Drying Off

[Mark T]

I have an Ayrshire cow that calved last June. We took her calf in to be processed ten days ago. He was still nursing (700 pounds with no grain).

As per vet's orders, I waited 24 hours after removing the calf and then stripped her out. Nine days later, she is still producing milk. Every morning and afternoon when I move the cattle to a new paddock, she comes over to me and wants to be milked. She lets her milk down so strongly that is just sprays out of her teats as she is standing there.

Shouldn't she have dried up by now? She does have a serious will to milk - she was producing four gallons a day on grass only and got pretty thin (it took three AI services to catch her and she is not due again until late October - a 16 month calving interval). But will to milk or not, one would think she would have dried up by now.

She doesn't seem uncomfortable - her udder is not swollen or hot, but she does want to be milk and is making some. Is there anything else I should be doing?

[Hammer4]

Some farm stores carry a product ( I think its injection ) that will dry up cows, check with them or your vet. I wouldn't worry about it, nature will take its course.

[Up North]

With plenty of good grass, it can be difficult to dry off a cow. In time she will figure out milk isn't needed, and then her udder will stop producing, go through process of involuting where remaining milk is absorbed back into body. If you have allready gone 9 days, best to stick with it now and go cold Turkey. She'll have some time to build up some body condition for next calving.

[JanO]

You could use the injection, but what a waste of good milk. I would milk her until about early Aug. 2 X's a day for a while, then once a day, then once every other day until she dries up. 4 gallons a day is a lot of milk and it's going to take a while for her production to go down. It won't hurt her to milk that long. By neglecting her udder now your leaving her open to mastitis, which is not what you want to deal with either before, or after she calves again.

If you don't want the milk then feed it to the pigs, chickens, etc. They'll love it.