questions

Thumper/inOkla. · #1 06/19/07, 03:11 PM

Is this list going to be about training and feeding and other fine points of dairy animal care or just about the milk and other items produced from the milk?

I have been training a cow to hand milk over the past few months.
We have had a few rodeo event style milkings.
How about the use of dairy animal related tools?

I had some challenge learning about teat dialators, kicking retraints, and nose leads.

I would love some recipes for bag balms and ointments !
I want natural stuff, food grade is fab, organic is great.

The extra care in handling a dairy animal, over a meat animal is often over looked. Protecting that udder, worries me some.

Anyone got ideas on how to train a 1,000+ lb. 3 yr old cow to lead?

And frankly I am afraid to pick up her feet, I have been "allowed" to wash down her legs and treat a cut that was easy to get to.
And just so everyone knows her feet look good from every angle I can see, so no troubles so far. She is not being neglected.
bottom line here is, I am just afraid of what she "could do to me".

**gone-a-milkin** · #2 06/19/07, 09:46 PM

I think this forum is sort of about dairy PRODUCTS...someone correct me if I am wrong...there is the CATTLE forum. There are some very educated 'cowfolks'. Not all of them are making dairy products, but they DO KNOW about cows. It sounds like a fun project, taming your new milking girl. What breed[s] is she?

**gone-a-milkin** · #3 06/19/07, 09:53 PM

I just red your other thread and you answered my breed question on it. Pretty cool.

Tango · #4 06/20/07, 06:31 AM

There will be overlap between forums, that is expected. It is too early to tell exactly what the personality of this forum will be like but I would encourage everyone to bring dairy-related questions here and stock-related questions to the existing livestock boards. We have dairying families who are capable of replying to dairy animal questions at any of the boards for cows, goats, and sheep, and platypus. That said, I was hoping that we would get an entire picture of dairying with this forum and not just dairy product questions. Dairying is a world... not just a shelf. A wholistic approach....

Karen · #5 06/20/07, 06:51 AM

I agree Tango. I think product related issues here; dealings with the animals themselves to cattle/goat/sheep (whichever your milking) over there. I'm going to move this thread over to the cattle forum and leave a redirect here. That way the poster will get his/her appropriate answers.

farminghandyman · #6 06/20/07, 08:34 AM

halter the cow and tie it to a post (big post) for a few days helps if on a solid fence, or next to a building, so they can't go round and round, to get use to the halter and restraint, and then tie it to a tractor where you are safe and lead it. carefully, after it will skid or walk and not throw it self, you can walk behind the tractor and take the rope so the animal thinks your leading it, do this for a few days, then hand lead it behind the tractor, and then further behind and when your ready and the animal is responding to you, try it with out the tractor, and don't let it get away, (some times that will involve getting drug around some, use a small pen when starting out hand leading).

It will not happen in a day. and it can be dangerous becarefull.

(this was the way we did our older 4h calves when we were kids, and it worked with 600 to 800 lb animals I do not know why it would not work with older ones).

sammyd · #7 06/20/07, 06:30 PM

I've always heard that if you tie the halters of 2 together they will learn to lead.
And always use a halter, not a neck strap. They won't even pay attention to a neck strap, but you can pull them right around with a halter.
Cows feet are tricky. We had one that the vet would not work on at all unless she was sedated. Most of the time it requires a good old pair of tongs (to put on a beam) a rope and an extra guy. Cows feet don't get worked on like a horses and I've never seen on that reacted as nicely as a horse when someone went poking around down there.
And if you've only got one cow with a decent udder you shouldn't have too many worries about protecting it.
The only injuries I have ever seen were caused by the cow in the next stall stepping on a teat or the cow herself doing it if the udder was fantastically huge.