Jersey serviced by Holstein

[Meadowwood]

We are considering buying a Jersey for the family milk cow. The owner says she was serviced by a Holstein. Will this be a big problem at birth with a larger calf?
Also a friend told me that a milk cow should never be dried up for a long time. Is this true and why?

[bumpus]

.
Calf could be to large to come out, and you may have to help pull the calf when it is time to be born.

If you do not know how to help her then get someone to help that knows how.
Someone who has done this before, or a Vet.
.

[Donna from Mo]

Originally Posted by Meadowwood

We are considering buying a Jersey for the family milk cow. The owner says she was serviced by a Holstein. Will this be a big problem at birth with a larger calf?

I've seen Jersey cows have Holstein calves lots of times, I think usually there's no problem, especially if the cow has had calves before. There is always the chance of a calf being too large for the mom to deliver, though.


Also a friend told me that a milk cow should never be dried up for a long time. Is this true and why?

I always dried up our milk cows two months before they were due to calve again. If they aren't giving too much milk, I don't see as it would hurt them to be dried up earlier though; it might have an influence on how long they give plenty of milk on the next lactation. There are lots of things that don't work out economically on a commercial dairy that work just fine for a small farm or homestead.

[Scottland Jerseys]

Jerseys have almost no calving problems. They can calve a Buffalo!! We don't even own a calf puller. Calving ease isn't listed on the bulls in our AI information because it's virtually irrelevant with Jerseys. That's not to say they can't have a problem, we just don't run into it very often. We have had a few of our heifers visit a neighbor's Holstein bull years ago and never had to pull a single calf. One even surprised us with a crossbred calf at 19 months without a glitch.

We would not hestitate to purchase a Jersey bred to a Holstein.

We try to give all our cows at least 60 days off. We have turned cows dry for longer than 60 days with no problems.