Twice a day?

[Panther]

Obviously a city-boy question, but if you have a calf nursing the cow, can you get away with milking once a day? does the calf take the rest?

[Donna from Mo]

By the time a calf is a couple of months old, it can take all the milk its mother produces, even if that mother is a good milker. Along the way you really have to watch for scours, though. When my little Jersey heifer grows up and has a calf, I do not intend to be tied down to milking. I did that for 25 years, and now I want to be able to go on vacation. So, I will milk what her calf cannot take at first, but let the calf run with her. It's VERY important to keep your eye on a calf running with a dairy cow, because there's so much milk they will almost certainly get scours; if that happens, you have to take them off the cow for a day or two and give them scours pills. But eventually they adjust, and do fine. If I want milk after the calf is able to take it all, I'll put the calf up overnight, milk the cow in the morning, and turn them back out together. Past experience tells me there's a problem with the cow holding up her milk that way, but I'll bet I can get enough milk for a couple of older people who only drink a little skim milk anyhow (husband's had open heart surgery so we watch cholesterol).

[Panther]

Excellent advice!

So just to be clear, If we only needed/wanted to milk once a day, it's an issue of seperating the Cow from the calf overnight, milk in the morning and then let the calf with the cow for the day. And watch for scours and treat accordingly.

[Donna from Mo]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do; I've done it in years past. You will be very surprised, though, just how persistently a cow will hold her milk back so her baby can have it. If you are strong enough, you can let the calf start nursing briefly, wrestle it away from her (using a halter and lead) and then she will have let her milk down for the calf and you can get it all. But obviously, after the calf gets good-sized, that can be difficult.

[lonelyfarmgirl]

wouldn't the baby scream and yell for its momma all night long?

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by lonelyfarmgirl

wouldn't the baby scream and yell for its momma all night long?

Yep, for a night or two, then it becomes the routine.

[Ohiofarmer]

We used a similar method for milking a heard of Nubian goats, but we didnt like them crying all night, and didnt want to never take a vacation. It also gets cold at night for the winter babies and they need to milk to stay warm. Just go out to do chores in the morning and leave the babies up in the barn with some starter ration or hay and grain to pick at. When you bring in the animals, the does are ready to milk and calling to their babies. Worked well, and fortunately no mastitis. They usually would start calling to be milked in the afternoon. About 8 hours max time away from babies. Then we didnt have to strip out the udder since the babies did a fine job of that once we got the milk we wanted.
OF

[genebo]

Panther,

Milk has to come out of the udder. It can't stay in there or it will cause problems.

Heavy milking dairy breeds were developed to produce a lot of milk. Sometimes it's too much for the normal cow/calf relationship, so she has to be milked to stay healthy.

Choose a breed that gives less milk to avoid problems.

Genebo
Paradise Farm
Church Road, VA

[Up North]

Genebo offers sound advice . If you get a cow like the accompanying photo shows, you can't milk her 1 a day. 3 a day would be more appropriate, but we figure milking any more than twice a day is just going looking for work ...............
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[Haggis]

Originally Posted by Panther

Obviously a city-boy question, but if you have a calf nursing the cow, can you get away with milking once a day? does the calf take the rest?

You can get away with milking once a day, but it's pretty hard to do, without a calf of course, until the cow has been lactating for 3 months or so; that's when she'll reach her peak production. We've been milking our little heifer once a day from the start; she had a calf on her 12 hours a day, and 12 hours without a calf, then we'd milk her and turn the calf loose with her again.

We'll dry the heifer off around the first of June so we can have our summer free; she's been in milk for 12 months already, and is yet giving 2 gallons a day at her once a day milking.

Around September first our old cow Lucy will freshen, the Good Lord willing and all goes well, but she will need more than one calf to handle the amount of milk she will produce in 12 hours; she gives more than 6 gallons a day for the first 4 or 5 months. We should be able to raise at least 4 calves on her during the 6 months following her freshening; 2 calves for 3 months, then put 2 more calves for the next 3 months, after which we'll just milk her once a day.

It will be the same for the little heifer when she again freshens in November.

Even with milking once a day we ought to have 6 or 7 gallons of milk each day once both cows have freshened, but between Herself and myself, our 5 children, their significant others, the 12 (soon to be 13) Grand-Bairns, and a couple of bacon hogs in the corner of the barn, that little dab of milk won't go far.

A good thing, beyond the milk, is that we can raise the calves to weaning age, butcher them then, and have little else in them beyond "surplus" milk, and the cows will have done the bulk of the feeding.