Cow with calf milking

[mariaricarto]

I have the opportunity to keep a milk cow for a month. I had her last year and all went well. This year she has a 2 month old bull calf with her who is not tame.

I don't want to milk everyday because my hands can't do it. I figured I'd milk when I need milk and let the calf have the rest. Probably 3 times a week. There is no stanchion available, I'd be tying to the fence post to milk.

Has anyone had sucess doing this? Any tricks I should know?

[crtreedude]

Here, generally what you do is milk in the morning, but not completely, then let the calf finish it off, then in the afternoon, separate the mother from the calf so she will not lose her milk to the calf when you need it.

I think if you only milk part of the time, you are going to have a pretty unhappy cow and calf. The amount of milk in part is dependent on how much you milk, and only doing it three times a week might be a bit like a nursing mother only giving milk to her baby three times a week.

Not very comfortable for either the mother, or for the baby.

tying to a post is fine, but it helps to put some feed in a bucket to keep the cow interested.

[linn]

If you have good fences you can separate the cow and calf twelve hours before you milk. However, if the calf has run with the cow continuously she may hold back her milk.

[SFM in KY]

I did this with my last milk cow ... no problem. I didn't use a lot of milk, didn't even need to milk every day so most of the time the calf ran out with the cow. I grained her every morning and evening, not much, but just enough so she would come up when I yelled for her and rattled the bucket. She would stand to milk if I gave her grain so didn't have to tie her.

Whenever I needed milk, I'd shut the calf up in the evening, calf wasn't super gentle, but he'd follow the cow into the corral when I took her in to grain. I'd leave him in overnight, milk whatever I needed the next morning and then turn him out with the cow.

We always milked loose in the corral when I was growing up. Kept the calves in a separate pasture and the cows would come up to the corral morning and evening. We would turn the calf in with the cow, she'd stand for the calf and the calf would get one side and we'd milk the other side. I learned to be a pretty fast milker pretty early in life so I didn't have to finish milking one-handed while fending the calf off trying to get on my side.

[mariaricarto]

Thanks for your replies.

It sounds like it can be done. I have to figure out how to get the calf in the corral and the mother out to separate them for the night.