Anyone milked a highlander?

[BrightBay]

There's a Scottish Highland heifer for sale in my area, but we're interested in milk. we don't need a large quantity of milk and are interested in the high butterfat. We also need a small cow.

Because we're prone to drought, I have to always assume I'll need to feed hay and be happy if I don't. So, how much would a 900lb highlander need?

We have goats and horses but have never owned a cow.

[springvalley]

Just remember, owning a cow is a big commitment, if you can`t milk her at least once a day, and let her calf milk her the rest of the time, then you are not ready for a cow. Most any cow can be milked if they will allow you to. I milked an old stocker beef cow for awhile, till we got milk cows again. As far as hay for your cow, a half to a bale a day should do a smaller cow. Depends alot on your winters, how hard and cold they are. Any more questions , just ask. >thanks Marc

[BrightBay]

We already have milk goats, so we're good on that part. Well, that's about the only part of owning a cow we know.

Thanks for the info.

[sellis]

yes we milk our highlander , the milk is excellent but we share with a calf so we dont get alot. we dont have to feed ours except during the roughest part of winter tho most of the time they choose to be out in the storm , i went thru 7 round bales last year with our herd of 7 and that was over 9 months .

[BrightBay]

How much milk do you get?

[sellis]

we get about a gallon a day , its not much but more than we can use , ive been told of people getting much ore than that when the seperate the calf from mom . just make sure to watch mom when u seperate

[anvoj]

I'm prepping our highland cow to milk right now, getting her used to the stanchion, etc. I'm curious sellis, what do you do to share with the calf? Do you need to keep the calf separated from the mother for a few hours to let milk build up? Every time I try our cow, our little heifer has sucked her dry.

[sellis]

ok here is what i do , after about 2 weeks after the calf is born i start seperating moma and baby late at night,mom is usually in a pen right next to baby then the next morning i put mom in stantion and let baby go to mom , withing a few minutes mom lets down her milk and i start my machine and take what i can usually nothing over a gallon as we dont use much at all , i let baby stay with mom the rest of the day and then again at night i seperate them , moma comes when called so every night its the same routine , she knows what happening so she just goes with it. i sent u a pm call anytime i will do all i can to help.

[anvoj]

thanks sellis, I will contact you if I run into any problems

[Apryl in ND]

Is the long hair a problem in trying to keep the udder clean and keep it out of the milk?

[sellis]

it can be , we keep the hair trimmed short just for that reason , my cow is really tolerant of alot of things since she was a show cow .