Getting a milk cow, need advice

Mr and Lily

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If she is bred to a Holstein bull you better have a calf puller or your vet on speed dial .she is extremely small to be a springer Holstein heifer . I would hope she is bred to a jersey bull

She's bred to an angus bull

As long as the angus bull throw small offspring you may be ok. But be sure to get a calf puller.

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I'm so done here.

She's got horns. Give some thought to what you want to do about that. Gather opinions and information and weigh your options.

About those horns, short of going to the vet, is there a way to get rid of them? My nephew said the co op had some drops that would keep them from growing bigger but he didn't know if they would make the horns go away.

I just had my yearling dehorned. Best thing I ever did for my herd!

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I'm so done here.

If I can go from zero experience, with a first fresher about to pop that was as wild as the week it was born, to milking daily without incident, then you can too. We still have an occasional "incident", but two times a day for each day of the first month was nothing but discouraging. At the depths of that discouragement, we were seeking ways of throwing in the towel. "We can't milk! What were we thinking??" I reread and edited this lengthy post. If your eyes glaze over and you get nothing else from it, I want you to remember during those deep, discouraging start-up days, that if I could, I would be right behind you yelling

"DON'T GIVE UP!!! YOU'LL FIGURE THIS OUT!!!"

I see you have a halter on her. You already have a huge head start from where I was with 2 weeks to calving last March. It was rough going early on, but we found our rhythm. Just take it day by day, don't get too discouraged, pay attention to what works and what doesn't, and keep building on the prior day's experience. We weren't smart enough to start with just one cow. Out first calved in March, and the second and third a week apart in May. We were still "dazed-n-confused" when the second one came fresh.

If you are like me, you are going to make some colossal mistakes. Just know going in that a colossal mistake can result in serious injury/illness/death to you or the animal, and you'll have the proper respect of the situation to have a fulfilling family cow codependency. Don't be obsessed with making sure the milk makes it to the fridge and cookie glass. Do be obsessed with your safety and the cows health. They'll give way more than you will know what to do with anyway. Speaking of cows "giving" milk, that is a bunch of baloney. I've had to take every drop I've gotten. The only thing the cows have given me is bruises and extra laundry. However, cows are like crack addicts. As soon as they figure out that a nice pile of carbs is waiting for them, they will do the hard part for you. It is really a nice relationship at this point. We only milk in the morning, the new barn is almost done, DW figured out how to make cheese, and life with dairy cows is pretty sweet. I can't offer any specific advise, because we are both relatively at the same point in experience--so you'll just have to ask. You'll encounter things that I haven't even imagined. My big lessons are probably a product of my own mistakes anyway, and probably wouldn't translate well to your situation. Fear is the wrong attitude. Respect for the shear power of the animal is very useful.

Regarding your specific question, I would start a daily routine involving your milking ration ASAP. It doesn't have to involve a stanchion. It doesn't have to even involve tieing her off. But I would opt for those two tools in that order as part of my routine. Mainly, the routine needs to be regular, and consistently delivered. And you would be wise to aim for the routine that will be in place on day 1 of milking. For example, you could use the next week to train her to follow a bucket into a stanchion where you will lock her for an hour. When she calves, she is likely going to behave like a completely different cow anyway, and you'll have the mother-child dynamic to fold into what will be a new routine. I have had to make significant changes to our routine about 3-4 times so far this year as we have finished our infrastructure. They take about a week to settle in to a major routine change, such a change in venue or new stanchions. Patience and allowing for mucho grande extra chore time is key when I make any routine change. In the end, though, the cracked corn is the candy that makes it all work smooth for me.

Regarding the horns, I don't have a strong opinion. In the broadest sense, I am not a fan of altering an animal for cultivation purposes. But for me, that isn't a "hard and fast" philosophy. My cows have their horns but I wish they didn't. They don't use them, but they are nasty painful and are one more thing for me to have to constantly keep an eye on. Our cows are typical family-cow gentle, but I've been in the unfortunate spot of being between the horns and a biting horsefly. Horn removal is on my todo list just so we don't get seriously injured.

Enjoy! Based on the pics, you are already miles ahead of where we started.

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Honesty and integrity are homesteading virtues.

It is my understanding that the same banding tool for castrating young bull calves can be used to place the rubber band at the base of the horn. However, I may have missed the fine print, as they say. I figure the most sure-fire way of confirming that short of trying it myself is to throw the idea out in a public forum and letting the folks jump all over it if I'm wrong.

__________________

Honesty and integrity are homesteading virtues.

I personally would have the vet dehorn her. She will have mess that she won't feel a thing. My vet knocked out my girl gave her numbing meds. Sawed off her horns and burned so there was no bad blood loss. One thing do it when flys are not a problem. Her head will be open I'm talking hole in her skull. It will take 2 months to close up. It's freaky but worth it.
I was scare to death of doin this to my poor holly! I almost backed out of this at the end. As the vet was about to give her the meds. My dh looked at me and said do you want to loose a heifer when she gets " p/o" ?
I'm so happy I did. She came to and was like nothing ever happened. After she has her calf get her dehorned. It's fast. She can have meds and less stress on her.

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I'm so done here.

If you do opt to dehorn, please wait until after she calves; and get a vet to do it!!!

I'm a big fan of "altering" or "mutilating" an animal for safety purposes, both for me and for the other animals around it. I've heard some horror stories and seen what happens to an animal when horns aren't removed. We had to nurse one steer back to health after he got gored in the hip from one of the horned steers we used to have (once I thought he got stepped on, but the injuries were consistent with that of a wound from a horn), and he had a hole in his hip that went really deep--like two feet--and was quite infected.

I've also seen a steer get killed by a steer with horns. It wasn't nice to see at all, and I was just in elementary school at the time it happened. Not great to see a big steer with 3' span of horns holding a horn up to the throat of another steer and that steer's nose and lips go blue and the breathing stop.

I would imagine those horns would hurt, at least you're not going to be (hopefully, knock on wood) the type that has to go to the hospital for getting gored by one of your family milk cows. If you don't want to get them completely dehorned, at least having them tipped to take off the real sharp ends--the more dangerous part of the horn--would be just as good.

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