Milking at night Question

[jimandpj]

Our jersey cow calved 4 weeks ago today. We have been locking her calf up at night and milking in the morning. The calf is on her all day, but we still milk at night. At night, it takes a lot of time to get a little bit of milk which we feed to the pigs. We are doing this evening milking for her and not for us.

The questions are:
Do we need to continue milking at night if the calf is on her all day?
Can we just let the calf take care of the evening milking completely?
If we do temporarily stop milking at night, when would we need to start again?

I have no idea when/if the calf will naturally wean himself, and I don't want to affect her milk production. But, it would be very nice to only milk once a day during the winter if it will be ok for the cow.

I can't wait to hear everyone's input and advice on this one.

Thanks,
PJ

[michiganfarmer]

I know it can be tough miling twice a day 7 days a week, bt that is really best to keep milk production up. We have always milked twice a day consistantly, and kept enough milk back for the calk. We usually fed 2 quarts of milke twice per day to our holstein calves.

My thought about letting a calf take care of the night miking is the calf will suck on and off all night, and you might not get much in the morning.

[jimandpj]

We have goats, so we're used to twice a day milking. I had still planned on locking the calf up at night so we would have our milk in the morning. I was wondering if the calf nursing all day was sufficient, so that we didn't have to milk out the last half gallon at night.

PJ

[Haggis]

Our little Jersey heifer, Tulip, had her first calf around April 15; from the beginning we milked her only in the mornings, and turned the calf in with her until evening, when we separated them. We never milked her in the evenings, we just let her in with or separated her from her calf as mentioned above. After 3 months we took the calf off her by leaving him with her less and less time until we didn't let him with her at all, but we continued to only milk her in the mornings; the process took perhaps two weeks.

The first month or so, while the calf was small, we got 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 gallons in this once a day milking; the calf evidentally took what he needed.

By 3 months she was giving us 2 1/2 gallons in this once a day milking; with the now very large calf taking enough to do very well.

When we removed the calf she briefly jumped up to 3 /12 gallons, but soon fell back to 2 1/2 gallons a day, which is what we are still receiving; 7 months into her 10 month lactation period (of course, we will continue to milk her until at least 60 to 90 days before she calves.)

We have not milked her in the evenings at any point, just the once a day milking.

In fairness, she was not bred back until this past week, and it seems they hold their milk steadier and for a longer period of time if they are not bred right away. Once they are eating for two something has got to give, and between cow, unborn calf, and milk, it is milk production that means the least to the cow. Genetics have taught her body to use milk energy for herself and the calf to be.

[jerzeygurl]

I milked 2 cows once a day last cycle let thier calves run on them all day put them up at night and milked in the morning. Thats what i will do again, the ability to go to kids ball games go for dinner ect with out having to get up at 4 in the morning so i could milk at 4 in the afternoon for second milking.

[jerzeygurl]

ps. also works great so you can leave calves on all day if you have to be gone over nite or for a weekend and your chore person wont have to milk for you....

[JeffNY]

I have two Jerseys who are milked once per day. They were not milking well twice a day, and I couldn't justify feeding them more grain for little milk. Instead one graining, and they actually make more money as they aren't getting as much grain. They do quite well off it.


We feed the holsteins 3 quarts twice a day, and soon they will move to a gallon twice a day. The Jersey is getting 2 quarts, twice a day. They also get grain.


Jeff

[jimandpj]

That is so good to hear!!!

Thanks,
PJ