Must sell our cows.

Hi! I was just wondering if you've sold your cows yet? I would be interested in the Whole works if you haven't yet. Please email me @ applevz@hotmail.com Thanks and good luck!

I too am interested if you still have them for sale. If Cray or any one else knows of a cow for sale please pm me or email me at open_source at hotpop.com

I've decided to keep my cows. (Which really means I’ve convinced my wife we should keep them)

Thanks everyone for posting! When I was trying to sell them I may have been asking too much for them but good dairy cows are hard to come by in this area. I looked for a long time before purchasing the two that I have.

My brother and my oldest son milked them for my while I was traveling. I spoke to my boss and they've hired another person to travel which means I won't be going out anymore.

I'm drying the Jersey/Guernsey cross cow up. She has not been bred back yet but since we've butchered our hogs I have nothing else to feed the milk to. Both cows are now giving me 5 gallons each a day.

I don't have a bull so I'm going to breed both cows to my brothers Brangus bull. Not really what I want to do but it's been six months since they calved and need to get them bred back as soon as I can.

I've been hand milking my Jersey for the past couple of weeks. The milking machine is great but it is a pain to keep clean. The guy I purchased it from told me to just run bleach water through it after every milking and take the pulsator apart and clean inside it once a week. We'll the bleach might kill the bacteria on the surface but it does nothing for the milk buildup.

I went to a dairy supply place last weekend and they said that I would need two different cleaners properly clean the machine. An acid based cleaner to remove the protein and a soap based cleaner to remove the butterfat. He said that the cleaners should never be mixed because the gas that it would create is deadly. Sort of like Bleach and Ammonia.

He also said that it would be easier to clean the machine if I used hot water. We'll I have water and electric at the barn but no hot water tank. Looks like I'll been installing one real soon.

I think I'd sell the milking machine; use the funds for the mortgage payment, and hand milk if you only have two cows in milk. If you don't need all that milk; you might pick up a couple calves and let one cow nurse them and sell the calves at a profit when they are ready to be bred (or for beef in the case of the bull calves) for more income and still have only one cow to hand milk.

Kirby

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No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth and no culture comparable to that of the garden - Thomas Jefferson 1811

Yippeee!! I have sat and read all this, and was getting really sad for you and your cows! So happy you get to keep them. I agree, I would ditch the milk machine. Why not rotate your cows, one in milk, one not..
I have been wanting a cow so bad, I didnt want you to have to sell yours!

Cray,

What kind of milking machine do you have? I have a Surge for One cow(she gives 8 gallons a day and I have to get to work in the morning). It takes about 5 minutes to completely take it apart and clean it.

I only use hot water and antibacterial soap and then sterilize with quick bleach rinse. No build up problems at all, but the machine is washed within five minutes of being used. Anyway, I'd have to say that the machine and pump was the best $500 I ever spent.

Sherry

Instead of a tank have you thought of an "on demand" water heater very common in europe?