Must sell our cows.
 

Hello,

I'm new to this forum but have been visiting it for some time now. My wife and I bought our little farm about a year ago. We had always wanted a family milk cow so we started looking around. I have always loved Jersey's because of the way they look as well as their disposition.

We finally found a dairy north of where we live that was reducing the size of their herd. We actually bought two of the cows they had for sale. One is a Jersey and the other is a Jersey/Guernsey cross. They are both great cows. Very gentle. I was informed last week that I'm going to have to start traveling for my work. This will require me to be gone through the week and only be at home on the weekends.

Since I'm not going to be home to milk I am forced to sell the cows. This is harder than I thought it would be. It's only been about 5 months now but I have really gotten attached to both of them. Letting them go is going to be tough. We have a portable milking machine that makes the job pretty easy but my wife just doesn't think she can handle it by herself. We're getting between 8 and 9 gallons of milk per day. We are bottle feeding two calves that take 4 gallons of the milk per day and what we don't take ourselves goes to the hogs we're raising to butcher.

I have two questions. 1. Should we have the cows bred back before we try to sell them? 2. Is there anyone in the Oklahoma area that would be interested in two really great cows and maybe a milking machine?

I hate selling the cows and if there was some way that I could keep them I would, but I have to be able to make the mortgage payment.

Any advice you can give on how I would go about selling the cows would be appreciated.


Charlie

Hi Charlie,

Since you have two lovely cows by all accounts, why sell them? Both are rearing calves and can continue to do so without any ill affects on the cows - and you will still be able to pinch a bit of nice fresh milk when your home at the weekend :)

If you are committed to selling them, you would be better to get them back in calf again as there isn't much call for an empty cow. And even if you do decide to keep them, it would still be an idea to get them in calf because even if your not milking them, the calves can make a bit of pin money for you plus you could look at the option of mothering on another calf so that each cow is rearing two.

I'm sure that if your wife were to give it a go she would find she would manage very well and even get to enjoy it. I milk up to 6 cows twice a day and have done for years, even when I had a young family. It's the nicest part of my day as cows are such peaceful animals to be around - as I'm sure you now know. :)

I do hope you make the decision to keep them.

Cheers,
Ronnie

Why not buy a few more beef calves and foster them on the cows? Nursed calves grow really well and beef would be a good thing to sell. You many not always have to travel for work and then your girls could still be at home waiting for you. You could even foster just one cow with calves, maybe your wife would be willing to milk just one so you don't have to give up your milk supply.

Claire

I thought about buying a couple more calves to put with the cows but before I took their own calves off of them and started bottle feeding them they wouldn't let the other cow's calf suck. So I'm not sure if they would accept the new calves.

When we want a mare to foster an orphan foal, we smear Vicks on the mare's nose and on the foal in spots so that she can't tell it isn't "hers", sometimes we have to tie the mare and hobble her for a day or so (while she nurses the foal only! not continuously all day and night) so she doesn't kick it away and by the second or third day, the mare is usually licking the foal and thinks it's hers.

Might work with cows too.

Sidepasser

We had cows that were very motherly (especially years ago when we had Guernseys) but others would drop the calf and walk off. It was a very individual thing. Mothering ability seems to be inherited, and a lot of modern dairy cows have not been selected for it. Sort of like poultry ... some strains have a lot of broody hens and in other strains broodiness has been bred out of them.

Are you sure your wife won't give it a go? Especially since you have a machine ...

What about breeding your cows back adn drying them off early while you think this through?

HOpe it all works out ...
Ann

I am interested in your jersey/guernsey cross cow if you have decided to sell. What is your asking price, and where are you located? I live in western Montana.
Barbara Jo Belles
bellmont@blackfoot/net

This is what I would do, find a farm that is willing to work with you, and feeds their animals well. See if they will milk them untill they dry off, then either have them bred back, or keep them dry as your pets. We have a Jersey, and when I was 12 or so and during a nasty cold winter I hated milking. We sent her to a farm to get milked etc.


But aside from this, 8-9 gallons a day? Thats ---- good. 8.6lbs to a gallon of milk, those guys are milking 60+lbs a day, very nice! Sounds like you have some decent genetics there, nothing super, but still thats good.


Jeff

I also am interested, I sent a PM several days ago and replied to your other post. Please PM me.

Oh I am only interested in the Jersey.

?selling cows
 

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Exactly where are you located in OK? I live in the panhandle of Texas and might
know someone interested in a couple of milk cows. I would love to have them
myself but my husband isn't even crazy about helping with the one milk cow we
already have. Let me know how much you want to sell them for and where you are and maybe I could find a buyer for you. Thanks, Marlene

Jersey cows
 

We are looking for a family cow. Our location is in Colorado and we would travel to pick it up. Sorry to here about your situation. Please let me know your price. Thank you

Do you still have the cows for sale?

The cows are still for sale.
 

Sorry I haven't had much time to visit the board lately. I told my work that I will need to sell my cows before I can start traveling and they are not real happy. We are asking $900 each for the cows but will consider other offers. If I sell the cows I will need to sell my portable milking machine as well. I paid $1275 for it in September and will take $950 for it now. I will sell them all together for $2600.

Thanks for all of your replies.

Charlie

How old are the cows? Where are you located in Oklahoma, east or west? I have PMed with an offer and some more questions.

Your poor piggies will miss the milk....they must be lovely raised on Jersey milk. It's a shame your wife can't milk the cows... :confused: I hope they both get lovely homes...together would be good. :)

I am very interested in one of you cows, how old are they, where are you in OK. Are they bred, if so when, if not when did they last calf? You can contact me at OScottswench@aol.com. We have been looking for about a year for a nice Jersey cow for our family.

Just a hint ... to get our Jersey nurse cows to take on a new calf we milk her and pour the milk on the baby. Using this method we have gotten them to take three week old calves. Younger is always better. We've tried the vicks, vanilla and etc tricks and found this works for us everytime. The cow smell her own smell in the milk. Sometimes it takes two or three times but it works.

This is probably too late for Charlie but...

Maybe we've always just had good luck but if you tie up the cow a few times and show those calves where to get a meal, they'll make sure they get the job done! We have a Hereford who took on 3 extra calves after our Jersey cow died of cancer. The Jersey had been milking her own and 2 bottle calves (tied her up and taught them where to find the milk) but when she dried up, all 3 of them followed the Hereford bull calf to his milk machine. That old gal didn't stand a chance when all 4 calves came at her for a meal! They were all old enough to wean by then but had no interest in ignoring a free meal.

Charlie,
Im sorry to hear you have to sell your cows. I AM looking also, so if you would email me fries_m@bigfoot.com we can figure out something.
Mary F.

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

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! :cool:

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?