What is up with this?

Karen in Alabam · #1 10/22/11, 08:30 PM

Yo, my 8 year old Jersey is acting weird today.

I have just gotten over treatments for Mastitis in her front quarter. I have been getting 3 quarts out of the other three and not even half a cup out of the bad quarter since she got sick. The milk is back to being white and still hardly giving anything.

I lock her up at night with my Holstein calf--he does not nurse off of her. In the morning after milking and feeding everyone, some of the cows go through the gate and I close it behind them. So Yo has some company and her calf is on the other side. Her calf is 7 months old.

So today, she was locked in one pasture with Lucy (a real brat) and Havah, and Bones the calf.

Both Lucy and Havah (Angus) have calved over a year ago with their first. Lucy is a bossy type, Havah generally just loud.

I go to get Yo to come in for her milking and be locked up for the night. She won't come. The three of them are standing all next to each other then they all start jumping one another, a little head butting but not much.

She will eat from the bucket, if I stand there, but won't follow and the others are not all the interested either. I saw Lucy take a swipe at Yo's teat, but she never got a hold of it.

I don't know how long this was going on for, they were back in the woods earlier. I let them alone for an hour before I went back to try again. Finally I got her in.

I only got a quart of milk total out of her, and I had to work it really hard. She got tired of me and went to the fence where they were.

I know this must be some dominance thing, don't know why she wouldn't leave them when I called and is still fixated, because I don't think she is Alpha. Lucy is the pushiest, and she did most of the jumping.

Is the reason I didn't get any milk because of what was going on? How long should I expect this to last? I won't let those two share the pasture with her tomorrow.

MO_cows · #2 10/22/11, 08:47 PM

Don't know how the heat cycle affects milk production, but the heat butting and especially mounting is heat behavior. Are they supposed to be bred?

Karen in Alabam · #3 10/22/11, 09:01 PM

We always have a bull in the pasture. Recently we had 3 about a year old, but then got rid of 2, we got rid of the oldest one who was 2ish in May.

Last couple days she was pastured with the bull, he didn't go to the other pasture and was interested in her, but I didn't see him mount her, but I have seen him do it plenty of times in the past. Like I said she calved 7 months ago.

We have 4 cows on the property. Only two of them calved this year. I saw my Lucy get really fat early in the year, but never looked like she calved. He had her first calf still on her till we got rid of him at about a year old in August. She bagged up then but immediately dried up. She is fat, and I expected her to deliver, but nothing, she is just fat. (now the one that did calve in July got really round after that).

I would think that with all the different bulls (though all related, same father), would have produced something.

The bull we have now that is over a year old, is going soon I hope. He is my sister's and she is taking her cows when her pasture is done, and then I can get another bull in here. I was told we could borrow a Jersey bull from the guy we got a Jersey heifer from.

**gone-a-milkin** · #4 10/22/11, 09:20 PM

Sounds like heaters 'bulling' to me.

There are some cows I just leave out in the field when they are in heat.
No point fighting them into the barn when they arent going to give anything anyways.
They spend ALL day mounting and gunning around, no eating or ruminating.
We even have a couple who are people jumpers. Dont turn your back on a heater cow.

Tomorrow Yo will probably be just fine for you...until next time.

Karen in Alabam · #5 10/22/11, 10:18 PM

Thanks

So do you think these bulls that we had just weren't doing their job?

Also, would all three of them be in heat?

**gone-a-milkin** · #6 10/22/11, 10:34 PM

I would guess that more than 1 were in heat.
They do tend to cycle together, like people who live together do.
Or else they go one after the other, but close together.
Everyone jumps eachother and it is hard to tell who is in standing heat when they do that. Grr.

Do you have any confirmed breedings from those bulls?

I hope you can get Yo to breed back. Sometimes when they lose condition like she did, it can be hard to do.
Perhaps the bull got her this time?
Mark your calendar.

Karen in Alabam · #7 10/22/11, 10:45 PM

The only calf we had from the bull we had slaughtered was the one born in July, because she had to have been breed after the main bull was sold in August (we did not own him). Yo came bred, even though the vet we had out back then said he didn't feel anything, she must have only just been bred like the day we got her at the end of August to deliver end of March.

CarolT · #8 10/23/11, 12:45 PM

Did you say the bull in there now is just a year old? No cattle expert, but thought someone said they need some age to do a good job? Young bulls can be interested and mount but not get the job done. May want to get an older bull or AI if you don't want an older one because of the hazards

Karen in Alabam · #9 10/23/11, 08:17 PM

Thanks CarolT, I will start a new thread on that and see what the consensus is.

I have Bone who is 4 months old now, and if he needs to be older to get the job done (that is more than a year), he may just kill me before I get him to breed.

Karin L · #10 10/23/11, 08:51 PM

Quite often the one in heat is the one being ridden. If she's in standing heat, she will stand when one of the cows mounts her. And, if she's in heat, she will also be acting strange, more high-strung and less interested in being separated from the herd.

I've heard that estrus does affect milk production. Since a cow in estrus or heat is stressed (not in a bad way) about wanting to get bred, milk production will be low. And it's always a fact that a cow that is stressed for any reason will not produce as much milk as you like.

willow_girl · #11 10/23/11, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Did you say the bull in there now is just a year old? No cattle expert, but thought someone said they need some age to do a good job?

My boss bought a new bull for the heifers, but had to take him out for awhile as his ladies were beating him up!

Boss said it was like putting a high school sophomore boy in with a bunch of college girls.

JDog1222 · #12 10/23/11, 10:36 PM

LOL, WG, my DH was standing over my shoulder when I was reading this post and he asked me if I ever heard the joke about the old bull and the young bull together on the hill. Thanks, thanks!

Karen in Alabam · #13 10/23/11, 11:58 PM

My Yo was standing there and letting them ride her, but she rid them as well also.

Last night I got only a quart, this morning over a gallon (she was not with them at night, she finally came into the pen), This afternoon she was laying near the bull (he got left in the pasture today), and she came in readily to the pen this evening and gave me about 3 quarts. Only Lucy was in the pasture with her, Havah went into the other pasture.

Everyone was fine about eating today.