drying up a cow

[dougbrown]

How harmful is it if a cow doesn't completely dry up before delivering her calf? We have a Jersey that continues to give milk regardless how little we milk her and how little grain she gets. She is due in June. We have heard that she needs to be dry for about 60 days before delivering.
Brown

[jerzeygurl]

the dry up period is to allow her to stop and then build up colostrum...

[gone-a-milkin]

It is better to dry them up, gives them time to rebuild a little between lactations. Have had it happen where they DIDNT get dried up. i.e. you walk out in the field and VIOLA! theres the new baby. OOPS.

Sometimes I want to keep milking dry cows because they look uncomfortable, but it seems like after a few days the swelling goes down. As long as you dry her gradually to begin with, she will dry up.

[dougbrown]

Thanks for the information. I will see what I can do.

Brown

[Jennifer L.]

If you don't dry her off you won't get as much milk the next lactation. The cow uses the dry period to involute her udder. When she is dry the milk producing cells are rebuilt, and if she doesn't get that chance, then she has to continue milking with the old cells she has left. The result is less milk and probably a shorter lactation the next time out.

Jennifer

[tyusclan]

As long as you continue to milk her at all, she will continue to produce milk. If you've tapered down the amount of milk you've been taking, then it shouldn't be a problem. Just stop milking her at all, and in a few days, you'll start to see the udder slacken and begin to dry up.

She and the calf both need the dry-off period.

[JeffNY]

The dry period also allows her to recondition properly so she can head out of the gates running when she calves again. Now with most homsteading purposes, the term "stale" doesn't matter. But when a cow goes stale, her udder isn't defined as well (veins, etc). So drying her off, that rest period helps in those respects as well. When she calves out the 2nd time, her udder will be similar to what it looked like the 1st go around, only slightly bigger. To make it simple, a 60 day dry off period gives her a break between lactations.


Jeff