Animal I can milk every 2 days?

volleypc, I've seen a lot of people assuming you don't live on your homestead and a lot of people assuming you won't check on your animals daily.

Will you be there to check on the animals daily and give them food and water if they need it?

I kept Dexter cow/calf and dairy doe/kid pairs so that I milked only when needed. I brought them into the barn if I needed to milk, separated them overnight, milked in the morning and turned them out to pasture.

We used a little bit of commercial feed in the evening to get the animals to come to the fence so that we could see them before dark. We didn't feed them every day because they had grass and/or hay. We didn't water them every day because we developed natural springs away from the barn and had a tub that was filled every other day.

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Robin

I agree with the above. We have a small farm and it is my fulltime, everyday job! Accidents are always waiting to happen.

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Ozark American Hippy Chick
Farm Mamma to:
Cows
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Pigs
Turkeys
Chickens
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Dogs
and a couple of cats

Yup, he simply asked if there was a critter that would do well being milked every other day, he never said that it would only be checked on every other day.

I looked in on the post for my own interest. Being single I don't consume much milk and couldn't see the point in trying to deal with a cow or even goats for milk even though I'll be retired and working full time at home and taking care of animals every day. I don't want to sell milk, don't want to toss it away, and it would be easier to just quit consuming milk altogether.

Some of the answers I have seen here might change my mind though as to what is feasible.

I would dearly love to see this arrangement!

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Many cross bred cows will even take a second calf and still give enough milk for a small family. You get a calf to butcher, one to sell and milk too. I had a seperate stall for cow, and a calf pen, milk the cow in the morning, turn out to pasture and let calves out to nurse. Bring in when I needed more milk. I do this with goats if I have 2 fresh at the same time. They raise twins, I milk what I need, we are both happy until I eat them....James

Just a suggestion: if you don't want people to make incorrect assumptions, give more information in your first post.

I stand by what I said. People who don't want to be bothered to take care of animals should not have animals. If the shoe fits, wear it. If it doesn't apply to you, then don't take it to heart.

I don't happen to care whether you feel insulted or not. I gave good information, if you don't like it, it isn't my job to agree with whatever you want to do, make you feel good, flatter your ego, or reinforce your beliefs.

Instead of being outraged that you have been insulted the correct response would have been: "Thank you for the information. However, this is my actual situation, so does that change the answers?".

Folks here are really nice and very helpful. Just because they can see that your planned course is going to get you into trouble and have warned you of that, does not mean that they have insulted you.

From a health stand point it will not hurt the animal.
You could only do this if the animal had offspring to nurse when you don't milk.
If you were to have a goat with a kid or two you would not have to milk every day but your milk supply would drop off very quickly once the kids were weaned. That might give you ample millk for a small family for about 5-6 months then she would dry up. Now you have zero milk and an animal to feed till she kids next time. If that works for you that would be OK.

As for the replies remember more often than not folks want animals to work out how the people want not how the animal needs.
i can not tell you how many" city slickers" I know around here that get land , get animals only to find out the weekend feeding and watering simply does not work.

This is the internet do not let it offend you!!

I am not an absentee owner

With rabbits and quail I have a watering system large enough to handle two days easily. It is designed with a backflow preventor that keeps the water being stored from being contaiminated.

My question was does such an animal exist that you can milk every two days that will not be hurtful to the animals If not such animal exist, which it sounds like, I would have prefered just a simple, no such animal exist.

Thanks for the info. And yes I am with the animals daily. Fortunately I am an early riser so I tend to them early and then after the gym I lock up the gates and close up shop for the night. I am not interested in a cow.. I was looking for something non traditional... but it sounds like such an animal doesn't exist.

The original question depends on how much milk you want. If you want alot, it's harder on the animal to have inconsistent demand. If you don't need much, it won't be as much a problem.

I have been recommending milking beef cows in the cattle section for quite some time, but don't get much acceptance, as chalk creek says, it is heresy to suggest milking anything other than a jersey or a dexter. For some reason people want several gallons daily and many have to find uses for it.

I sold my jersey/lowline cross cow which gave too much milk now that the kids are gone. Got a couple British White heifers (beef breed) which I intend to milk. With the last cow I'd milk most in the evening, but would sometimes steal a quart in the morning as she ate - just take a jar out and hold it sideways and squirt into it without even washing her. No straining required.

That's what I intend to do with the beefers. Just separate the calf overnight, feed her in the stanchion, steal some milk in a jar. Turn the calf in to finish the job. Throw the milk in the frig. I don't care if she lets down, because I don't need all her milk and I don't need alot of cream that comes more at the end.

Simple answer, NO.

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Lots of "Neighborly help and friendly advice" some of you guys are in top form today.

The original post seemed pretty clear to me, all the information was there.

I'm a member of several forums, a motorcycle forum an audio forum , a shooting forum and a firefly forum. Oddly enough this is the most mean spirited one of them all. I honestly think the OP would have gotten a more friendly and helpful response on the motorcycle forum, and those people are pretty coarse.

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Sad but true. That is why I convey my experiences and let people use as they may. For myself I must have goats milk, I milk pygora goats, I have 3 so I rotate them. They don't give a lot of milk but we like pygoras, my wife uses the fiber and we eat the wethers, a true multipurpose goat. If 2 are milking at once I let the little ones nurse one and only milk when I need her milk. I get the milk I need and live with it. No harm to the animal, all is OK. May not work for anyone else but it works for me. Take it for what it is worth and what was paid. On the other hand I see the other side also, people wanting to keep someone from making the same mistake as they did or like this, they don't think it is possible. Still no reason to be so opinionated as not to be open minded and civil. This is a big country and what won't work one place or for one peron may work for another. There is room here for everyone, even those with opposing views, opinions or experiences without judging harshly....James

Not being facetious here, but what an opportunity for a bypass to the raw milk sales hassle---U-MILK! Get your clients in line and set a schedule..... work it out, barter, contract, or credits instead of selling.....Huh?

geo

There you go, New friends of like mind helping each other, true homesteading....James

Thanks.. that was what I was looking for. A previous poster mentioned soymilk and I should have thought about that earlier. We have about 160 acres and soybeans so I am going to pursue that option. I also have some almond trees, but they need a few more years before they start producing. Thanks for the info. Have a great day.

The simple answer is - try it for yourself to see. You've gotten some pretty good advice from some people that have tried it or do it that way now. I hope you can find one that suits your needs.
Good luck!

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A wise person speaks when they have something to say but a fool speaks just to say something

I keep going back to the original here to see what I missed, and I think we answered very well. The last sentence " Let me know if any of you have any ideas " says it all, and we did just that. I know I should just let this one go, but you did ask, and we did tell ya our ideas. I can`t see where some of you are getting all bent out of shape over this. You need to give more details so you don`t get flamed on your questions. The original post gave no details on your intentions, I am sorry this has gotten so far out of hand, and the cattle posts don`t get this crazy most of the time, but this one sure did. > Thanks Marc

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I think we have the winter cabin fever crazies.

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