Drying off question

Hannah90 · #1 01/04/13, 07:41 AM

Hey folks,

Trying to get Annabelle down to one milking a day. Right now her morning is about 3-4 quarts. Night time has dropped to about one quart consistently over the last three days. Is it too soon to stop milking at night now? Or will she be ok? I am being a neurotic over this whole drying off business. I can't really find any other guidance other than "just milk less and less every time."

Any direction or advice would be great.

Thanks!

bigbluegrass · #2 01/04/13, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hannah90

Hey folks,

Trying to get Annabelle down to one milking a day. Right now her morning is about 3-4 quarts. Night time has dropped to about one quart consistently over the last three days. Is it too soon to stop milking at night now? Or will she be ok? I am being a neurotic over this whole drying off business. I can't really find any other guidance other than "just milk less and less every time."

Any direction or advice would be great.

Thanks!

Everyone probably does it a little different - but I would just stop milking her in the evening. She isn't giving all that much anyway from the sounds of it. Just don't milk her! The next morning, milk her like normal. and just milk her once a day in the morning until you want to completely dry her off. Or if you wanted to milk at night, stop milking her in the morning. It sounds like she would do better being milked in the AM, based on the larger amount of milk, but you could probably move her to just a PM milking also.

MDKatie · #3 01/04/13, 10:56 AM

Are you trying to completely dry her off? If so, I would just quit milking her cold turkey. We always dried off cold turkey and rarely (if ever) had any issues. The udder needs at least 5 days of back pressure for the body to get the hint to quit producing milk. Her udder may look full, but she'll be ok. After 5 days, you can milk her out completely and check for any signs of mastitis. Then use a good teat dip to help seal up the teats, and she should be good to go.

If you're just wanting to milk once a day, she's never going to get to the point where she has no milk in the PM.

Hannah90 · #4 01/04/13, 01:56 PM

There seems to be conflicting advice everywhere. There are folks that say Once a day milking, especially with dexters, is quite possible. She will be dried off by February, but I was trying to take out one milking for now.

bigmudder77 · #5 01/04/13, 03:07 PM

We always just pen them for 3-4 days apart from the rest don't milk them then one last milking and dry treat and that's that till they calf

Once a day milking seems kinda pointless to me when she's giving so little milk already

But if you want to keep on milking I don't see any harm in it just seems a like a little too much work for so little return

BlackWillowFarm · #6 01/04/13, 04:12 PM

Do you really want to dry her off (stop milking completely) or switch to once a day milking?

If you're wanting to dry her off because she's due to calve and you're sure she doesn't have mastitis, you could just stop milking. If you want to go to once a day milking, you can start today. She's not giving much milk so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

If there's a chance she could have mastitis, I would treat that before drying her off.

springvalley · #7 01/04/13, 10:53 PM

If you want to just milk once a day, just do it, I`m only milking once a day right now. > Thanks Marc

Hannah90 · #8 01/05/13, 08:02 AM

No, she doesn't have mastitis. This is the first cow I've dried off. I am drying her off in February, but with the cold weather, I've wanted to go down to once a day. I just didnt really know how to go about doing it. I don't want to GIVE her mastitis because of my stupidity. Ya know? Better to ask advice before just doing something...

I milked last night and it was less than a quart. This morning a full gallon. So, I'll just milk once a day here on out until it's time to dry her off.

Thanks folks!