 2 that I milked, mainly because I could. With only 2 of us drinking it and my sisters 4, we had all the milk we needed. I always shared with the calves...got probably 2 quarts a day from each. I could have got more but didnt need to. Good luck, not everyone needs a jersey to milk (though they are nice animals!).

As for amounts of milk from a Holstein, just take as much milk as you need. The cow adjusts. I have a lot of Holsteins being treated like beef cows right now, and to look at their udders, you wouldn't think they were a milking breed. The older cows who went through the parlor have "normal" sized smallish udders. The young cows that were never milked have tiny udders that you hardly see between their hind legs, and their calves are growing like gangbusters. So take a quart of milk or two quarts and in a week the cow will be giving that much.

A friend of mine who raised Scottish Highlands had one that he threatened to bring over to me when I was still milking for a living. He had a cow that had really bagged up when she freshened. And a neighbor with Black Angus has also had a cow with a noticeably large udder when she came in.

So I say go for it. Any cow will give a decent amount of milk. The one difference I think that's obvious is the length of lactation. You start to get half beef blood and they start to taper off on milk several months before the Holsteins do. Probably still as good as a goat for lactation length, though. I'm talking petering out at 8 months instead of stretching past ten.

Jennifer

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-Northern NYS