Can you drink milk from a beef cow?

[jlgoinggreen]

Hi,
We are looking into purchasing a dairy cow, but someone is offering us a pretty good deal on a pregnant beef cow. Would we be able to milk and drink milk from a beef cow? We have been also considering buying and raising bottle fed steers to sell, if we can not drink the milk from a beef cattle would we still be able to milk it and feed the milk to the bottle fed steers?

[ladycat]

Yes, you can drink it. The main difference in milk between beef and dairy cows is the amount given. Dairy cows are bred to give more milk. The quality between the two is similar.

[southerngurl]

Also the beef cow probably isn't as tame. The distance from the udder to the milk pail can prove a long journey!

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by southerngurl

Also the beef cow probably isn't as tame. The distance from the udder to the milk pail can prove a long journey!

ROFL that's true!

But we used to have a couple of really tame beef cows that didn't mind us milking them. But they had been bottle raised and we'd made them into pets.

[springvalley]

When we stopped milking years ago, I hated store bought milk, so when I weaned calves from my beef cows that fall I took one to the barn and started milking her. Granted she was older and on the tame side , but none the less still never milked before. She was a dairy/beef cross, but still gave three gallons a day. She was such a trooper, I miss that ole cow. Thanks Marc.

[Chixarecute]

If you want to raise calves on her milk, let the calves milk the cow for you. Not all cows will accept extra calves, tho. Also 2, maybe 3, if it is a beef breed.

[linn]

If you can get her to stand and if she is healthy, yes you can drink all the milk from her that you can get. One of my best milk cows was a Red Angus/Jersey cross. In the past we have milked a Hereford and several Angus crosses. An Angus should give a lot of cream on her milk, at least ours did. As someone stated in an earlier post, beef cows are not bred to give a lot of milk and sustain that production over a long period of time.

[DJ in WA]

I like to recommend milking a beef cow for first-time cow owners. You can learn cows without having to deal with alot of milk. If you're having a hard time, you can just let the calf take it all. You can breed her to Jersey and get a nice half-breed cow, hopefully (half of calves are male, obviously). Just make sure she has a nice udder - level bottom, even sized teats - front ones not too big.

I went to a Jersey dairy recently and saw alot of cows with very short teats that I can't imagine hand milking. Perhaps that is the way they like them for machine milking. I don't think beef cows' are that short.

[jlgoinggreen]

Thank you everyone. We are debating back and forth between an open Jersey to be bred when we purchase or an already pregnant Angus.